Author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates appeared as a guest on “CBS Mornings” anchor to promote his new book, “The Message,” a collection of new essays by the best-selling author about his travels to different parts of the world.
During the interview, viewers were taken aback by news anchor Tony Dokoupil’s intense grilling as he pressed the author on Israel’s “right to exist.”
“I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards, the acclaim, took the cover off the book, publishing house goes away, the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” Dokoupil told Coates. In turn, Coates—more composed in his delivery—countered, insisting that his objective was to give voice to the Palestinian people, whose views have been grossly underrepresented in the American media.
In this clip, Karen Hunter is joined by author and actor Seena Ghaznavi to discuss the fallout.
