# New CBS News Anchor not doing so well **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 14, 2026, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692 "2026-01-14T17:15:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/1 "2026-01-14T17:15:42Z")
[MAGA-Coded CBS Anchor Pleads With Viewers After Ratings Collapse](https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-coded-cbs-anchor-pleads-with-viewers-after-ratings-collapse/) It seems that this politically motivated hire for The CBS Evening News anchor position may be a wee bit out of his depth. " _CBS_ _Evening News’_ MAGA-coded freshman anchor Tony Dokoupil made a pointed appeal to viewers after his first week on the job ended in a ratings bloodbath. Dokoupil, 45, saw his ratings plunge over his first four nights in the anchor seat following his disastrous debut on Jan. 5, with viewership declining 11.4 percent overall." I especially love this bit: ““You may not agree with everything you hear on this broadcast, but we trust you to listen, and we trust you to decide for yourself,” Dokoupil said.” That’s about as close as you can get to _We Report. You Decide._ without being sued by Fox News, I would guess. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/2 "2026-01-14T17:56:10Z")
> “You may not agree with everything you hear on this broadcast, but we trust you to listen, and we trust you to decide for yourself,” Dokoupil said. Look at that graph - they did! ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/3 "2026-01-14T18:14:49Z")
Host Nikki Glaser made a pretty witty joke about CBS News at the Golden Globes: America’s newest place to “see” BS news. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/4 "2026-01-14T18:30:13Z")
“If you thought we were sane-washing Trump before just watch us now!” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/5 "2026-01-14T19:18:09Z")
" Dokoupil compared himself to legendary _CBS Evening News_ anchor Walter Cronkite." Yes, Tony: Uncle Walter was the most trusted man in America, beloved news man, and all around nice guy. You are not. How’s that comaprison? ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/6 "2026-01-14T19:30:14Z")
Right wing people who want unreality given to them already have their own preferred lie network of fox news/OAN/newsmax/whatever. Why would any of them switch to CBS? Especially when they have been ranting about it all their lives as part of the “liberal media”? And anyone who wants to actually know what’s going on in the world aren’t going to like this. What’s the target audience? It’s insidious because it will eventually be normalized and CBS is just a little further along the scale towards right wing capture than NBC or ABC, but they’re not really offering anything that anyone wants at this point ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/7 "2026-01-14T22:48:02Z")
Nobody I trust has ever asked me to trust them. Funny how that works. I never heard of this guy (is network news still a thing?) so I read his wiki. It wasn’t exactly illuminating, but it did include this tidbit: > He took classes at a synagogue in Manhattan and received a second circumcision as an adult to complete his conversion, which he wrote about for The New Republic. That doesn’t sound like a good time. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/8 "2026-01-14T22:55:18Z")
“Second circumcision”? Not sure how that would work. Typically if a convert is already circumcised they just do a symbolic pinprick. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/9 "2026-01-14T23:20:43Z")
He was more of a prick than they realized. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/10 "2026-01-15T15:58:18Z")
I just woke up and am bleary and can’t think of something definite, but I’ve noticed a couple of rah-rah pro-Trump/MAGA positive things going on with CBS. Are you saying they’re turning into more like Fox news, ever so slowly? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/11 "2026-01-15T16:00:08Z")
Less slow, more clumsy and ham-fisted. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/12 "2026-01-15T16:02:19Z")
They bribed Trump to allow the Paramount/Skydance merger by hiring an “ombudsman” to make sure that the news was “balanced”, which basically means becoming right wing propaganda and never criticizing Trump. They hired Bari Weiss ([excellent John Oliver segment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gieTx_P6INQ)) to run their news division, and she’s a fake moderate right wing propagandist (“the liberals have gone too far!”). All mainstream American news is already extremely biased towards conservative but CBS is being engineered to be closer to the deep end. Sinclair taking over local stations all across the country, PBS being defunded, major papers being bought by billionaires, social media sites catering to radicalizing right wing nonsense, the US “news” environment is worse than it’s ever been. And they still whine about the “liberal media” ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-cbs-news-anchor-not-doing-so-well/1026692/13 "2026-01-15T17:40:44Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > All mainstream American news is already extremely biased towards conservative > [@SenorBeef](#): > > PBS being defunded PBS and NPR are surviving (although I guess we lost PBS News Weekend) and local stations are doing fine with increased donations and corporate support. I think they are unique, in that they count as mainstream, but are resolutely clear-eyed and unbiased. On the main topic of the thread, whatever losses CBS News is suffering is surely a pittance compared to the profits they are making because of that merger that they bought.