Does CBS News Know Where Jerusalem Is?

In late August, Mark Memmott, the senior director of standards and practices at CBS News, sent an email to all CBS News employees reminding them to “be careful with some terms when we talk or write about the news” from Israel and Gaza. One of the words on Memmott’s list of terms was Jerusalem.

Of Jerusalem, Memmott wrote: “Do not refer to it as being in Israel.” 

He continued, in a note sent to thousands of journalists at the network: “Yes, the U.S. embassy is there and the Trump administration recognized it as being Israel’s capital. But its status is disputed. The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel regards Jerusalem as its ‘eternal and undivided’ capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem—occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war—as the capital of a future state.”

Jerusalem’s status is indeed contested. For instance, the United States’ embassy in Israel is in Jerusalem, and the Jordanian Islamic Waqf has custody of its holy sites. But acknowledging the competing claims on different parts of the city, or declining to refer to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, are one thing. Denying that it is in Israel at all is quite another. 

In which country is the Israeli Knesset, the home of the Israeli prime minister and the home of the Israeli president, located? The answer to that question is self-evident. Except, it seems, at CBS. In the rest of the United States, the answer is clear: Since 1995, when Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, the government has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

This latest revelation comes after CBS Mornings host Tony Dokoupil was admonished by executives at the network for his interview of best-selling author Ta-Nahesi Coates about his new anti-Israel book, The Message. 

Memmott’s Jerusalem guidance is in keeping with our previous reporting on the turmoil at CBS—and what The Free Press has heard from multiple people inside CBS today: that a double standard exists for journalism at CBS when it relates to Israel and Jews.

As we reported earlier today, a fractious meeting of CBS Mornings’ editorial team Tuesday included a debate about whether it is “fair to talk about whether Israel should exist at all.” We also noted that while Dokoupil was admonished for his tough questioning of Coates, CBS executives appear intensely relaxed about the possibility that his co-host Gayle King told Coates what questions she planned on asking him before the interview. 

But the contrasts between the treatment of King and Dokoupil don’t end there. 

Several CBS sources told us they were baffled to learn how Dokoupil was treated by the network after the interview. As The New York Times reported Monday, Dokoupil was coached on his “tone of voice, phrasing and body language” in his interview with Coates in a meeting with members of the network’s standards and practices team as well as its Race and Culture Unit. 

Where, asked multiple CBS employees who spoke to The Free Press, was the policing of Gayle King’s tone after her questioning of a parent of an eight-year-old girl being held hostage by terrorists in Gaza? 

In an interview last November, Thomas Hand held back tears as he described to King and Dokoupil the agony of not knowing whether his daughter was alive as “hell on earth.” King asked about the “politics” that means you have “innocent children and Palestinians who are dying” and “innocent Israeli children who are dying.”

“No one seems to be able to say, ‘Enough. Stop that,’ ” said King. 

“I’m not interested in politics at all,” said Hand. 

One CBS employee said that the response to Tony Dokoupil has exposed a number of double standards at the network. “There is a huge difference between how all ethnic or minority groups are treated and how Jews and Jewish issues are treated. The rule of thumb is: If you are Jewish and you are interested in reporting on Jews or Jewish issues, that’s a ‘hold on’ or a ‘no,’ whereas for any other group it would be an enthusiastic ‘yes.’ ”

Oliver Wiseman is a writer and editor for The Free Press. Follow him on X @ollywiseman. 

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