Gayle King is Blasted for Mentioning Kobe Bryant's Rape Trial
by EG
Gayle King of CBS This Morning is the latest media personality to learn that Kobe Bryant's 2003 trial for rape (he was acquitted when his accuser refused to testify in court) is very much off limits in the wake of the basketball star's death. King mentioned the accusation in an interview this week, and then went into damage control mode when Bryant's friends and fans expressed outrage. Read on for details.
Gayle King on Thursday morning took to social media to express her disappointment in CBS after the network shared a small portion of her interview with Kobe Bryant's friend and former WNBA star, Lisa Leslie, in which it appeared that King unnecessarily questioned Leslie about the late basketball player's rape trial.
"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," King said in an Instagram video, posted before going on air for CBS This Morning. "I am mortified. I am embarrassed and I am very angry. 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, King spoke with Leslie about Bryant's sexual assault case. (A 19-year-old female hotel concierge accused Bryant of raping her in 2003; the case was later settled out of court in 2005.) Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others were killed in a Jan. 26 Calabasas helicopter crash, leaving public figures and fans mourning the tragic loss.
"It’s been said that his legacy is complicated, because of a sexual assault charge that was dismissed in 2003, 2004. Is it complicated for you, as a woman, as a WNBA player?" King asked Leslie, to which she replied, "It’s not complicated for me at all… 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."
King then followed up with, "But Lisa, you wouldn’t see it though. As his friend, you wouldn’t see it."
Both fans and stars found King's questioning disrespectful, with notable names such as Snoop Dogg and Vivica A. Fox criticizing the CBS This Morning co-anchor. "We expect more from you, Gayle," Snoop Dogg said in part a heated Instagram video. "How dare you try to tarnish my homeboy's reputation."
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
Do you think Gayle should be fired for mentioning Kobe's rape trial? Let us know in the comments below.