Donald Trump was in China this week for a series of meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. In order to cover the historic summit, major American broadcasters sent their newscasters overseas to broadcast from Beijing. Even the dolts from Fox News managed to get over there and commit a parking violation. Absent from the party, however, was beleaguered CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, who at this point really seems to be cursed.
"Right now I'm just about 100 miles off the coast of mainland China," is how Dokoupil began Wednesday night's broadcast from the balcony of a hotel in Taipei, Taiwan. Tony was being kind to himself: Taipei may be very close to mainland China itself, but it is 1,000 miles away from Beijing, where all of the important stuff was happening. The reason Dokoupil was stuck on that hotel balcony is that CBS failed to secure a visa for their man. Semafor's Max Tani reported that as a result the network had to send Dokoupil to Taipei at the last minute. Not content with personally fucking with her handpicked anchor's teleprompter and crashing his show's ratings, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss now seems to have robbed the network of its ability to complete basic logistical tasks.
Things didn't get better for Dokoupil once he got over to Taipei. Wednesday night's broadcast was brought to a strange and sudden end when Dokoupil's camera man collapsed (CBS later released a statement saying the camera man is OK):
CBS News camera man passed out on set. He’s now doing ok and is in recovery, I’m told. pic.twitter.com/w08yqbITa9
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) May 13, 2026
Then came Thursday's broadcast, which dedicated viewers (there are none) would have noticed took place from a different location. Oliver Darcy of Status reported that this change in scenery was necessitated by the fact that poor, accursed Tony was kicked out of his original broadcast location because the hotel's management objected to how he covered the political tensions between Taiwan and China on Wednesday's show. Dokoupil, reporting on Thursday from Liberty Square, acknowledged this himself. "After seeing our broadcast last night, the [hotel] manager told us we can't cover anything political on their property," said Dokoupil.
Your job might suck, but at least you can be thankful that your week didn't include being flown halfway across the world for no reason and then getting kicked out of your hotel. Here's hoping Tony can get home in time for Whiskey Friday.
