May 14, 2026
Why Is CBS Evening News Anchor In Taiwan, When The Story Is In Beijing?
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RSS Feed On the evening newscasts Wednesday evening, both ABC and NBC evening news anchors were reporting live from Beijing, where the world is watching the two most powerful leaders from the two biggest economies meet to discuss the biggest issues facing the world. So why was CBS evening news anchor Tony Dokoupil in Taiwan? If you listened to his broadcast, he claimed it was for editorial reasons; Taiwan being a major topic of conversation between President Trump and President Xi. According to several media outlets though, turns out, that isn’t the full story. In fact, CBS news reportedly did not secure a visa in time for Dokoupil to enter China, and was forced to scramble for a Plan B. Tough headlines, given Dokoupil’s pledge to viewers when he took the position to tell the truth and for viewers to ‘Hold him to it.”
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Thursday May fourteenth, but Wednesday May thirteenth was a really interesting, strange, weird broadcast for CBS Evening News and Tony d Coppel with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TG. And we should say, there's nothing we say here that's meant to be critical or make a mockery of CBS or Tony da Coppel, both of whom we respect and have friends in the building. Absolutely, but this was interesting to hear what is clearly the biggest story in the world right now.
00:00:40
Speaker 2: Rhodes.
00:00:41
Speaker 3: Obviously President Trump in Beijing with President she He's there with dozens or at least a dozen plus of the biggest CEOs here in America to not only discuss our economic interests, but the war with Iran and certainly, yes for China, the issue of Taiwan.
00:01:03
Speaker 2: Okay Robes.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: It sounds like Beijing, China is the center of the news world right now, to the point that NBC sent its anchor to Beijing, ABC since it's Evening anchor to Beijing.
00:01:21
Speaker 4: So Tom Yamas and David MUIRR.
00:01:26
Speaker 2: Where is Tony dacoppel.
00:01:31
Speaker 4: Taiwan?
00:01:33
Speaker 2: You say that you put the high pitch I wasn't Okay.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: Yes, folks, Tony Dedakoppel is not in Beijing where everybody else is, and you certainly would wonder why, And if you watch the top of the broadcast, you would think this was by design. However, Robes this is being reported in several places now, but sources saying that there was a reason he wasn't there and it was an absolute fumble by the network.
00:02:02
Speaker 3: But here's the interesting part. The reason he wasn't there, according to multiple news outlets, is not the reason that CBS News and Tony d. Koppel gave at the top of their broadcast, and that is what perhaps is most at issue, because Tony d. Koppel opened the broadcast saying, on the surface, it might look like all the action is over there, referring to Beijing, but if you zoom out, you see one of the most important geopolitical stories of our time, referring to him being in Taiwan, okay.
00:02:36
Speaker 1: And this was accompanied by a graphic that showed where Beijing was, and it showed that Taiwan where he was one hundred miles off the coast of China and way way south.
00:02:49
Speaker 2: He ain't close, He's.
00:02:51
Speaker 4: Not in China.
00:02:53
Speaker 3: Is nutwill I mean, well, that could be disputed if you have the Chinese he was in China.
00:02:58
Speaker 1: Yes, but it it's an odd choice now and I heard him say it on the broadcast robes.
00:03:05
Speaker 2: I bought it.
00:03:07
Speaker 4: Why wouldn't you?
00:03:08
Speaker 1: It was before I saw the story. I bought it. What he's saying, Oh, they're trying. They're a third place by a far margin. Third place. Maybe they want to do some counter programming, say haha, you should be looking over here.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: Maybe they had it to themselves. I don't know.
00:03:25
Speaker 1: I thought, Okay, it's an interesting choice, but it's a choice. Would you not buy that at all?
00:03:30
Speaker 3: Well, babe, the whole point of watching a story news program like CBS News or any of the other main networks would be and some people might laugh at me, people who don't trust journalists, But I would like to believe as a journalist, and I know you would too. And that's how you operated to take a journalist on that level from that network at their word, and if they say they're there to present a story and to actually say, hey, we know you might think that on China. Actually, the big part of what's going on in China is actually about this area here in Taiwan, so you can make a news argument for it, and that is.
00:04:10
Speaker 4: What they did. So why wouldn't we believe that that was their choice.
00:04:14
Speaker 1: I'm reading you just maybe go back and look at his words again. Might it might look like all the action is over there. It's almost dismissive. Yes, the biggest story in the world with the two most powerful men, and.
00:04:26
Speaker 4: That is where you have a problem.
00:04:29
Speaker 2: There, it is there, it is damn it robes.
00:04:31
Speaker 3: You're right, yes, because what the other networks or the other excuse me outlets are reporting is that that is not the reason why CBS News Antony de Koppel were in Taiwan instead of China. In fact, they wanted to be in China. According to these reports, they tried to get to China, but they tried too late and reportedly only after they found out that ABC and NBC were sending their anchors there. The thing is, you need a visa to get to China.
00:05:02
Speaker 1: And uh, I guess they just don't print those out on the Weekendy, that's the word they reporting that he did not get his visa, he could not get into the country to report on the biggest story going. Okay, okay, that can happen, that can happen, that can happen, ropes, and so now I want to take them at their word and his word at what he said at the top of the show. It looks like the action's over there, but zoom out you'll see that here where I am one of the most important stories of our time. Okay, I'm listening now, Tony. Okay, I'm listening, and I'm gonna trust what you're saying.
00:05:48
Speaker 4: Okay, And so you did.
00:05:49
Speaker 3: How did you feel, then, babe, when you woke up the next morning and you saw all these reports that actually they couldn't get into China.
00:05:58
Speaker 1: You gotta be kidding me, And I guess Robes it was. I wasn't even upset about the blunder. I wasn't even I wasn't laughing at CBS for some this mistake being made. If that's the case, I didn't. What I was really perplexed by was, Man, what a missed opportunity to just be straight with your audience.
00:06:23
Speaker 3: And that's what we talked about, you and I off the microphone this morning when we saw this, and we both said, oh my god, I would so appreciate as a viewer and I know, yeah, Okay, your ego might be a little embarrassed that someone dropped the ball or didn't have the foresight or the planning to go ahead and make sure you had to visit in case you wanted to report from their live Fine, but how awesome.
00:06:46
Speaker 4: I don't know.
00:06:46
Speaker 3: I'm curious what our listeners would think as just not being a journalist.
00:06:50
Speaker 4: Maybe we're too inside.
00:06:51
Speaker 3: Baseball, but I would think it was a breath of fresh air to have Tony Dekopple say hey, here's the deal. We talk about Beijing, and say we're here and we can cover this angle the story. But I just got to be honest with you. We didn't get our visa, and I think people would have appreciated that. They would have probably laughed along with him. It's not the end of the world that they're not in Beijing. A lot of that smoke and mirrors anyway, they don't have access to a lot of these folks, So I understand you could make a point to say, hey, you know, we didn't get our ducks. You could find a way to not look like bumbling idiots, but to at least explain what paperwork happened or what document got lost whatever it was, you couldn't get into the country, and so you're making lemonade out of lemons. And I just think, as if you were, I would trust you more. I would trust you more to admit that and to have some fun with it and then to tell the story in maybe a very different way, like we're gonna give you a different lens because well we had to. But I don't know, would that make you as if you were feel like, you know what, I appreciate that they just admitted that. Think about when you're in any relationship with anybody where trust is involved. When someone admits that they did something where they messed up, they made a mistake, you actually feel your shoulders relax and think, oh my god, they're being honest and I appreciate that.
00:08:13
Speaker 1: Okay, but roobes, you know what, you know how the conversation went in whatever room, and who the players were in that room when the decision was made. Well, we can't do that because it looks like we're idiots. Yeah, well, these are folks trying to catch up to the other.
00:08:35
Speaker 3: That's always the problem with politicians, with anyone, when you're trying to cover your ass because you're afraid that people will think you're stupid. Then you end up looking deceitful. So it's way worse to be considered or thought of as deceitful or at least not telling the whole truth or trying to say, yeah, meant to do that. You actually look foolish and untrustworthy. I'd rather look a little silly or stupid or unorganized. I'd rather look disorganized than distrustful.
00:09:05
Speaker 1: I just Okay, maybe it's just us, But they make whatever calculation that the audience is going to punish them for a mistake't gonna get that's an awful mistake to make at this level.
00:09:15
Speaker 3: It is, But think about what the headlines could have been if they had handled it with grace and with transparency.
00:09:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought that was a great opportunity for mister make me earn it. These were his words, robes In, And I thought it was a good idea for a promo. Even when he was named the anchor at the end of last year. He started in January of this year. Robes he it was his thing, don't trust me, make me earn it? And he wrote, actually a whole knop ed if you will, an article that they posted. You can still find it on CBS News where that was the title don't trust me, make me earn it and robes his words that I've included here. Look, I'm not obviously, we're not taking him to task, but I do ro some It's okay. We we've learned some lessons about lack of transparency with an audience we have, and we had our reasons and our motivations for it at the time, but had nothing to do with the newscasts. It had nothing to do with our jobs. So I get why you might have reasons for not doing so, but it was just more so for me or it was a missed opportunity, and I would have written it exactly how you said it.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: Uh, when you said how'd you start?
00:10:33
Speaker 1: You said in the most colloquial of ways, that look man like you talk to your audience like.
00:10:40
Speaker 3: That, we might be disorganized, but we're truthful, you know. I mean you could have, like I'm not saying that, you could find a way to be clever about your transparency and actually warm the hearts of your audience who's listening, and make headlines that actually put you on the map for folks who might not have believed you trusted you. Now give them a reason to tune in, give them a reason to see you being willing to show that you messed up or you did something that didn't get you exactly where you wanted to be. But here's the story we're going to give you anyway.
00:11:12
Speaker 2: You know, they're in there worried about the headline.
00:11:14
Speaker 4: Oh, it was a panicked conversation.
00:11:16
Speaker 1: Tabloid's were going to put these idiots didn't get his visa's going to be the headline. And some of those headlines are out there versus shocker Tony d. Koppel, an anchor who was honest with his audience. Nobody's going to write that.
00:11:31
Speaker 2: But that would have been the case.
00:11:33
Speaker 3: I do think if you really had your clever team of writers, you could find a way that you could basically give them a headline to print and it would have been It could have been positive, and it could have been a little funny, and there could have been you know, but just there. God, honesty goes a long way. And I know it's hard because you might look foolish in the moment, but the reality is the headlines are still there, but now it just looks like they were not being truthful.
00:12:00
Speaker 1: Well, stay here, we are going to read you. Tony the Koppel's wrote words that he wrote to his audience. He wrote to the viewers, he wants to have his promise to you.
00:12:13
Speaker 2: Did he keep it? On this one?
00:12:23
Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are talking about CBS Evening News anchored Tony d Koppel almost getting to China. Not quite there, but they meant to do that. No, they didn't want to go to Beijing. That's what everybody else is doing. They wanted to do things a little differently, do things their way.
00:12:45
Speaker 4: Okay, go to Taiwan.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: Initially I thought, okay, fine, guys, try something different from the other.
00:12:51
Speaker 3: Guys, right and okay, But turns out that isn't exactly the entire story. The entire story, according to multiple news outlets, is that the US evening folks just didn't get their shit together for lack of a better term, and they weren't able to secure a visa for Tony de Koppel in time for him to broadcast live from there where all eyes of the world are, and certainly the evening news programs. This is the biggest story of the week.
00:13:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, the two most powerful men in charge of the two biggest economies in the world are together on China's home turf.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: They haven't seen white last time I.
00:13:32
Speaker 4: USD nine years ago.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: Okay, there you go. This is a historic meeting. And by the way, Trump, Trump's got a trillion dollars in tow in executives going over. This is enormous of a story. And if they chose ropes to say, hey, we're going to counter program and come over here to Taiwan, even if I didn't agree with that decision when I first heard it, I was it'll open. Okay, try something, guys, and till they tell me it was something else.
00:14:04
Speaker 3: It turns out they were really trying to say that they were going to Taiwan, and they were there in Taiwan because the story was really there, that even though all eyes might be on Beijing, really it's Taiwan. And the truth is that that just isn't the full truth.
00:14:20
Speaker 2: You know what, should we give them credit? Though?
00:14:22
Speaker 1: Taiwan, according to China, was the biggest issue on the table between them and the US.
00:14:27
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and it deserved a story, and it deserved all of that. But did it deserve for the main anchor of CBS Evening News. To be there as his home location, for that to be his background doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because it really is about the visual and the logistics of saying our guy is where these leaders are. So it didn't feel like it made a lot of sense. And then, certainly when we found out that it was the visa issue actually and not the editorial reason, that makes you feel distrustful frankly of them trying to say it was one thing when it looks like it was actually the other.
00:15:02
Speaker 1: Well, can't we just we can certainly understand why they get it. And again, I just I was just a missed opportunity, I think.
00:15:10
Speaker 3: Now a missed opportunity to be the transparent broadcast and the trusted news anchor Tony de coppele is trying to become, because he just took this job in January.
00:15:22
Speaker 4: And so I think when.
00:15:24
Speaker 3: You look at this through the lens of his promise, his promo promise that he said he was going to deliver on, don't trust me, make me earn it. And these are Tony de Coppel's words upon being named CBS Evening News anchor. So here's my promise to you, as long as I can 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, record scratch. 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 should that never should.
00:16:17
Speaker 4: I think telling the truth is one of them. Hold me to it.
00:16:24
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean, ah, this, this doesn't qualify. And again we're not trying to take this guy to task where you understand why a decision like that might have been made.
00:16:35
Speaker 2: If this is in fact true about the visa, it's okay, just it's.
00:16:39
Speaker 3: Okay, and I would have just been so it would have been wonderful to actually hear that come out of their mouth, some sort of an acknowledgment of why they're where they are. I would have so appreciated it. I just think it, like you said, a missed opportunity. And then I don't know if just fate had its way, but the whole damn broad cast got fed up.
00:17:01
Speaker 1: Anyway, this is wild down. A lot of people have seen this video. It's going around. But yeah, end of the broadcast, Tony de Goopla is reading a story. You see video, don't see him, but you hear his voice and video is rolling and all of a sudden you hear him stop reading and says is he okay? You hear a little bit of a stumble. But apparently his camera guy had a medical emergency, as they described it. They have said now he is recovering and doing okay. But yeah, that's a scary moment, just a but what a weird sort of circumstances to have to be there in the first place.
00:17:39
Speaker 2: It's just bizarre.
00:17:41
Speaker 1: Is he going to turn out to be They're going to turn out to look brilliant ROMs because it turns out Taiwan is a top issue.
00:17:48
Speaker 3: And that's okay it and it would have been okay regardless. It just would have been wonderful for them to have been fully transparent about why they were in Taiwan. And look, I do think it's twenty two minutes, right, You're twenty two minutes of basic reporting when you're doing the evening News, when you take into consideration commercials. And it's just remarkable that sadly they had to cut back to New York. The rest of the broadcast wasn't even coming out of Taiwan after all of that, anchor in New York had to take it over and finish out the broadcast. That is a tough end to a tough moment for CBS Evening News.
00:18:25
Speaker 1: Again, they're trying to get it together. The major hiccups from the very beginning, which you can some of them, you can expect some hiccups, and then some of them you scratch your head about. Holwf Some of those mistakes are still but being made. But he's finding his way, Hobes And as I say.
00:18:41
Speaker 2: Right, these things take time.
00:18:43
Speaker 3: These things take time, and these things happen and hopefully lessons were learned.
00:18:47
Speaker 1: All right, folks, appreciate you has always spending some time with us. I'm tj on behalf of my dear Amy Robot. We'll talk so
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Thursday May fourteenth, but Wednesday May thirteenth was a really interesting, strange, weird broadcast for CBS Evening News and Tony d Coppel with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TG. And we should say, there's nothing we say here that's meant to be critical or make a mockery of CBS or Tony da Coppel, both of whom we respect and have friends in the building. Absolutely, but this was interesting to hear what is clearly the biggest story in the world right now.
00:00:40
Speaker 2: Rhodes.
00:00:41
Speaker 3: Obviously President Trump in Beijing with President she He's there with dozens or at least a dozen plus of the biggest CEOs here in America to not only discuss our economic interests, but the war with Iran and certainly, yes for China, the issue of Taiwan.
00:01:03
Speaker 2: Okay Robes.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: It sounds like Beijing, China is the center of the news world right now, to the point that NBC sent its anchor to Beijing, ABC since it's Evening anchor to Beijing.
00:01:21
Speaker 4: So Tom Yamas and David MUIRR.
00:01:26
Speaker 2: Where is Tony dacoppel.
00:01:31
Speaker 4: Taiwan?
00:01:33
Speaker 2: You say that you put the high pitch I wasn't Okay.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: Yes, folks, Tony Dedakoppel is not in Beijing where everybody else is, and you certainly would wonder why, And if you watch the top of the broadcast, you would think this was by design. However, Robes this is being reported in several places now, but sources saying that there was a reason he wasn't there and it was an absolute fumble by the network.
00:02:02
Speaker 3: But here's the interesting part. The reason he wasn't there, according to multiple news outlets, is not the reason that CBS News and Tony d. Koppel gave at the top of their broadcast, and that is what perhaps is most at issue, because Tony d. Koppel opened the broadcast saying, on the surface, it might look like all the action is over there, referring to Beijing, but if you zoom out, you see one of the most important geopolitical stories of our time, referring to him being in Taiwan, okay.
00:02:36
Speaker 1: And this was accompanied by a graphic that showed where Beijing was, and it showed that Taiwan where he was one hundred miles off the coast of China and way way south.
00:02:49
Speaker 2: He ain't close, He's.
00:02:51
Speaker 4: Not in China.
00:02:53
Speaker 3: Is nutwill I mean, well, that could be disputed if you have the Chinese he was in China.
00:02:58
Speaker 1: Yes, but it it's an odd choice now and I heard him say it on the broadcast robes.
00:03:05
Speaker 2: I bought it.
00:03:07
Speaker 4: Why wouldn't you?
00:03:08
Speaker 1: It was before I saw the story. I bought it. What he's saying, Oh, they're trying. They're a third place by a far margin. Third place. Maybe they want to do some counter programming, say haha, you should be looking over here.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: Maybe they had it to themselves. I don't know.
00:03:25
Speaker 1: I thought, Okay, it's an interesting choice, but it's a choice. Would you not buy that at all?
00:03:30
Speaker 3: Well, babe, the whole point of watching a story news program like CBS News or any of the other main networks would be and some people might laugh at me, people who don't trust journalists, But I would like to believe as a journalist, and I know you would too. And that's how you operated to take a journalist on that level from that network at their word, and if they say they're there to present a story and to actually say, hey, we know you might think that on China. Actually, the big part of what's going on in China is actually about this area here in Taiwan, so you can make a news argument for it, and that is.
00:04:10
Speaker 4: What they did. So why wouldn't we believe that that was their choice.
00:04:14
Speaker 1: I'm reading you just maybe go back and look at his words again. Might it might look like all the action is over there. It's almost dismissive. Yes, the biggest story in the world with the two most powerful men, and.
00:04:26
Speaker 4: That is where you have a problem.
00:04:29
Speaker 2: There, it is there, it is damn it robes.
00:04:31
Speaker 3: You're right, yes, because what the other networks or the other excuse me outlets are reporting is that that is not the reason why CBS News Antony de Koppel were in Taiwan instead of China. In fact, they wanted to be in China. According to these reports, they tried to get to China, but they tried too late and reportedly only after they found out that ABC and NBC were sending their anchors there. The thing is, you need a visa to get to China.
00:05:02
Speaker 1: And uh, I guess they just don't print those out on the Weekendy, that's the word they reporting that he did not get his visa, he could not get into the country to report on the biggest story going. Okay, okay, that can happen, that can happen, that can happen, ropes, and so now I want to take them at their word and his word at what he said at the top of the show. It looks like the action's over there, but zoom out you'll see that here where I am one of the most important stories of our time. Okay, I'm listening now, Tony. Okay, I'm listening, and I'm gonna trust what you're saying.
00:05:48
Speaker 4: Okay, And so you did.
00:05:49
Speaker 3: How did you feel, then, babe, when you woke up the next morning and you saw all these reports that actually they couldn't get into China.
00:05:58
Speaker 1: You gotta be kidding me, And I guess Robes it was. I wasn't even upset about the blunder. I wasn't even I wasn't laughing at CBS for some this mistake being made. If that's the case, I didn't. What I was really perplexed by was, Man, what a missed opportunity to just be straight with your audience.
00:06:23
Speaker 3: And that's what we talked about, you and I off the microphone this morning when we saw this, and we both said, oh my god, I would so appreciate as a viewer and I know, yeah, Okay, your ego might be a little embarrassed that someone dropped the ball or didn't have the foresight or the planning to go ahead and make sure you had to visit in case you wanted to report from their live Fine, but how awesome.
00:06:46
Speaker 4: I don't know.
00:06:46
Speaker 3: I'm curious what our listeners would think as just not being a journalist.
00:06:50
Speaker 4: Maybe we're too inside.
00:06:51
Speaker 3: Baseball, but I would think it was a breath of fresh air to have Tony Dekopple say hey, here's the deal. We talk about Beijing, and say we're here and we can cover this angle the story. But I just got to be honest with you. We didn't get our visa, and I think people would have appreciated that. They would have probably laughed along with him. It's not the end of the world that they're not in Beijing. A lot of that smoke and mirrors anyway, they don't have access to a lot of these folks, So I understand you could make a point to say, hey, you know, we didn't get our ducks. You could find a way to not look like bumbling idiots, but to at least explain what paperwork happened or what document got lost whatever it was, you couldn't get into the country, and so you're making lemonade out of lemons. And I just think, as if you were, I would trust you more. I would trust you more to admit that and to have some fun with it and then to tell the story in maybe a very different way, like we're gonna give you a different lens because well we had to. But I don't know, would that make you as if you were feel like, you know what, I appreciate that they just admitted that. Think about when you're in any relationship with anybody where trust is involved. When someone admits that they did something where they messed up, they made a mistake, you actually feel your shoulders relax and think, oh my god, they're being honest and I appreciate that.
00:08:13
Speaker 1: Okay, but roobes, you know what, you know how the conversation went in whatever room, and who the players were in that room when the decision was made. Well, we can't do that because it looks like we're idiots. Yeah, well, these are folks trying to catch up to the other.
00:08:35
Speaker 3: That's always the problem with politicians, with anyone, when you're trying to cover your ass because you're afraid that people will think you're stupid. Then you end up looking deceitful. So it's way worse to be considered or thought of as deceitful or at least not telling the whole truth or trying to say, yeah, meant to do that. You actually look foolish and untrustworthy. I'd rather look a little silly or stupid or unorganized. I'd rather look disorganized than distrustful.
00:09:05
Speaker 1: I just Okay, maybe it's just us, But they make whatever calculation that the audience is going to punish them for a mistake't gonna get that's an awful mistake to make at this level.
00:09:15
Speaker 3: It is, But think about what the headlines could have been if they had handled it with grace and with transparency.
00:09:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought that was a great opportunity for mister make me earn it. These were his words, robes In, And I thought it was a good idea for a promo. Even when he was named the anchor at the end of last year. He started in January of this year. Robes he it was his thing, don't trust me, make me earn it? And he wrote, actually a whole knop ed if you will, an article that they posted. You can still find it on CBS News where that was the title don't trust me, make me earn it and robes his words that I've included here. Look, I'm not obviously, we're not taking him to task, but I do ro some It's okay. We we've learned some lessons about lack of transparency with an audience we have, and we had our reasons and our motivations for it at the time, but had nothing to do with the newscasts. It had nothing to do with our jobs. So I get why you might have reasons for not doing so, but it was just more so for me or it was a missed opportunity, and I would have written it exactly how you said it.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: Uh, when you said how'd you start?
00:10:33
Speaker 1: You said in the most colloquial of ways, that look man like you talk to your audience like.
00:10:40
Speaker 3: That, we might be disorganized, but we're truthful, you know. I mean you could have, like I'm not saying that, you could find a way to be clever about your transparency and actually warm the hearts of your audience who's listening, and make headlines that actually put you on the map for folks who might not have believed you trusted you. Now give them a reason to tune in, give them a reason to see you being willing to show that you messed up or you did something that didn't get you exactly where you wanted to be. But here's the story we're going to give you anyway.
00:11:12
Speaker 2: You know, they're in there worried about the headline.
00:11:14
Speaker 4: Oh, it was a panicked conversation.
00:11:16
Speaker 1: Tabloid's were going to put these idiots didn't get his visa's going to be the headline. And some of those headlines are out there versus shocker Tony d. Koppel, an anchor who was honest with his audience. Nobody's going to write that.
00:11:31
Speaker 2: But that would have been the case.
00:11:33
Speaker 3: I do think if you really had your clever team of writers, you could find a way that you could basically give them a headline to print and it would have been It could have been positive, and it could have been a little funny, and there could have been you know, but just there. God, honesty goes a long way. And I know it's hard because you might look foolish in the moment, but the reality is the headlines are still there, but now it just looks like they were not being truthful.
00:12:00
Speaker 1: Well, stay here, we are going to read you. Tony the Koppel's wrote words that he wrote to his audience. He wrote to the viewers, he wants to have his promise to you.
00:12:13
Speaker 2: Did he keep it? On this one?
00:12:23
Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are talking about CBS Evening News anchored Tony d Koppel almost getting to China. Not quite there, but they meant to do that. No, they didn't want to go to Beijing. That's what everybody else is doing. They wanted to do things a little differently, do things their way.
00:12:45
Speaker 4: Okay, go to Taiwan.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: Initially I thought, okay, fine, guys, try something different from the other.
00:12:51
Speaker 3: Guys, right and okay, But turns out that isn't exactly the entire story. The entire story, according to multiple news outlets, is that the US evening folks just didn't get their shit together for lack of a better term, and they weren't able to secure a visa for Tony de Koppel in time for him to broadcast live from there where all eyes of the world are, and certainly the evening news programs. This is the biggest story of the week.
00:13:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, the two most powerful men in charge of the two biggest economies in the world are together on China's home turf.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: They haven't seen white last time I.
00:13:32
Speaker 4: USD nine years ago.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: Okay, there you go. This is a historic meeting. And by the way, Trump, Trump's got a trillion dollars in tow in executives going over. This is enormous of a story. And if they chose ropes to say, hey, we're going to counter program and come over here to Taiwan, even if I didn't agree with that decision when I first heard it, I was it'll open. Okay, try something, guys, and till they tell me it was something else.
00:14:04
Speaker 3: It turns out they were really trying to say that they were going to Taiwan, and they were there in Taiwan because the story was really there, that even though all eyes might be on Beijing, really it's Taiwan. And the truth is that that just isn't the full truth.
00:14:20
Speaker 2: You know what, should we give them credit? Though?
00:14:22
Speaker 1: Taiwan, according to China, was the biggest issue on the table between them and the US.
00:14:27
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and it deserved a story, and it deserved all of that. But did it deserve for the main anchor of CBS Evening News. To be there as his home location, for that to be his background doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because it really is about the visual and the logistics of saying our guy is where these leaders are. So it didn't feel like it made a lot of sense. And then, certainly when we found out that it was the visa issue actually and not the editorial reason, that makes you feel distrustful frankly of them trying to say it was one thing when it looks like it was actually the other.
00:15:02
Speaker 1: Well, can't we just we can certainly understand why they get it. And again, I just I was just a missed opportunity, I think.
00:15:10
Speaker 3: Now a missed opportunity to be the transparent broadcast and the trusted news anchor Tony de coppele is trying to become, because he just took this job in January.
00:15:22
Speaker 4: And so I think when.
00:15:24
Speaker 3: You look at this through the lens of his promise, his promo promise that he said he was going to deliver on, don't trust me, make me earn it. And these are Tony de Coppel's words upon being named CBS Evening News anchor. So here's my promise to you, as long as I can 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, record scratch. 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 should that never should.
00:16:17
Speaker 4: I think telling the truth is one of them. Hold me to it.
00:16:24
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean, ah, this, this doesn't qualify. And again we're not trying to take this guy to task where you understand why a decision like that might have been made.
00:16:35
Speaker 2: If this is in fact true about the visa, it's okay, just it's.
00:16:39
Speaker 3: Okay, and I would have just been so it would have been wonderful to actually hear that come out of their mouth, some sort of an acknowledgment of why they're where they are. I would have so appreciated it. I just think it, like you said, a missed opportunity. And then I don't know if just fate had its way, but the whole damn broad cast got fed up.
00:17:01
Speaker 1: Anyway, this is wild down. A lot of people have seen this video. It's going around. But yeah, end of the broadcast, Tony de Goopla is reading a story. You see video, don't see him, but you hear his voice and video is rolling and all of a sudden you hear him stop reading and says is he okay? You hear a little bit of a stumble. But apparently his camera guy had a medical emergency, as they described it. They have said now he is recovering and doing okay. But yeah, that's a scary moment, just a but what a weird sort of circumstances to have to be there in the first place.
00:17:39
Speaker 2: It's just bizarre.
00:17:41
Speaker 1: Is he going to turn out to be They're going to turn out to look brilliant ROMs because it turns out Taiwan is a top issue.
00:17:48
Speaker 3: And that's okay it and it would have been okay regardless. It just would have been wonderful for them to have been fully transparent about why they were in Taiwan. And look, I do think it's twenty two minutes, right, You're twenty two minutes of basic reporting when you're doing the evening News, when you take into consideration commercials. And it's just remarkable that sadly they had to cut back to New York. The rest of the broadcast wasn't even coming out of Taiwan after all of that, anchor in New York had to take it over and finish out the broadcast. That is a tough end to a tough moment for CBS Evening News.
00:18:25
Speaker 1: Again, they're trying to get it together. The major hiccups from the very beginning, which you can some of them, you can expect some hiccups, and then some of them you scratch your head about. Holwf Some of those mistakes are still but being made. But he's finding his way, Hobes And as I say.
00:18:41
Speaker 2: Right, these things take time.
00:18:43
Speaker 3: These things take time, and these things happen and hopefully lessons were learned.
00:18:47
Speaker 1: All right, folks, appreciate you has always spending some time with us. I'm tj on behalf of my dear Amy Robot. We'll talk so