Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Parents Of NFL Protestors Come From Places Where They Would Never Have Had A Decent Life, Like America. In the original photos: Left: In this Friday, June 18, 2021, file photo, journalist Katie Couric attends a screening during the 20th Tribeca Festival at The Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place, in New York. Little, Brown and Company and Live Nation announced Monday, June 21, 2021, that Couric will embark on an 11-city in-person promotional tour for her book “Going There,” beginning with an appearance at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre on Oct. 28.(Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File) Right: In this Nov. 30, 2018 file photo, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, nominated by President Bill Clinton, sits with fellow Supreme Court justices for a group portrait at the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – affectionately known as RBG – made some inflammatory remarks about NFL players kneeling to protest racial injustice that never saw the light of print, according to veteran journalist Katie Couric’s new book.
In her soon-to-be-published book “Going There,” Couric said she feared comments Ginsburg made during a 2016 interview would cause severe public backlash – so she edited them out.
While it is widely known that Ginsburg said in the interview she thought the NFL players kneeling was “dumb and disrespectful” – and she was effectively dragged for it – Kouric admitted in her book that she intentionally didn’t include Ginsburg’s most inflammatory statements.
According to Couric, Ginsburg also said the national anthem protests displayed a “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.”
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Couric said she omitted the quotes because she thought they were “unworthy of a crusader for equality” like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and she “wanted to protect” the history-making justice. She also said the Supreme Court’s public affairs lead called her after the interview and asked her to leave the material out because his boss had “misspoken.”
According to the Daily Mail, Couric admitted to being “conflicted” and facing a “conundrum” because she was “a big RBG fan.” Coruic also surmised in the book that Ginsburg was “elderly and probably didn’t fully understand the question.” Racial justice issues could have been a “blindspot” for Ginsburg, Couric added.
Couric ultimately chose to edit out the worst of Ginsburg’s remarks – a decision that fellow journalists and readers alike condemned.
“Neither explanation can possibly justify the omissions,” media critic Erik Wemple wrote in The Washington Post. “Looking after Ginsburg’s PR interests is not part of a journalist’s job. And if Ginsburg was too foggy to understand a question on a top-tier national issue, then how equipped was she to hear cases at the Supreme Court?”
“Completely indefensible for Katie Couric to withhold this from the public to protect a *sitting Supreme Court Justice*,” New Republic columnist Natalie Shure tweeted.
“Katie Couric did what wypipo people do—defend or deny the racism of other wypipo,” Bishop Talbert Swan tweeted.
Twitters user @AngryBlackLady wrote, “it’s unfortunate that couric felt the need to do this especially considering ginsburg apologized. what’s the goddamn point. that’s not journalism. nobody asked for that.”
