Journalist Gayle King is reportedly receiving death threats for doing what she’s done so well for years: asking hard questions.
In a CBS This Morning interview with WNBA player Lisa Leslie, who was a longtime friend of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, King asked whether Bryant’s 2003 sexual assault case “complicated” Leslie’s friendship with the basketball icon, who recently passed away in a tragic helicopter crash.
King later raised the possibility that bringing up the allegation may not be fair to Bryant’s family or his legacy, “considering he’s no longer with us, and that it was resolved.” She also asked, “Is it really part of his history?”
King’s question was relevant, respectful, and gracious. The sexual assault allegation leveled against Bryant in 2003 by no means defines his legacy, but it did happen, and it should be addressed. King understood this and posed her question in a way that allowed Leslie to clear the air, defend Bryant’s character, and remind the audience that the Bryant she knew is the Bryant his fans admired: the father, friend, and devout Catholic who used the 2003 allegation as an opportunity to turn his life around and become an advocate for good.
King handled the situation remarkably well, given the sensitivity of the subject. But she still received backlash online. Rapper Snoop Dogg attacked King for criticizing “your people” and warned her to “back off … before we come get you.” This led the CBS News chief, Susan Zirinsky, to denounce the “reprehensible” threats made against King.
Unfortunately, the hate that King received compelled her to release an apology: “I know that if I had only seen the clip that you saw, I would be extremely angry with me too. I am mortified. I’m 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.”
Even if the clip was taken out of context, as King and CBS News have claimed, nothing about it was “jarring.” Sometimes our heroes fail. Sometimes they learn from failure, too. We must face these shortcomings and learn from their mistakes in the same way. By asking about Bryant’s history, King was trying to give us an opportunity to do just that.
King does not owe anyone an apology, but those who maligned her do. It’s difficult to remember the totality of a person, especially if the full context is troubling. But it’s important to keep in mind that wrestling with the hard questions does not undermine our heroes’ legacies; rather, it gives us one last chance to show grace to those who earned it. And Bryant certainly did.
