Katie Couric Reacts to Gayle King’s Kobe Bryant Controversy

Katie Couric has broken her silence on the Gayle King interview which involves late Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. The 63-year old journalist has shared her thoughts on the clip in which King talks to former WNBA star Lisa Leslie about Bryant and the sexual assault allegation against him in 2003. Last week, King faced a ton of backlash for her line of questioning, which came just two weeks after Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven other people died in a helicopter crash.

“We’re living in very fraught times and I think that things explode and I think Gayle was really smart to make sure she put it in context,” Couric told Entertainment Tonight of King’s statement after the clip question was released. “I think it was a mistake, things get misunderstood, taken out of context and then they just explode at the speed of sound.”

“I think you just have to be extra careful, extra sensitive, and extra thorough about the material that gets disseminated in the world,” she added.

King has spoken out about the clip and she said that it was released without context.

“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,” King said in a video which was posted on her Instagram account. “It’s jarring to me. I didn’t even know anything about it. I started getting calls, ‘What the hell are you doing? Why did you say this? What is happening?’ I did not know what people were talking about.”

“I really want people to understand what happened here and how I’m feeling about it,” she said. “I believe that Lisa was OK with the interview and I felt really good about the interview.”

Once the clip was posted, CBS News told ET: “Gayle conducted a thoughtful, wide-ranging interview with Lisa Leslie about the legacy of Kobe Bryant. An excerpt was posted that did not reflect the nature and tone of the full interview. We are addressing the internal process that led to this and changes have already been made.”

Despite the clarification by King and CBS News, there have been a number people to attack her via social media. Snoop Dogg has been one of the most notable figures to go after King with profanity-laced videos and posts on Instagram.