Incoming CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil has admitted what we’ve all known for years: Legacy media’s credibility is in the toilet, flushed away by years of bias, lies, and pandering to the far left.
Dokoupil, who was confirmed last month as the next evening news anchor under newly installed editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, will replace outgoing anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, both of whom exited the role after less than a year.
During his New Year’s Day message, Dokoupil openly acknowledged that legacy media has lost the public’s trust, and largely brought it on itself.
He cited a familiar list of media failures—NAFTA cheerleading, the Iraq War lies, Hillary Clinton’s emails, Russiagate, COVID lockdowns, Hunter Biden’s laptop, and questions surrounding Biden’s fitness for office.
On all of them, he conceded, the press “missed the story” by prioritizing activists, academics, and elites over everyday Americans.
You can read Dokoupil’s full statement and watch the video below:
“A lot has changed since the first person sat in the Evening News chair. For me, the biggest difference is this: people don’t trust us like they used to.
And it’s not just us. It’s all legacy media.
I get it. I’ve been hearing about it from just about everybody, for more than 20 years, as I’ve traveled America on assignment. My mom’s neighbors in West Virginia. My own neighbors in New York City. Thousands of conversations in between.
Sometimes they want to talk to me about our coverage of NAFTA or the Iraq War. Other times, it’s about Hillary Clinton’s emails or Russiagate. Or more recently, COVID lockdowns, Hunter Biden’s laptop or the president’s fitness for office.
The point is that on too many stories the press missed the story. Because we’ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.
I know this because, at certain points, I have been you. I have felt that way too. I have felt like what I was seeing and hearing on the news didn’t reflect what I was seeing and hearing in my own life. And that the most urgent questions simply weren’t being asked.
So here’s my promise to you as long as I sit in this chair: you come first. Not advertisers. Not politicians. Not corporate interests. And, yes, that does include the corporate owners of CBS.
I report for you.
Which means I tell you what I know, when I know it and how I know it. And when I get it wrong, I’ll tell you that too. It also means I’m going to talk to everybody, and hold everyone in public life to the same standard. And because I became a journalist to talk to people. I love talking to people about what works in this country, what doesn’t, and not only what should change, but the good ideas that never should.
I think telling the truth is one of them.
Hold me to it.”
This comes as CBS News undergoes a much-needed purge under new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
Weiss was once a columnist at the New York Times but was hounded out of her position by liberal mean girls and social justice warriors.
She left the Times and created her own publication called The Free Press, and it became so successful that she was bought out and hired to take over at CBS News.
She has only been in charge for a short time, but big changes are already underway.
CBS parent company Paramount Global announced in October 2025 that it had made roughly 2,000 layoffs, including nearly 100 newsroom positions, and eliminated the network’s controversial “Race and Culture” unit — an internal ideological enforcement arm created during the Summer of Love riot in 2020.
According to reports, CBS also:
- Canceled CBS Mornings Plus and CBS Evening News Plus
- Shut down its South Africa bureau
- Revamped its Saturday morning programming
Paramount CEO David Ellison confirmed the direction change in an internal memo, stating the company is “phasing out roles that are no longer aligned with our evolving priorities.”
Translation: the woke experiment failed, ratings collapsed, and Americans tuned out.
It can be recalled that President Trump sued 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount for $10 billion in damages, alleging that they had deceptively edited a damning interview with Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes” the previous year. According to the lawsuit, Trump cited “the immense harm caused to him, to his campaign, and to tens of millions of citizens in Texas and across America by CBS’s deceptive broadcasting conduct.”
CBS deceptively cut out an answer she gave in the interview and replaced it with a completely different answer during the 2024 election cycle.
President Trump then announced a win in his lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount, with a $16 million settlement.
“Just like ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and its Corporate Owners knew that they defrauded the American People, and were desperate to settle,” Trump said.
“We also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars.”
Trump further slammed “The Wall Street Journal, The Failing New York Times, The Washington Post, MSDNC, CNN, and all other Mainstream Media Liars,” putting them on notice that they will not get away with lying to the American people any longer.
The post PANIC MODE: Tony Dokoupil Vows to Report “FOR YOU,” Not the Left, as CBS and Legacy Media Credibility COLLAPSES appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.