Tony Dokoupil’s exchange led to a rebuke from executives, but the mogul who controls the network, Shari Redstone, came to his defense.

A contentious interview between "CBS Mornings" anchor Tony Dokoupil and Ta-Nehisi Coates is raising questions about the state of journalism in America.

Shari Redstone, the chairwoman and CEO of CBS’ parent company Paramount Global, said Wednesday that CBS leadership made a “bad mistake” in how they handled the fallout over “CBS Mornings” co-anchor Tony Dokoupil’s contentious last week interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates.