REVEALED: Ruth Bader Ginsburg slammed athletes for kneeling during the national anthem — Katie Couric censored her
By: Alex Anas Ahmed
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Former Today show host Katie Couric admitted to editing out negative comments made by Ruth Bader Ginsburg about people who kneel during the national anthem. In her new memoir, Going There, Couric writes that her political views influenced the edits made to her interview with the late Supreme Court justice in 2016.
Ginsburg supposedly said those who kneel show 'contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.' The story in question, published by Yahoo! News in 2016, saw Couric quote, Ginsburg, stating that refusing to stand for the anthem was 'dumb and disrespectful' but omitted more problematic remarks. The former host writes she thought the justice, who was 83 at the time, was 'elderly and probably didn't fully understand the question.'
Couric, 64, contends she always tried to remove her 'personal politics' from her reporting throughout her career, reported the Daily Mail . But she faced a 'conundrum' when Ginsburg commented about Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL player who kneeled during the national anthem to protest against racial injustice.
Ginsburg said that people like Kaepernick were 'dumb and disrespectful.' Couric said the comments were 'unworthy of a crusader for equality' as a liberal Supreme Court justice. The day after the interview, the head of public affairs for the Supreme Court emailed Couric to say the late justice had 'misspoken' and asked her to remove it from the story.
Couric writes she was 'conflicted' because she was a 'big RBG fan,' but David Westin, the former head of ABC News , advised Couric to keep it in. 'She's on the Supreme Court. People should hear what she thinks,' he said, according to Couric.
The final version of the story, which meant to promote a compilation of Ginsburg's writings called, My Own Words, included her criticism of 'stupid' and 'arrogant' protesters. But what was left out was arguably more inflammatory.
Ginsburg went on to say that such protests show a 'contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.' She said: '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.'
Couric claims that she 'lost a lot of sleep over this one' and still wrestles with the decision she made. She 'wanted to protect' Ginsburg and felt that the issue of racial justice was a 'blind spot' for her.
Ginsburg, who died last September at age 87, was asked for her thoughts after former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick came under fire in 2016 for taking a knee at the start of NFL games in protest against racial injustice.
'Would I arrest them for doing it? No,' she told Couric. 'I think it's dumb and disrespectful. I would have the same answer if you asked me about flag burning.' She added: '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.
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Again, honors go to The Daily Mail. This one I can't recommend.
The book is:
Going There
Didn’t she catch some heat for another selective editing stunt back in 2016?
That’s why there is a FOX.
Which explains why you seeded the article from The Post Millennial?
I never understood why kneeling was such an issue. If anything, kneeling is probably the greatest sign of respect.
It seems that RBG disagreed.
Yes, and?
Old people get cranky pretty easy, lol
Ive Noticed. I'm getting that way myself from time to time.
I heard she could curse like a sailor and scream too, not that it was reported, lol.
I do not think I've heard that. But I can see it happening.
I know for a fact that Mother Theresa lost her temper a few times too,
meh.
humans...
No....it was disrespectful to all those who fell defending the flag
How is kneeling disrespectful?
It's not.
Was I being disrespectful when I proposed to my wife???????? Is that what Vic is saying???
Thank you.
Not as long as it is done at the right time, the right place, and for the right reasons.
Which is the reason everyone is asked to stand and place their hands over their hearts. That is the proper decorum.
Never seen anything about take a knee, and bowing their heads, during the National Anthem.
Standing might be norm, but that doesn't automatically make the act of kneeling disrespectful.
Huh - better tell the Catholics that.
Wow, equating praying which kneeling for Catholics is required due to their religious beliefs- to kneeling during the National Anthem which is by no means the proper decorum.
That is not only a stretch it is a complete disconnect.
You equate alleged conservatives and today's republicans/gqp with decorum????
Or is it because you don't have enough room to kneel in the bleacher seats? There's barely room to stand.
Now you're just being obtuse
People knee when they pray, right? So are they being disrespectful to god?
You have never been to an American football game have you? When sitting, you have to be careful not to hit the guy in front of you with your knees. The stands make aircraft seating luxurious in comparison.
Why yes I have. PSL holder at B of A stadium and the Panthers. Every home game. All I was saying was your reasoning was full of shit and not the reason we stand and not kneel.
Then you provide the reason that kneeling is not acceptable.
It is now and always has been the decorum when the National Anthem is played to stand, take off your hat if you have one on, and put your right hand over your heart. You can kneel if you want but it looks stupid when everyone else isn't.
Why. You were going to explain why standing is proper decorum and kneeling is disrespectful. I'm waiting.
Because standing is proper decorum. Kneeling is disrespectful because standing is proper decorum.
Y'all need to find a different phrase or find a time machine.
You think these athletes were praying. Prove it!
A Strawman. I never claimed he was praying.
You seem unable to answer the question. Why is kneeling disrespectful, when it is showing ultimate respect in other situations????
BECAUSE IT'S NOT WHAT IS DONE TO SHOW RESPECT FOR THE FLAG AND NATIONAL ANTHEM. PERIOD.
Now kindly go play your fucking semantics and word cherry pick with someone else. I'm tired of your swoop and poop and then leave, argue just to argue bullshit.
IMPASSE
Putting aside your sad inability to understand the concept of context (how embarrassing for you!) , he literally said he refused to stand because he didn't want to show respect to the flag.
Thank you..............JFC
Not necessarily. Many orthodox Christian denominations stand when they pray.
I know for a fact we Methodists do.
Who said this, and link the quote.
Here’s one:
Can't blame him. He kneeled to draw attention to black people getting murdered at the hands of racist police officer, and the government at that time had more issues with him kneeling, than with the thousands of murders.
Do you want to deny his right not to stand?
Too bad he and others have never been forced to explain how the USA "oppresses black people and people of color" in the 21st century.
thousand? Let's see some stats for the "thousands" and which where murdered by racist cops?
Don't hold your breath
Another straw man argument? No one ever said he didn’t have the right not to stand.
Then why are you giving him a hard time for not doing it?
Am I though? The discussion turned on “was it disrespectful?” It clearly was. Even Kaepernick agrees. It shouldn’t even be a point of controversy. I never said he had no right to be disrespectful.
I see you're still waiting for those stats.
It clearly was not.
Since you have never shown that taking a knee is disrespectful, your statement is nonsensical.
You would have to ignore his own words on the matter to believe that. I guess that’s what you’re going to do.
No, I believe we are talking 2 separate things.
His original reason for taking a knee was to call attention to all the black people slain by police officers, that is what I am talking about.
No, that’s not what he said, and I quoted him for you above. He didn’t say “I want to help honor America, and in addition, I want to bring attention to people slain by police officers.” He didn’t say it like that.
He said:
That’s an entirely different approach. At a moment when he is being asked to stand and honor America, he says he will not stand for America and he will not show pride in the country. That’s disrespect. You can argue about whether or not it’s justified, but it is how he represented it.
Lack of respect is not disrespect. It is not a black and white thing. (pun not intended)
Would YOU respect ANY COUNTRY that "oppresses black people and people of color"?
It literally is.
Nice cherry picking of definitions....
There's not one indication that he means to show disrespect...he said he didn't want to show pride in a flag....
Lol...
I suppose if you ignore what he said.
That’s horseshit. So I’m a liar now? I ignored some other, better definition? I literally Googled the word “disrespect” and then copied and pasted the definitions that came up.
Some people don’t want to hear the truth.
Yeah, going with the #1 definitions is “cherry picking” now. What a joke.
A little sensitive? I acknowledged that your definition was legitimate, just that you ignored others in posting the one that fit your argument the best. No where did I even imply you lied. Geeeze, chill.
All of them????? Are you sure?
No, you didn’t. You said I was cherry picking. You never acknowledged the legitimacy of the definition.
I told you already. Could I have searched for more definitions? Of course. I didn’t need to. I literally copied and pasted exactly what came up, leaving no other definitions out, as I said. But you want to continue to play this childish game where you question my integrity but then claim you aren’t even implying that I’m lying.
You have really taken this conversation deep into the gutter because you refuse to acknowledge the genuine facts that contradict your preconceptions.
I’d bet really money that this word-expert didn’t even try what I did, which was to simply Google the word. It’s much easier to accuse me of dishonestly suppressing evidence.
The term "cherry picking" implies that you are going though multiple definitions and only selecting the ones you think fit your argument. You're not cherry picking lies, you are cherry picking definitions like I said.
A little sensitive?
Ditto.
Which is why all the different definitions are available online, free for the viewing.
What about people pretending they do?
Here's to hoping.
A little full of shit?
You sneaky bastard. You thought we wouldn't see through your "primary definition" ruse. As if using the dictionary was not a hate crime on its own.
Apparently the primary definition is always the “cherry picking” definition. I guess I went to crappy schools, because that’s not how I remember dictionaries working.
Kneeling certainly can be a gesture of respect. However, when they play the national anthem at these events, the crowd is explicitly asked to stand for the purpose of honoring America. Kaepernick has said he did not wish to stand and take part in that. So in that context, kneeling - or going out of your way to make any other substitute gesture - is a sign of disrespect.
Given the limited space around stadium seats, spectators kneeling would be impractical, if not impossible. But the act of kneeling itself is not disrespectful. In Kaepernick's case, he was respectfully protesting.
When you think about it, what better way to draw attention to one's cause than by protesting in a very public and nationally visible space? And let's face it, regardless of how anyone feels about his actions, he did garner much attention, which is usually a component of a protest.
As I explained, the context controls whether kneeling is respectful or disrespectful. In this case, it's clearly the latter.
Yes. He was being deliberately disrespectful of the invitation to honor America. I don't understand why it's so hard for you to admit it.
“If anything, kneeling is probably the greatest sign of respect.”
… as well as a clever deflection.
Deflect from what exactly?
Couric’s judgement of the judge’s capacity.
I did not address either Couric or Justice Ginsberg.
“I did not address either Couric or Justice Ginsberg.”
Exactly, and that takes the spotlight from “Katie Couric censored her” - the topic.
The topic also includes athletes kneeling, which is what I focused on. So no deflection.
What next, slamming men for going down on one knee to propose?
Journalist covering for a liberal?
Shocking!
Especially the one that ripped Sarah Palin to shreads.
MSM journalists like Couric serve as public relations hacks for the Democratic Party than act surprised when no one trusts them to convey information accurately.
It would be amazing if not so expected... so many people want to deflect to 'is kneeling disrespectful' when the actual meat of this seed is that a so-called journalist allowed her political bias color the story she was writing rather than report the truth of what was said. And these same people can argue when someone says 'this is why I no longer trust main-stream media'...
She did somethings I liked, this is one of them
Thank goodness Katie was there to cover for poor old justice Ginsburg who just didn’t understand the question. SMH
How frickin' stupid of Couric, Ginsberg was quite good at expressing herself and understanding any question thrown her way.
Kathy, you are stuck on stupid.
To me, this is the key segment of the article, which I didnt see anyone else address
“…who was 83 at the time, was 'elderly and probably didn't fully understand the question.'”
Aw, say it ain’t Joe.
At 83, RBG was far more cognizant than Brandon!
Around the world it's protocol and a common show of respect TO STAND when the national anthem is played/sung, so don't try to declare that kneeling is a sign of respect for that particular circumstance - in the case of the athletes kneeling it is to show DISrespect by purposely NOT standing. IMO even Ginsburg was wrong to consider athletes kneeling a sign of disrespect for their government. The national anthem and the flag have existed throughout the temporary rein of all governments, and the flag is a permanent symbol of one's country, as is the anthem a permanent song of praise for one's country no matter what government is in power for the time being. And in my opinion if you show disrespect for your flag and your anthem you are showing disrespect for your nation.
We actually agree on this.
I'm not a slave to specific party loyalty beliefs or right/left philosophies, XX. I'm an independent thinker and deal with issues using my own common sense and personal beliefs. That is why I can praise a POTUS who does what I think is right and be angrily critical of that same POTUS for what I think is wrong, just as I can declare that Xi Jinping and the CPC are sometimes very wrong, and sometimes right, as you have seen.
Bravo!
Thank you Ed, and thanks to all who agreed with me and voted my rant up. Woody Guthrie did not sing "This Administration Is Your Administration, This Administration is My Administration", he sang "This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land".
This isn't about kneeling. This is about selective reporting.
There is a reason that trust in the news media is at historic lows.
I go back to a day when reporting the news was actual, factual and unbiased. Today, it is for the purpose of promoting an agenda.
Yep, I miss the days of Walter Cronkite!
I've posted that very lament on this site more than once.
I have to agree. It has amazed me how "news" reporting has gone from reporting facts to forms of entertainment, half truths and snippets of rumor.
I find this whole seed amusing. For all the bellyaching that went on about RBG when she was alive she has all of sudden become the poster girl for some on the right because of this one issue - HILARIOUS!