New York Post. <\/a>\u201cThey are drinking from a fire hose,\u201d a network source said. \u201cThis sort of thing should not happen. Where is the quality control?\u201d<\/p>\nCBS News declined to comment on the incident to the Post. However, a network source told the paper it was a \u201cone-off error\u201d that had \u201cnothing to do with short staffing.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"CBS](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/CBS-airs-footage-of-Kanye-West-instead-of-Diddy.png\")
CBS News aired footage of Kanye West during a segment about Sean \u2018Diddy\u2019 Combs, starting off a series of major mistakes over the Fourth of July weekend (CBS News)<\/p>\n
CBS did not return The Independent\u2019s request for comment on the broadcast mixup involving West and Combs. <\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the only failure over the holiday weekend. Insiders were left fuming over CBS Evening News\u2019 Fourth of July broadcast – a three-hour, primetime special dubbed \u201cThe Great American Block Party 250.\u201d <\/p>\n
The broadcast was quickly dampened by a severe storm, prompting Trump to evacuate the area. Instead of taking action, anchors Tony Dokoupil and Nischelle Turner waited off-air for an hour for instructions on what to do from boss Bari Weiss, according to the report. <\/p>\n
Their apparent fumble of the broadcast had one network source calling the show \u201camateur hour,\u201d adding: \u201cTony and Nischelle waited one hour in the rain for Bari or Tom to tell them to go to the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n
CBS Evening News was relaunched in January with Dokoupil, 45, taking the anchor seat. It came weeks after Weiss, who founded the \u201canti-woke\u201d The Free Press outlet and has no prior broadcast experience, assumed CBS News\u2019 top editorial role, prompting a string of firings and resignations at the network. <\/p>\n
![\"CBS](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/CBS-News-Tony-Dokoupil.png\")
CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil reportedly fumbled the Fourth of July broadcast Saturday, waiting an hour for instructions during a three-hour broadcast special (CBS News)<\/p>\n
As Dokoupil and Turner waited for instructions, backup anchor Kelly O\u2019Grady ran the Independence Day broadcast from the D.C. studio, while weatherman Rob Marciano gave updates from New York. <\/p>\n
The pair later returned to the studio around 9:45 p.m., or about an hour and 45 minutes into the 3-hour program. Trump later took the stage at 11:15 p.m. for his planned speech. <\/p>\n
Some CBS staffers were left \u201cmortified\u201d by the broadcast, which 100 staffers had put hours of work into, a source told the Post. <\/p>\n
A CBS spokesperson insisted the coverage went according to plan, telling The Independent in a statement: \u201cThis is nonsense. Despite the weather evacuation, our exceptional team never misses a step. We seamlessly activated our pre-planned weather contingencies to deliver great coverage for our audience.\u201d <\/p>\n
One source told the Post that the \u201cdisastrous\u201d production was made even worse when CBS News executive editor Tom Cibrowski sent a congratulatory email to the 100 staffers involved.<\/p>\n
![\"Severe](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2284712520...jpeg\")
Severe rainstorms prompted President Donald Trump to evacuate the Great American State Fair, being held on the National Mall to celebrate the country\u2019s 250th birthday (Getty)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been better if they said nothing,\u201d the source added. \u201cWe knew it was s***.\u201d <\/p>\n
The source blamed the issues on a shortage of producers and a lack of strong leadership from Dokoupil, his executive producer Kim Harvey, as well as Cibrowski and Weiss. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a rudderless ship,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
The special is no longer available on CBS\u2019s streaming service, Paramount+, or on the network\u2019s website, the Post reported. One source told the paper the network was likely \u201cembarrassed\u201d by it. <\/p>\n
However, a network source hit back at the claim, telling the Post it was not shared due to licensing agreements. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1078724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3936],"tags":[295400,47671,77,21006,44888,609,32952,269,457,2249,7212,208103,295401,295399,16,15,659,2176],"class_list":["post-1078723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-agricultural-fair","tag-color-image","tag-entertainment","tag-grounds","tag-horizontal","tag-human-interest","tag-leaving","tag-music","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-rain","tag-the-end","tag-the-mall-washington-dc","tag-traveling-carnival","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-usa","tag-washington-dc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116890837442082519","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1078724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}