Shari Redstone, the chair of CBS parent company Paramount Global, said Wednesday that CBS leadership made a “bad mistake” with their handling of “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil’s contentious interview last week with author Ta-Nehisi Coates.

The mogul, who cut a deal to sell Paramount -- including CBS -- to Skydance earlier this year, weighed in on the topic on Wednesday.

Paramount Global co-CEO George Cheeks released a memo to staffers this afternoon, defending top CBS News executives for calling out the way that CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokuopil handled an interview last week with author Ta-Nehisi Coates.