The tangled web of liberal Democrat pals Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King took a new promotional turn on Tuesday. CBS This Morning's King used her host status to spout PR for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, deriding the “racial slant” of reporting and declaring antagonistic coverage of the couple to be “unfair, inaccurate and false.” This, of course, comes in the wake of Winfrey’s big interview with the ex-royals on CBS.
This Morning’s Vlad Duthiers breathlessly related, “Gayle, you spoke with the couple over the weekend. Let's break some news. What did they say?” King decided what was false and what’s racist:
“I think it's frustrating for them to see it's a racial conversation about the royal family when all they wanted all along was for the royals to intervene and tell the press to stop with the unfair, inaccurate, false stories that definitely have a racial slant. Until you can acknowledge that, I think it's hard to move forward.
Aligning herself with Harry, Meghan and best friend Winfrey, King added, “The palace keeps saying they want to work it out privately…. but false stories are coming out that are very disparaging against Meghan still. No one in the royal family has talked to Meghan yet.”
Duthiers felt compelled to bring Michelle Obama into the conversation:
The former First Lady Michelle Obama was asked about this and here’s something interesting that she said, “As I said before, race isn’t a new construct in this world for people of color. And so it wasn’t a complete surprise to hear her feelings and have them articulated."
As I have reported in the past, CBS This Morning has quite the tangled web of conflicting interests when it comes to King and Winfrey. The famous talk show host has been a CBS correspondent. But on November 1, 2018, Nancy Cordes explained, “We should note Oprah has been a part-time CBS News contributor for 60 Minutes, but she is stepping away from that role while she campaigns” for Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Yet Winfrey keeps ping ponging back and forth on the network. Is she a guest, a reporter or a political activist? King, a Democratic donor, repeatedly lobbied Winfrey to run and defeat Donald Trump in 2020.
Now is Winfrey using her CBS This Morning friend to pick up the lobbying for Meghan and Harry where her interview left off?
The conflicted PR on CBS This Morning was sponsored by Liberty Mutual and Ensure. Click on the links to let them know what you think.
A transcript of the segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS This Morning
3/16/2021
7:48 AM ET
VLAD DUTHIERS: Prince Phillip left a London hospital this morning after a month-long stay. Queen Elizabeth's 99-year-old husband is recovering from a heart procedure for a pre-existing condition. This comes as we learn more about the royal family’s reaction to Prince Harry and Meghan's explosive interview with Oprah. Sunday Times of London Royal Correspondent Roya Nikkhah reports that Harry and Prince William have been in contact for the first time since the interview aired. Harry reportedly hopes to reconcile with his brother before the unveiling of a memorial to their mother, Princess Diana later this summer. The comments Harry made during the interview have left their mark. His father, Prince Charles, is reported to be, quote, “upset and cut up.” The inside look at the family's reaction comes as Buckingham Palace has hired an internal law firm to investigate claims that Meghan bullied Royal staff. Gayle, you spoke with the couple over the weekend. Let's break some news. What did they say?
GAYLE KING: Well, I’m not trying to break news, but I did actually call them to see how they are feeling. And it's true, Harry has talked to his brother and he has talked to his father, too. The word I was given, those conversations were not productive. But they are glad they at least started a conversation. I think what is still upsetting to them. The palace keeps saying they want to work it out privately, but yet, they ---
DUTHIERS: All these leaks.
KING: -- false stories are coming out that are very disparaging against Meghan still. No one in the Royal family has talked to Meghan yet. I think it's frustrating to them to see it's a racial conversation about the royal family when all they wanted all along was for the royals to intervene and tell the press to stop with the unfair, inaccurate, false stories that definitely have a racial slant. Until you can acknowledge that, I think it's hard to move forward. But they both want to move forward with this and they both want healing in this family. At the end of the day, that's Harry's family.
DUTHIERS: There's no word whether the palace is investigating what Meghan said about reaching out for mental health or the racist language.
ANTHONY MASON: But they are investigating the bullying conversations. Apparently, the Sussexes are not going to be part of that investigation themselves.
DUTHIERS: That’s right. That's what we're learning.
KING: That’s another thing. The bullying thing was raised in 2018 now there's an ongoing investigation bullying from Meghan Markle when anyone who has worked with will tell you exactly who she is. She is really a sweet, caring person. And as I saw, Meghan has documents to back up everything on Oprah’s interview. Everything.
DUTHIERS: If anyone were interested in looking at them, maybe the palace would get somewhere.
KING: Yeah!
DUTHIERS: The former first lady Michelle Obama was asked about this and here’s something interesting that she said, “As I said before, race isn’t a new construct in this world for people of color. And so it wasn’t a complete surprise to hear her feelings and have them articulated.
TONY DOKOUPIL: She also makes an interesting point that for this to be a teachable moment for all of us, the family itself has to reconcile so they can present something to the world. And that hasn't happened.
KING: Well the family has to acknowledge that there are issues and right now no one is acknowledging “Houston, we have a problem here.” That’s really all they want. They want a conversation. They both want a conversation.
DUTHIERS: Hopefully it happens.
KING: I hope so too.
