CBS News head Bari Weiss’s handpicked evening news anchor Tony Dokoupil got an on-air tongue lashing from Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) last night after his network carried Donald Trump’s fact-challenged election fraud speech.
Brought on to comment after the embattled network went ahead with covering the speech while NBC and ABC took a pass, Warner came out of the gate firing at the CBS News host.
After Dokoupil asked the Democrat if there was, “anything to your ears that was new tonight,” Warner had other ideas about what he wanted to talk about.
“No,” he snapped. “As a matter of fact, before I start, as an American, not as an elected official, I was embarrassed that the president of the United States went before our whole country, and networks like yours carried this as news, as opposed to a rehash of falsehoods.”
He added, “And it is incumbent upon you and any responsible journalist to push back on these falsehoods … And unless responsible journalists and the American people step up and say, our system, which has stood the test of time, is not going to be undermined by this kind of falsehood, then, you know, we all have to live with those responsibilities.”
Dokoupil sulked.
“You are calling for context and analysis and pushback," he said. "You are on the show right now giving it, and acting as though it’s not happening... we’ve been trying to buttress and fact-check and give context and analysis… throughout."
The fuming lawmaker replied, “Where would you like me to start on the level of falsehoods, you know, just incredible lies?”