Gayle King is responding to backlash over a controversial question, USAToday reports.
During an interview with former WNBA player Lisa Leslie about the legacy of her friend Kobe Bryant, King brought up a sensitive subject: The basketball legend's 2003 rape charge.
The criminal case against Bryant was dropped on Sept. 1, 2004, after the accuser declined to testify. In August of that year, the woman filed a civil lawsuit, which was settled out of court on March 2, 2005.
In a two-part video posted to Twitter, the "CBS This Morning" host discussed the controversy.
My perspective (1/2) pic.twitter.com/tUYK0yGh9q— Gayle King (@GayleKing) February 6, 2020
— Gayle King (@GayleKing) February 6, 2020
"If I had only seen the clip that you saw, I would be extremely angry with me too. 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," she explained.
"I wanted to get Lisa's take on it as a friend who knew him well. What she thought, where that would stand," she said. "It was very powerful when she looked me in the eye, as a member of the media, to say it's time for the media to leave that alone and back off. During the course of the interview, I asked follow-up questions because I wanted to make sure her position and perspective were very clear."
She added that she talked to Leslie Wednesday night and "believes (she) was OK with the interview" before pointing fingers at the network again.
"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 is something I'm going to have to deal with them," she said.
King said she had spent time with Bryant on "many social occasions," describing him as "kind and warm," and is still mourning his loss.
"The last thing I would want to do is disparage him at this particular time," she added. "I hope people understand that."
"I understand why people are upset seeing that clip out of context," she said. "I hope they will now watch the entire wide-ranging interview. We asked a longtime friend of Kobe Bryant’s to talk to us about his legacy and their friendship and Lisa Leslie did exactly that."
About halfway through the interview, King brought up the allegation against Bryant.
.@WNBA legend @LisaLeslie told @GayleKing that Kobe Bryant's legacy is "not complicated" for her despite his 2003 rape accusation.— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) February 4, 2020
"I don't think it's something that we should keep hanging over his legacy." https://t.co/qj6MVvOaqX pic.twitter.com/9qtVORobLO
"It's been said that his legacy is complicated because of a sexual assault charge," King asked in the interview, published Tuesday. "Is it complicated for you as a woman, as a WNBA player?"
"It's not complicated for me at all," Leslie replied. "I just never have ever seen him being the kind of person that would do something to violate a woman or be aggressive in that way. That was just never the person that I know."
King had follow-up comments.
"But Lisa, you wouldn't see it, though," she said. "As his friend, you wouldn't see it."
"And that's possible," replied Leslie. "I just don't believe that."
King then asked if it's "even a fair question to talk about" the accusation, "considering he's no longer with us and that it was resolved," or if it is "really part of his history."
According to Leslie, the media "should be more respectful at this time."
The woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape in 2003 will not speak of him publicly, according to her attorney
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