We’ve previously noted that the Media Research Center — mostly Curtis Houck — has a bizarre propensity for labeling “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil as a “socialist,” the only justification for which is that he did a a news report in 2020 on income inequality. Really. That’s it. Kyle Drennen wrote about the segment in a February 2020 post (though only after it was referenced in an interview with Elizabeth Warren):
Reporting from Iowa on Monday, ahead of the Democratic Caucus, CBS This Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil received praise from left-wing Senator Elizabeth Warren for his recent effort to sell socialism. The 2020 Democratic contender cheered a segment aired on Friday that featured Dokoupil using pies to convince unwitting mall patrons to support wealth redistribution.
“First stop, an overflowing rally for Senator Elizabeth Warren,” Dokoupil eagerly announced at the top of his report on Monday. He noted that “We spoke with her backstage about how the economic pie is distributed,” as he referenced his Friday coverage: “An issue we covered last week with a real pie.”
Warren marveled at the juvenile stunt: “You had it exactly right. You showed how it is that the wealthy have so much pie. When I do a wealth tax, it’s not to hand out money, it’s to make the investments.”
Viewers of Friday’s CBS This Morning could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching a comedy skit when Dokoupil was shown standing in the middle of a shopping mall asking baffled bystanders if they wanted to talk about economic inequality. After getting several nos and a few odd looks, the morning show anchor held up a pie and proclaimed: “This is the American pie!”
[…]After giving the volunteers a chance to “dole it out as accurately as possible” across the different income levels, Dokoupil smugly announced: “No one was even close.” He explained to his dismayed assistants that “it’s actually nine pieces of pie….90% of the wealth is right here at the top,” while the lower middle class “got some crumbs” and the poor not only “have no pie,” but are actually “in pie debt.”
Dokoupil went on to specifically tout Warren and socialist Senator Bernie Sanders having “promised to redistribute the pie, with a special tax on fortunes $50 million and up.” The anchor happily added: “And polls show most Americans support the idea.”
No wonder why Warren was eager to return the favor on Monday by celebrating his fawning coverage of her radical agenda.
Dokoupil was shown asking some of his volunteers: “Do you think there should be an extra tax on the super-wealthy?” One woman replied: “Why not? They could afford it.” Dokoupil concluded: “The political fight will continue….but at our little table redistribution was a hit.”
After his pie display, Dokoupil only briefly noted the negative consequences of massive wealth redistribution schemes: “But you know, I have to serve this American pie, this economic pie, with a glass of cold water….A wealth tax, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, might actually slow overall economic growth.”
Feebly trying to sell socialism with baked goods, this is what passes for journalism in 2020.
Despite all his whining about it purportedly being a “juvenile stunt” and a “comedy skit,” Drennen never disputed the accuracy of it or explain how pointing out certain facts equates to “selling socialism.”
It wasn’t until a June 2021 post by Scott Whitlock that the MRC started trying to hang the “socialist” label on Dokoupil on a completely unrelated story:
Super wealthy CBS This Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil channeled his inner socialist on Wednesday as he hyped a likely illegally-obtained ProPublica report that exposed the IRS documents of the 25 wealthiest Americans. At no time did the mega-rich Dokoupil worry about the ethics of how this were done or mention if he’d like his tax filings revealed.
Whitlock huffed that “Dokoupil morphed into Bernie Sanders” by pointing out the concentration of wealth in the hands of a relatively small group of people — which, again, is a fact that Whitlock does not dispute, and he didn’t explain why merely pointing out that indisputable fact makes Dokoupil a “socialist.”
(You might remember that while the MRC fretted over the report making the tax records of certain rich people public — citing the right-wing Heritage Foundation to hiss that “The foundation of the ProPublica report is false” — it cheered that it also exposed the tax records of George Soros.)
Whitlock took another shot at Dokoupil in a post later that month, claiming a segment he did on shoplifting: “The wealthy This Morning host in the past has cheered socialism and ranted about the wealthy leaving ‘us’ with crumbs.” Drennen called him a “spokesman for socialism” in an August 2021 post.
Houck joined the party in a January 2022 post that labeled Dokoupil “socialist” while providing no justification for the label. Since then he has been the leader is sticking the “socialist” tag on him:
- April 20, 2022
- May 2, 2022
- July 8, 2022
- July 15, 2022
- August 8, 2022
- September 15, 2022
- October 13, 2022
- December 19, 2022
- January 19, 2023
- January 26, 2023
- February 1, 2023
- February 6, 2023
- February 20, 2023
- March 10, 2023
- March 15, 2023
- April 10, 2023
- April 17, 2023
- April 27, 2023
- May 3, 2023
- May 8, 2023
- May 25, 2023
- May 30, 2023
- June 1, 2023
- July 17, 2023
- November 28, 2023
- December 7, 2023
Nicholas Fondacaro also parroted the smear in an April 2023 post.
The “socialist” label was offered many times without justification, but Houck eventually started linking to the pie-related inequality segment — but to either the CBS website or a Slate article about it, not Drennen’s post.
This led up to a May 24 post in which Houck again labeled Dokoupil as a “socialist” and ascribed false descriptions to his stating he’s not “on the left”:
The tail end of Charlamagne tha God’s appearance on Thursday’s CBS Mornings ended on a deliciously uncomfortable note as the longtime radio host called out socialist co-host Tony Dokoupil as being part of “the left” and refusing to admit he’d be voting for Joe Biden. This led to a nervous Dokoupil twice shouting as the show went to break that he’s “not on the left”.
The CBS co-host found himself in this position in part due to his persistence in lecturing Charlamagne to not just vote for Joe Biden, but endorse him and encourage listeners to participate in the democratic process.
[…]Dokoupil began by acknowledging the unease around the election and unpopularity of both President Biden and former President Trump and, after pointing out Charlamagne has said he’ll vote for but not wave pom-poms for Biden, he lectured the Breakfast Club host to do more to encourage voting:
[…]Dokoupil insisted he’s “thinking about…democracy dying because people do not engage with it,” but Charlamagne kept pressing Dokoupil and rebutted the claim he’s not “engaged” in the democratic process.
Dokoupil then became nervous: “We’re — we’re going to get — we’re in trouble now on this commercial break. I’ll sell your book and then pay some bills.”
When Charlamagne said “I want Tony to answer the question” and Dokoupil kept ducking, he frustratingly declared this was emblematic of how “the left sucks at pushing” narratives.
This led to furious shouts from Dokoupil before reading a tease about a CBS Mornings Deals segment: “I am not on the left! I am not on the left.”
The video attached to the item does not support Houck’s claim that Dokoupil “shrieked” or made “furious shouts” that he is “not on the left” — he merely emphatically stated it. And, again, the only evidence Houck provides is the pie segment, which is not proof of anything.
Houck is simply engaging in the Depiction-Equals-Approval Fallacy — the belief common at the MRC and other right-wing media that a reporter endorses the things he reports on. Houck has never offered any proof that reporting on income inequality automatically makes one a “socialist,” which arguably makes him a liar as well.