As CBS Mornings host Gayle King battles allegations of feeding questions to author Ta-Nehisi Coates before Tony Dokoupil grilled him on his pro-Palestine stance, an interview she did with the father of an Israeli hostage has some questioning whether there is a double-standard at the network.
King, alongside co-host Dokoupil, interviewed Thomas Hand in November 2023 after his then-8-year-old daughter Emily was kidnapped from a sleepover by Hamas during the October 7 attacks.
He told the CBS hosts when he was initially told she was dead, he was relieved because it was all over for her. Then on October 31, the Israeli army told him Emily was kidnapped alive, since there was no blood found near or inside the kibbutz she was in.
King and Dokoupil started by talking about Emilys upcoming ninth birthday, which she would ultimately spend in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza. King also asked Hand how do you get through the days, the hours, what keeps you going?
The interview took a turn when King asked the distraught father what he thought about the innocent Palestinians who are dying and the innocent Israeli children who are dying.
Thomas Hand, left, appeared on CBS Mornings with Gayle King, right, and Tony Dokoupil in November 2023 after his daughter Emily was kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attacks
Pictured: Emily Hand, 9, spent her ninth birthday in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza
The question came after Hand explained that all Israel got for pulling out of Gaza in September 2005 were the terrorist attacks on October 7 that killed some 1,200 people.
[Israel is] a difficult place to live, were constantly being bombarded by rockets - thousands and thousands and thousands of rockets for the last 20 years, said Hand, who is originally from Ireland but has lived in Israel for 30 years.
The greatest movement towards peace that Israel ever did was we pulled out of Gaza. Israel has never made such a big step towards peace. And it got us nothing. They didnt even make a little baby step back to go towards peace.
In response, King asked Hand to talk about the politics of the war between Hamas and Israel.
Now this seems to be all about politics, what do you say about that? You have innocent Palestinians who are dying, innocent Israeli children who are dying, and no one seems to be able to say, "Enough, stop that."
Hand, who at the time of this interview didnt know whether his daughter was alive or dead, let out an audible sigh and a nervous laugh before answering Kings question.
Im not interested in politics at all. My only concern is getting Emily back. Whatever it takes to get her back, Hand told King in response
Hand was reunited with his daughter on November 26 after she and other hostages were released by Hamas
Im not interested in politics at all. My only concern is getting Emily back. Whatever it takes to get her back, he said.
Emily, a dual Irish-Israeli citizen, was released by Hamas on November 26 and had a touching reunification with her father.
The clip of this tense back-and-forth resurfacing comes after Dokoupil was reportedly criticized by CBS News executives for his tough questioning of Coates about his apparent antipathy toward Israel.
Coates was on the show promoting his book The Message, which Dokoupil said would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.
CBS News reportedly condemned Dokoupil for failing to meet its standards.
Coates defended Dokoupil, who is Jewish, but later said King allegedly told him backstage what she was going to ask him.
If she did, in fact, feed Coates specific lines of questioning, King would have violated the networks journalistic standards, a former CBS reporter told The Free Press.
Now, some are pointing out that while Dokoupil was criticized for his conduct, King has faced no consequences for what she said to a father of a girl who spent 50 days in brutal Hamas captivity.
A morning show segment between Tony Dokoupil (right) and author Ta-Nehisi Coates (left) sparked outrage over the anchors aggressive questioning last week
Lahav Harkov, the senior political correspondent for Jewish Insider, blasted CBS for its supposed double standard.
It violates CBS standards for Tony Dokoupil to ask Ta-Nehisi Coates tough questions about his anti-Israel screed but apparently it was totally fine for Gayle King to make accusations to the father of a hostage - who said nothing derogatory about Palestinians, btw, she wrote on X.
Her post received more than 100 replies, some of which accused King of being an anti-Semite.
They are immoral. Who has the audacity to say this to a father of a hostage, one person wrote.
Shes a disgrace and should be fired, another wrote.
If they didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all, a third said.
Amid all this, according to a report in The Free Press, Mark Memmott, the senior director of standards and practices at CBS News, told all CBS News employees not to say Jerusalem is in Israel.
He allegedly wrote in a note to thousands of CBS journalists: 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.
DailyMail.com approached CBS News for comment.