Gayle King responds to heavy backlash from interview ‘tarnishing’ Kobe Bryant’s legacy

Gayle King, in response to heavy backlash to a recent interview that touched on Kobe Bryant, criticized CBS on Thursday for how it had promoted the interview.

Gayle King, the lead anchor of “CBS This Morning,” made her frustrations known on Instagram early Thursday in response to a social media backlash over her interview with Lisa Leslie, a former star in the Women’s National Basketball Association and a longtime friend of Mr. Bryant’s.

During the interview, which aired Tuesday on “CBS This Morning,” Ms. Leslie replied to Ms. King’s bringing up the topic by saying that “the media should be more respectful at this time.”

“I just have never seen him being the kind of person that would do something to violate a woman or be aggressive in that way,” Ms. Leslie added. “That’s just not the person that I know.”

The allegation against Mr. Bryant, who reached a private settlement with his accuser out of court after the criminal case against him was dropped, has become a point of contention since his death

To promote the five-and-a-half-minute interview, CBS used a 94-second video clip in which Ms. King asked Ms. Leslie about a woman’s 2003 sexual assault accusation against Mr. Bryant, who died last month in a helicopter crash.

“I know that if I had only seen the clip that you saw, I’d be extremely angry with me, too,” Ms. King said in the video she posted on Instagram.

In a statement hours after the anchor’s Instagram post, CBS News said it had mishandled the promotion.

In the social media backlash, the anchor’s critics, who included the basketball star LeBron James, pointed to an excerpt from the interview that appeared on the “CBS This Morning” Twitter account and featured Ms. King and Ms. Leslie speaking solely about the allegation.

In the exchange, Ms. King said to Ms. Leslie at one point, “As his friend, you wouldn’t see it.”

Snoop Dogg was among those critical of Ms. King, saying in an Instagram video, “Why you attacking us?”

“Respect the family and back off,” he added, using obscenities to describe Ms. King. His video had more than one million views. He also posted several pictures of Ms. King, as well as her friend Oprah Winfrey, posing with Harvey Weinstein, the film mogul who has been accused by more than 90 women of sexual misconduct, including rape and harassment.

Ms. King blamed CBS for not providing a fuller picture of the interview in its promotion.