MAN OF THE PEOPLE

Anti-Elite TV Anchor Tours Skies in Trumpy Billionaire’s Helicopter

Tony Dokoupil joined Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for a bird’s-eye tour of Dallas.

Newly minted CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, who just days ago delivered a monologue railing against elites, joined billionaire Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for a helicopter tour of his city on Wednesday’s broadcast.

The segment, which served as a puff piece about Jones’ contribution to helping grow Dallas into what he calls the “ultimate mega-city in the middle of America,” saw Dokoupil and the Trump donor take to the skies to enjoy a bird’s-eye view of the Cowboys’ new HQ.

The segment was an unusual choice, considering Dokoupil’s prior condemnation of media elitism, which he shared online ahead of his disastrous debut in the evening anchor’s chair on Monday night.

“On too many stories, the press has missed the story,” Dokoupil told would-be viewers. “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.”

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It is unclear how Jones, who is worth an estimated $17 billion, represents the perspective of the average American. The 83-year-old Los Angeles native is an avid Trumper who donated $1 million to his doomed 2020 presidential effort before handing over an unspecified amount to the inaugural committee for his return to the White House, Front Office Sports reported.

Trump raised over $232 million for his inauguration, more than double that of 2017.

Jones, who has never hired a Black head coach for the Dallas Cowboys, earned blowback when footage of him making a racially charged comment surfaced in 2017.

Speaking to a fan at a Dallas hotel who had asked Jones to send a message to his wife, he said: “Now, you know he’s with a Black girl tonight, don’t you?”

The divisive NFL figure, who also drew controversy over a picture that surfaced in 2022 showing him among white students blocking Black pupils from entering North Little Rock High School in Arkansas in 1957, apologized for the 2013 video, saying “that’s not who I am.”

In a 2023 lawsuit, former NFL reporter Jim Trotter alleged discrimination at NFL Media. The complaint included an allegation that Jones had told Trotter and Cowboys executive Will McClay in 2020, “If Blacks feel some kind of way, they should buy their own team and hire who they want to hire.” Jones disputed the account as “simply not accurate.”

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The Daily Beast has reached out to CBS for comment on Dokoupil’s ride-along.

While a 10-day private jet tour of the country designed to introduce Dokoupil as evening news anchor was postponed as a result of Trump’s invasion of Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, forcing Dokoupil to make his unofficial debut from San Francisco on Saturday night, the anchor is now on his nationwide tour, making stops in Miami and Dallas this week before heading to Minneapolis on Thursday.

Despite his anti-elite protestations, the 45-year-old is no stranger to privilege. Dokoupil resides in a four-level townhouse in one of Brooklyn’s most exclusive enclaves with his wife, MS NOW correspondent Katy Tur, and their two children.

Dokoupil was named evening news anchor by MAGA-curious CBS News boss Bari Weiss, who is working overtime to make the network more palatable to conservatives. He was previously the co-host of CBS’ morning news show.

Dokoupil, a former Daily Beast reporter, was educated at the $53,000-a-year Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami before studying at George Washington University and Columbia.

His promotion was mired in controversy, with network staffers calling his appointment an “insult to the storied news giants who came before him,” including Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, and dismissing Dokoupil as a “mediocre straight white man.”

Weiss, who is behind the show’s attempted rebranding as a voice of the common man, has similarly rarefied credentials, having attended private school in Pittsburgh before enjoying her own Ivy League education at Columbia.

She was installed as editor-in-chief of CBS News following billionaire nepo baby David Ellison’s takeover of parent company Paramount and acquisition of Weiss’ outlet, The Free Press.

Her tenure has already been marked by several challenges, with the network facing increasing backlash for its overly sympathetic coverage of Trump administration policies and officials.

George Clooney, who played legendary CBS News journalist Edward R. Murrow in Broadway’s Good Night, and Good Luck—and co-wrote and directed the Oscar-nominated 2005 movie upon which it is based—expressed concerns about Weiss dismantling the once-respected network.

“Bari Weiss is dismantling CBS News as we speak,” Clooney told Variety late last month. “Am I worried about film studios? Sure. It’s my business, but my primary loyalty is to my country. I’m much more worried about how we inform ourselves and how we’re going to discern reality without a functioning press.”

Weiss responded to Clooney, who was just granted French citizenship, with a cringey statement to the New York Post: “Bonjour, Mr. Clooney! Big fan of your work. It sounds like you’d like to learn more about ours. This is an open invitation to visit the CBS Broadcast Center, where I’m spending the holidays working to relaunch the Evening News with my colleagues. Tune in January 5.”

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