Overview
- In a New Year’s Day message, Dokoupil told viewers, “you come first,” promising transparency, full sourcing and to acknowledge errors.
- He said legacy media has lost public confidence and cited episodes such as NAFTA, the Iraq War, Russiagate, COVID lockdowns, Hunter Biden’s laptop and questions over a president’s fitness.
- Dokoupil pledged editorial independence from political actors and corporate interests, explicitly including CBS’s owners and, as reported, Paramount’s David Ellison.
- The new broadcast launches Jan. 5 from San Francisco as part of a 10-city “Live From America” tour with stops including Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
- He takes over a show that trails NBC and ABC, as the relaunch seeks to restore relevance following the Weiss-led pulling of a 60 Minutes piece that intensified scrutiny of CBS’s direction.