CBS News’s Gayle King issued an apology after a clip from her interview with WNBA legend Lisa Leslie in which she peppered the retired athlete with questions about Kobe Bryant’s rape case went viral.
The teased clip from King’s interview with Leslie focused on questions about the NBA legend’s 2005 rape settlement and how it affected his lasting legacy. After receiving backlash for her repeated questions about the case, the news anchor posted a video on Instagram addressing the matter Thursday morning.
“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,” she said in an Instagram video. “I am mortified. I am embarrassed, and I am very angry.”
She continued, “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.”
In the clip, which the network posted to Twitter on Tuesday, King asked Leslie about Bryant’s legacy and questioned if being a woman and a former WNBA player made their relationship “complicated” for her.
“It’s not complicated for me at all,” Leslie said. “I just never see, have ever seen him being the kind of person that would be — do something to violate a woman or be aggressive in that way. That’s just not the person that I know.”
.@WNBA legend @LisaLeslie told @GayleKing that Kobe Bryant’s legacy is “not complicated” for her despite his 2003 rape accusation.
“I don’t think it’s something that we should keep hanging over his legacy.” https://t.co/qj6MVvOaqX pic.twitter.com/9qtVORobLO
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) February 4, 2020
A number of people expressed outrage at King’s response, which was, “But Lisa, you wouldn’t see it though. As his friend, you wouldn’t see it.”
Rapper Snoop Dogg took exception with the questioning, posting his own response video on social media.
“Gayle King, out of pocket for that shit,” he said. “Way out of pocket. What do you gain from that? … We expect more from you, Gayle. Don’t you hang out with Oprah [Winfrey]? Why are y’all attacking us? We your people. You ain’t come after Harvey Weinstein, asking them dumbass questions. I get sick of y’all.”
The artist continued his profane rant against King, “Funky dog-head bitch. How dare you try to torch my motherf—ing homeboy’s reputation, punk motherf—er. Respect the family and back off, bitch, before we come get you.”
In her Instagram video responding to the backlash, King added, “I felt really good about the interview … so for the network to take the most salacious part when taken out of context and put it up online for people who didn’t see the whole interview, is very upsetting to me, and that’s something I’m going to have to deal with with them. There will be a very intense discussion about that.”
Bryant, 41, was killed in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others last month.
