Tony Dokoupil's CBS News biffs efforts to get into China, settles for Taiwan

This so close, and yet so-diplomatically-dicey-to-recognize approach to newsmaking comes to us courtesy of Semafor, which notes that, unlike his competitors at NBC and ABC, Dokoupil was apparently unable to secure a visa to enter China to cover the summit directly. That’s since led to a sudden need to pivot, as CBS Evening News will now set up in Taipei, which is either Taiwan’s national capitol or its provincial one, depending on whether you’re trying to get the Chinese government to let your Hollywood blockbuster play there this month. (Semafor notes that CBS News’ stance is that this is all good, by the way; the organization will still have correspondents in Beijing to cover the meetings between Trump and Xi Jinping directly, and Taiwan’s going to be a big part of the conversation, so who even needs China anyway, right?)

It’s not clear why CBS News was unable to secure the necessary visa for the visit; Trump’s state visit to China was announced last October, and actually got delayed by a month due to the United States’ ongoing military entanglement with Iran, so Dokoupil’s team can’t exactly claim they didn’t see it coming. In any case, it’s the latest toe stub in what’s seemed like a long string of them since Weiss was installed at the head of the venerable news organization by new owner David Ellison at the start of the year, and like most toe stubs, it’s certainly not fatal—but at some point, you do have to start asking why they keep seeming to happen.