Former NBC/CBS/ABC (via Yahoo!) news star Katie Couric’s salacious memoir was again making headlines for all the wrong reasons on Wednesday. But instead of making sexually disparaging comments about her female coworkers, this time Couric admitted she had decided to censor potentially controversial comments from Late-Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg where she chastised kneeling athletes and said they were “showing contempt for a government” that helped their parents and grandparents.
All of this went unreported that evening by her former broadcast employers as they tried to keep Couric’s reputation, Ginsburg’s, and theirs intact.
And as NewsBusters previously reported, instead of covering important topics like this that evening, ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News were fixated on actor William Shatner going up into space on a Blue Origin rocket, a bow and arrow attack in Norway, and the FDA’s new guidelines for salt.
So, of course, it was up to Fox News and Special Report to call out this massive violation of journalistic ethics.
“Breaking tonight, eyebrow-raising comments attributed to the late U.S. Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and another example of mainstream media censorship. The statement never aired because it was cut out from the final presentation by interviewer Katie Couric,” announced anchor Bret Baier.
Media analyst and MediaBuzz host, Howard Kurtz was on the case as he gave viewers the rundown about how Couric deceived the public and put her admiration for Ginsburg ahead of her integrity. After noting that Couric was not pressed for time in her report on their interview, Kurtz reported that she “deleted a key part and admits she, quote, ‘wanted to protect’ the liberal Supreme Court justice from a backlash, and that she was, quoting again, ‘a big RBG fan.’”
He also included a soundbite of Ginsburg ripping the athletes:
GINSBURG: I think it's really dumb of them. Would I arrest them for doing it? No.
COURIC: But what you're saying is it's within their rights to exercise those actions.
GINSBURG: If they want to be stupid, there's no law that should be preventive –
“But Couric cut the late Justice’s more inflammatory remarks at the protesting athletes were ‘showing contempt for a government that made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life,’” Kurtz said.
And by Couric’s own admission, she seemed to know what she was doing was wrong. “[She] lost a lot of sleep over the decision and felt that racial justice was a blind spot for Ginsburg,” Kurtz reported, noting it came from her book.
She even went along with spin from the Supreme Court spokesperson: “The day after the sit-down, the Supreme Court spokesperson emailed Couric to say Ginsburg had misspoken and didn't understand a question. Couric said she was conflicted but adopted that argument, though the jurist, then 83, seems from the video seems to understand question just fine.”
And rejected advice from “former ABC News President David Westin, who told her, ‘She’s on the Supreme Court; people should hear what she thinks.’”
And as our friend Stephen Gutowski reminded us all on Twitter, this wasn’t the first time Couric was caught deceptively editing video to fit her narrative. In 2016, he caught her trying to make gun rights activists look dumb and ignorant in a documentary:
The documentary then shows the activists sitting silently for nine awkward seconds, unable to provide an answer. It then cuts to the next scene (…) However, raw audio of the interview between Katie Couric and the activists provided to the Washington Free Beacon shows the scene was deceptively edited. Instead of silence, Couric's question is met immediately with answers from the activists.
This omission of Katie Couric’s omission was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Consumer Cellular on ABC, Crest on CBS, and Ford Motor Company on NBC. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund. CBS Evening News has also asked people to “text” anchor Norah O’Donnell story idea at: (202) 217-1107.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
October 13, 2021
6:15:07 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: Breaking tonight, eyebrow-raising comments attributed to the late U.S. Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and another example of mainstream media censorship. The statement never aired because it was cut out from the final presentation by interviewer Katie Couric.
Fox News media analyst and host of Fox’s MediaBuzz, Howard Kurtz, is here with the details. Quite a story. Howard.
HOWARD KURTZ: Bret, good evening. Katie Couric had plenty of time for her Ruth Bader Ginsburg interview five years ago. She was working for Yahoo!, which posted half an hour online. But the former CBS anchor and Today show co-host deleted a key part and admits she, quote, "wanted to protect" the liberal Supreme Court justice from a backlash, and that she was, quoting again, “a big RBG fan.”
It was a fierce controversy then, as you will call over Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players taking a need to protest the national anthem. Ginsburg said she found them arrogant.
[Cuts to video]
RUTH BADER GINSBURG: I think it's really dumb of them. Would I arrest them for doing it? No.
KATIE COURIC: But what you're saying is it's within their rights to exercise those actions.
BADER GINSBURG: If they want to be stupid, there's no law that should be preventive –
[Cuts back to live]
KURTZ: But Couric cut the late Justice’s more inflammatory remarks at the protesting athletes were “showing contempt for a government that made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.”
The Daily Mail reports based on Couric’s forthcoming memoir, Going There, that she acknowledges having lost a lot of sleep over the decision and felt that racial justice was a blind spot for Ginsburg, which is precisely why her comments would have plunged her into controversy.
The day after the sit-down, the Supreme Court spokesperson emailed Couric to say Ginsburg had misspoken and didn't understand a question. Couric said she was conflicted but adopted that argument, though the jurist, then 83, seems from the video seems to understand question just fine.
Couric consulted former ABC News President David Westin, who told her, “She’s on the Supreme Court; people should hear what she thinks.”
Katie Couric says in the book she tried to keep her personal politics out of her reporting, but in this case she clearly did not. Being a “big fan” of a Supreme Court justice is hardly a good reason to keep her own on camera words from the public. Bret.
BAIER: Quite a story. Howie, thank you.
