Tony Dokoupil’s job hinges on breaking news. He has recently been taking precious seconds to try and knit some of it together.
On a recent Friday night, the “CBS Evening News” anchor stopped the rat-a-tat-tat delivery of headlines for which his program and similar ones are known, just to reflect. He delivered a short monologue focused on the ramped-up construction of data centers across the U.S. Dokoupil simply wanted an answer to the following: “In an election year where Americans are mostly divided on the issues, why are so many united around opposition” to the new facilities?
To answer the query, Dokoupil relied on video, charts and an oral essay expressed in his own writing. Americans, Dokoupil said, “oppose them because they are as big as airports, draw more power than a small city, use as much water as the same and support a technology, AI, whose own founders say could be an existential risk to life here on earth.”
Since July 1, “CBS Evening News” has rolled out four segments of this type — known as “The Big Question” — and producers hope they will serve to grab viewers with frank discussions tied to the news of the day.
There are many questions Americans ask in their daily conversations “that for whatever reason don’t get baldly and directly asked in the press,” says Dokoupil, 45, during a recent interview. “I’m talking about the origin of COVID, the Wuhan question. Is Joe Biden mentally capable of another term? How is it legal for Donald Trump to enrich himself and his family while in office? These are questions people are talking about, but don’t feel like they can be asked. There is a cost to asking them. We decided we’re going to ask them and we going to do our best to give people an answer.” In some cases, the monologue will do the trick; in others, Dokoupil may enlist a topic expert to help figure things out.
