Exclusive | Inside CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupils bumpy 4th of July weekend: amateur hour

Tony Dokoupil’s “CBS Evening News” grappled with a fresh round of missteps over the Fourth of July weekend — the latest snafus that have dogged Bari Weiss’ overhaul of the Tiffany Network’s news programming.On Friday, the last-place news program — which was relaunched in January with Dokoupil taking the anchor seat — mistakenly aired an image of rapper Kanye West instead of Sean “Diddy” Combs in its report that President Trump was mulling a pardon of Combs.The Post obtained a screenshot of the image CBS used of West when he made a surprise appearance at last year’s trial for Combs, who is currently serving a 50-month prison sentence after being convicted in a federal sex-crimes case.The error was quietly fixed in the “Evening News’” West Coast broadcast and for digital and streaming, but a source said it is an example of how short-staffed the show is. CBS News declined to comment, but a network source said it was a “one-off error” that had “nothing to do with short staffing.”“They are drinking from a fire hose,” a network source said.“This sort of thing should not happen.

Where is the quality control?”The network had been busy prepping its live three-hour, primetime special dubbed “The Great American Block Party 250,” hosted by Dokoupil and Nischelle Turner. Insiders said more than 100 staffers were pulled in to air July 4 broadcasts, which would include performances from the Zac Brown Band, Vanilla Ice, Jon Batiste and the Goo Goo Dolls – with Dokoupil anchoring live from the Washington Monument. Things went south when President Trump issued an evacuation on the National Mall because of incoming thunderstorms.Dokoupil and Turner were holed up nearby as the storm swept through — off the air for an hour as they waited for their bosses, Weiss and News President Tom Cibrowski — to make a decision on how to proceed. Calling it “amateur hour,” the source said: “Tony and Nischelle waited one hour in the ra...