Couric later acknowledged in her memoir Going There that she edited a 2016 interview with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a way that removed portions of Ginsburg's comments criticizing NFL players who knelt during the national anthem. Couric said the decision was intended to 'protect' Ginsburg, whom she believed might be harmed by remarks she considered politically unpopular and inconsistent with the image of a crusader for equality. The admission created a sharp ethical controversy because the omitted material was not merely a technical edit or time-saving cut: it changed the public presentation of what a sitting Supreme Court justice had said about a contentious political protest. The incident became a cautionary example of the power possessed by high-profile interviewers and editors to shape a public figure's apparent position, even when the stated motive is reputational protection. Couric's own later disclosure transformed what might have remained an invisible production decision into a documented journalism controversy.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2010s
Katie Couric Admitted She Edited Ruth Bader Ginsburg's NFL Protest Remarks
Katie Couric and Ruth Bader Ginsburg / 2010s
Couric later acknowledged in her memoir Going There that she edited a 2016 interview with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a way that removed portions of Ginsburg's comments criticizing NFL players who knelt during the national anthem. Couric said the decision was intended to 'protect' Ginsburg, whom she believed might be harmed by remarks she considered politically unpopular and inconsistent with the image of a crusader for equality. The admission created a sharp ethical controversy because the omitted material was not merely a technical edit or time-saving cut: it changed the public presentation of what a sitting Supreme Court justice had said about a contentious political protest. The incident became a cautionary example of the power possessed by high-profile interviewers and editors to shape a public figure's apparent position, even when the stated motive is reputational protection. Couric's own later disclosure transformed what might have remained an invisible production decision into a documented journalism controversy.
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