Gayle King, who has a history of Democratic donations and has vacationed with the Obamas, will be receiving the 39th Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. On Tuesday, her CBS Mornings co-hosts announced the prize, to be given out by Arizona State University.
Skipping over her lobbying for Democrats, ASU said in a statement: “Her approach to covering important events and interviewing politicians, leaders and celebrities is unparalleled. It’s an honor to present Gayle with this prestigious award.”
On CBS Mornings, reporter Nancy Chen cheered, “Every year Arizona State University gives out a prestigious honor in honor in memory of legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite. Now, you may recognize this year’s nominee. We can announce this morning it’s none other than our very own Gayle King!”
The ASU statement hyped her connections to the Obama family: “King’s notable interviews have included... former President Barack Obama; former First Lady Michelle Obama and her mother, Marian Robinson.”
Not mentioned? As I wrote in a 2020 study, the fact that she has vacationed with the Obamas, as well as donating to the Democrat.
Gayle King has given exclusively to Democrats. According to Open Secrets, she donated over $33,000 to the DNC, $7300 to Barack Obama, $1000 to Democrat Harold Ford Jr. Open Secrets reports that the donations stopped in 2011 as she began at CBS. But the fact that she hasn’t given anything to Republicans shows that she’s a partisan leftist.
If donating only to Democrats wasn’t enough, in 2017, King has vacationed with them as well. The CBS co-host enjoyed a trip on a yacht with the Obamas, angering actual journalists within CBS. According to the New York Post’s Page Six, it didn’t go over well at the network. The paper cited a network source: “The ‘Capital J’ journalists are pissed and raving mad that she was on a yacht with the Obamas over the weekend. The old-school people were talking about it. She shouldn’t be doing that. She’s an anchor of a news program that covers the White House.”
King ridiculously tried to defend the trip, spinning, “My vacations are not political and so I went on vacation with a great group of people and, to me, that's not a political statement.” Last we checked, she hasn’t gone on yacht vacations with prominent Republicans.
As for Cronkite himself, he was not a paragon of journalistic objectivity either. He famously denounced the Vietnam War on CBS. Far from being a neutral journalist, the CBS anchor secretly pushed Robert Kennedy to run for president in 1968 and even admitted he would have run as liberal George McGovern’s 1972 vice presidential running mate.
In a July 25, 2009 Washington Post piece, former Robert Kennedy press secretary Frank Mankiewicz wrote: “Cronkite told a larger group that he would gladly have accepted the invitation to run with McGovern.”
The spinning of activist Gayle King into a journalistic superstar was sponsored by Progressive insurance. Click on the link to let them know what you think.
A transcript of the segment is below.
CBS Mornings
09/13/2022
7:52 AM ETTONY DOKOUPIL: We do have some more award news to get to.
NANCY CHEN: We do. Speaking of awards. Every year Arizona State University gives out a prestigious honor in honor in memory of legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite. Now, you may recognize this year’s nominee. We can announce this morning it’s none other than our very own Gayle King.
[All co-hosts and off-camera crew applaud.]
GAYLE KING: Thanks! I got the word. I got the word. It's going to be in February. And word is that I actually get to go going to go to Arizona and they're going to give me a day off to accept it. So, thank you, Walter Cronkite School. I can't wait. I can’t wait.
DOKOUPIL: Focus on the day off, Gayle.