Gayle King Is Pissed At Her Own Network Over An Interview Clip About Kobe Bryant’s Rape Case

February 6, 2020 / Posted by:

“Gayle, listen, I need you to take the heat off of Mama O by asking Lisa Leslie on CBS This Morning about the Kobe Bryant rape case. I’ll get you that high floor condo in… the…. CAAAAAY-MAAAAANS. Mama O, out!” is the voicemail that Oprah may or may not have left Gayle King before Gayle’s interview with WNBA star and friend of Kobe Bryant, Lisa Leslie. Because some are dragging Gayle King for doing her job as a journalist by asking questions, specifically a question about Kobe Bryant’s rape case. CBS tweeted a clip of that moment to promote the interview, and Gayle is trying to stop the dragging of her by dragging CBS for pulling some sensationalism shit.

While wearing a blue-lined vagina lips v-neck, Gayle sat down with Lisa Leslie to talk about the legacy of Kobe Bryant. They talked about the good parts of his life and the bad parts. Gayle brought up the rape charge against Kobe Bryant (the charge was later dropped after his accuser refused to testify) and asked Lisa if that fact brings up complicated feelings about her friend. Lisa said that it doesn’t, because she never saw Kobe get aggressive toward a woman and that’s not the man she knew. Gayle responded by telling Lisa that she wouldn’t see him do that, and Lisa agreed, but she doesn’t believe the accusations. Gayle ended that part of the interview by asking Lisa if she thinks it’s fair to bring up the rape charge since he’s not here anymore, or if it’s part of his life story. Lisa thinks the media should be more respectful and should move on.

This is the clip that CBS used to promote the interview:

Many comments under that tweet are from people who are pissed at Gayle for even bringing up the rape charge. Because you know, when someone dies, we should also bury all the bad things they’ve done and hold them up as a one-dimensional saint with no flaws. (“I agree!” said the Ghost of Kirk Douglas.) I mean, it’s impossible for humans to feel more than one feeling, so we have to ignore the ugly parts of someone’s legacy, obviously.

People also accused Gayle, who was praised for how she handled her interview with train wreck R.Kelly, for treating black men differently than white men. Like how Oprah got hate for interviewing Michael Jackson’s accusers and for being a part of the Russell Simmons documentary (before dropping out of it), but has stayed out of the Harvey Weinstein mess. And when Gayle King’s co-worker Charlie Rose was fired from CBS This Morning after several women accused him of sexual harassment, she said that there are two sides, she’s still friends with him, and there should be some sort of redemption for #MeToo creeps, but that doesn’t mean she’s discounting the accusers. So people threw that at her.

Gayle responded on Instagram to the hate she got, and defended her interview, saying that it covered many parts of Kobe’s legacy and that Lisa Leslie was happy with it. But then Gayle shifted the focus from her to her network by shitting on them for using that clip to sum up the interview. via People

“I’ve been up reading the comments about the interview I did with Lisa Leslie about Kobe Bryant. And I know that if I had only seen the clip that you saw, I’d be extremely angry with me too. I am mortified, I am embarrassed and I am very angry,” she said. “Unbeknownst to me, my network put up a clip from a very wide-ranging interview, totally taken out of context, and when you see it that way, it’s very jarring.”

“It’s jarring to me; I didn’t even know anything about it. I started getting calls [asking], ‘What the hell are you doing? Why did you say this? What is happening?’” King continued. “I did not know what people were talking about.”

“So I’ve been advised to say nothing — just let it go. ‘People will drag you, people will troll you, it’ll be over in a couple of days.’ But that’s not good enough for me because I really want people to understand what happened here and how I’m feeling about it,” she added.

Gayle said that she’s going to have a serious talk with her network about that move.

Here’s the clip that made me leave Gayle a hate comment too, because I watched this first thing, and it was too early for all that piss-colored toile(t) wallpaper.

I do think it was fair for Gayle to ask that question since it’s part of the history of Kobe, and she’s a journalist and it’s her job to ask the questions. But when CBS This Morning interviewed Kobe’s former teammate Caron Butler, they didn’t bring up the rape charge. So if they’re going to ask the women in Kobe’s life, they should ask the dudes too.

Gayle shouldn’t try to spin it anymore (because she has no reason to), but I do expect Gayle to try to spin this some more and change the focus by doing another Instagram video where she defends her wallpaper from the thousands of wallpaper-haters. Yes, I know it was just me. I can’t help that everyone has piss taste in wallpaper!

Pic: CBS

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