Katie Couric has admitted to editing comments from Ruth Bader Ginsburg during an interview to “protect her.”
During an interview with Couric, the late Supreme Court Justice had said that those who kneel during the national anthem are showing “contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.”
“Which they probably could not have lived in the places they came from…as they became older they realize that this was youthful folly. And that’s why education is important,” Ginsburg had continued in her remarks that Couric scrapped.
The Daily Mail reports, “the former Today show host reveals in her new book that she let her personal political views influence her editing decisions after her interview with the late Supreme Court justice in 2016.”
In Couric’s new memoir, Going There, she details how she did include Ginsburg saying that Colin Kaepernick kneeling was “dumb and disrespectful,” but edited out comments where she elaborated on her view.
Couric claims that she believed the justice, who was 83 at the time, was just “elderly and probably didn’t fully understand the question.”
“Couric felt that when Ginsburg said that people like Kaepernick were ‘dumb and disrespectful’ they were comments that were ‘unworthy of a crusader for equality’ like the liberal Supreme Court justice,” the Daily Mail report says. “The day after the sit-down, the head of public affairs for the Supreme Court emailed Couric to say the late justice had ‘misspoken’ and asked that it be removed from the story.”
In addition to the comments detailed above, Ginsburg had also said that “I think it’s a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act.”
When Couric pushed further asking if she believes athletes are “within their rights to exercise those actions”, Ginsburg replied: “Yes. If they want to be stupid, there’s no law that should be preventive.”
“If they want to be arrogant, there’s no law that prevents them from that. What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that,” she added.
