The American channel CBS denounced the insults and threats against the famous journalist Gayle King on Sunday after the broadcast on social networks of an extract from an interview in which it evokes a rape accusation targeting former basketball star Kobe Bryant , died tragically at the end of January.
"We believe the threats against her or any journalist doing her job are reprehensible," CBS News president Susan Zirinsky said in a statement.
The controversy arose from an excerpt from a long interview conducted by Gayle King, host of the channel's much-watched morning show, with Lisa Leslie, one of the stars of WNBA, the North American women's basketball league. ball, and longtime friend of the deceased player.
Aggressive reaction from Snoop Dogg
The extract, broadcast Tuesday on the Twitter account of the channel, is devoted to the rape accusation which had targeted the player of Los Angeles Lakers in 2003. The episode, which ended in 2004 by an agreement with l amicable and apology from Kobe Bryant to his accuser, "should not tarnish" his exceptional career, assures Lisa Leslie.
But the excerpt sparked an outpouring of outrageous reactions from fans of the NBA legend. The most aggressive came from rapper Snoop Dogg, a huge Lakers fan, who verbally insulted and threatened the black journalist on the 50 Cent Twitter account, another famous rapper. "What do you have to gain, why are you attacking us, your people?" "Says Snoop Dogg, who calls her a" whore ". "Respect the family and stop before we pick you up."
President Barack Obama's former national security adviser Susan Rice defended Gayle King on Friday in a very direct tweet. "It's pitiful," she wrote. "Snoop, you're the one stopping, damn." "You take it out on Gayle King, you take it out on an army." You will lose and it will not be pretty to see, "added the former diplomat.
"Misogyny"
Black Democrat Senator Cory Booker also denounced the "misogyny" of the critics against the journalist. "To those who threaten her and incite violence, stop immediately," he said on Twitter. Famous TV host Oprah Winfrey, a friend of Gayle King, had previously revealed that she was protected after receiving death threats. Snoop Dogg back-pedaled him on Saturday, stressing that he was "non-violent" and did not want "any harm" to the journalist. However, he considered that it had "gone too far".
Gayle King criticized the chain for having unknowingly broadcast an extract "completely out of context" from his long interview. She said she was "mortified and very angry" with the 780,000 subscribers of her Instagram account. "I know that if you only saw this excerpt, you would also be very angry with me," she wrote.
The highly respected journalist is not the first to cause controversy for having raised the former accusation of rape against Kobe Bryant. A Washington Post reporter, who retweeted an article about the case a few hours after her death, was briefly laid off by her editorial staff.
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