“CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil is broadcasting from Taipei, Taiwan, this week — after the network failed to obtain a visa for Beijing where President Trump is meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, a misstep that sources called “very sloppy” and “stupid.”
CBS News’ “poor planning” left the network scrambling to get Dokoupil to China’s capital, where his rivals Tom Llamas of NBC News and David Muir of ABC News are on the ground for anchor duties.
CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss wanted to get Dokoupil to Beijing after learning Muir would be there, but it was “too late” to obtain the press visa for him, said a source with knowledge of the matter. The Taiwan trip took shape after that.
CBS News declined to comment to The Post. But it said in a previous statement that Taiwan “is at the center of the high stakes talks as China’s geopolitical tensions with Taiwan run high. Dokoupil reports on what’s at stake and why it matters for Americans.”
CBS News reporters Weijia Jiang and Anna Coren joined the White House press corps for Trump’s foreign trip, as the two usually do.
A CBS source called Dokoupil’s Taipei jaunt a “cover your a-s” move for the network and its beleaguered “Evening News” program, the ratings of which continue to fall deeper into third place.
“This is possibly the dumbest decision in the history of broadcast news,” the source said, adding that “Beijing will be furious when he anchors from Taiwan which they claim as part of their territory.”
“It’s not only stupid to be in Taiwan, it’s a red rag to a bull to the Chinese,” the person remarked. “It’s very sloppy. This trip was announced months in advance. It feels like there is no adult in charge.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, did not return requests for comment.
Taiwan’s government considers itself a sovereign state, but China views the island as an inalienable part of its territory. While the US formally cut ties with Taiwan decades ago, presidents have voiced commitment to aiding the self-governing democracy’s defense under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
US arms sales to Taiwan are expected to come up for dicussion during Trump’s three-day, high-stakes visit, in addition to trade, tech and other issues.
The visa snafu is the latest in a series of setbacks for Dokoupil.
Weiss plucked him from his role as “CBS Mornings” co-host and installed him in the “Evening News” anchor seat in January.
Since then, he has struggled to find his footing, making gaffes in his first few broadcasts and failing to find an impactful cadence of news and enterprise reporting.
Since mid-March, the show’s ratings have consistently slid under 4 million total viewers.
For the week of May 4, the most recent week for which data were available, CBS averaged 3.7 million viewers total and 473,000 viewers in the key 25-to-54 age demographic, according to Nielsen. Meanwhile, ABC’s Muir pulled in 8.2 million viewers and 976,000 viewers in the demo, while Llamas at NBC reeled in 6.1 million total viewers and 903,000 viewers in the demo.
NBC announced last Wednesday that Llamas was going to Beijing, where he’s been reporting since Sunday.
Semafor first reported news of Dokoupil’s visa woes.
