CBS’ Gayle King, who recently made waves with her explosive R. Kelly interview, would have a lot to say if she landed an interview with disgraced former “Today” show star Matt Lauer.
“I would have lots of questions for Matt Lauer,” King told Page Six when we broached the subject on the red carpet before the Paley Center for Media’s “An Evening With ‘CBS This Morning’” event Thursday.
The 64-year-old did not expand on which questions she would ask.
Her new “CBS This Morning” co-hosts, Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil, both said they weren’t sure if they’d want to interview Lauer at all.
In Ronan Farrow’s new book “Catch and Kill,” former NBC staffer Brooke Nevils makes the bombshell claim that Lauer raped her in 2014, leading her to file the complaint that led to Lauer’s firing in November 2017. That same month, CBS ousted “CBS This Morning” co-host Charlie Rose after he was accused of sexual harassment.
At Thursday’s event, the new “CBS This Morning” team — who were put in place in May — discussed the difficulties of working in today’s news climate.
“Everybody is now a little more literate in news and as a result feels that they’re a news critic and they’re not afraid to tell you what they think,” Dokoupil told us. “I find it interesting if I get a note from somebody and they’ve said something constructive I’ll write back and I’ll say, ‘You know, that’s an interesting point. Here’s how I was thinking about it,’ … As Gayle always says, ‘One viewer at a time.’ I believe in it so I don’t mind as long as people are polite.”
King added that at CBS, “facts matter.”
“We are not the enemy of the people and so you have to really do your due diligence and pick the news organization that works for you,” she said. “But we work for an organization where facts matter and that’s something that matters to us. That’s something that we take very seriously.”
On how the show has been going both on-screen and behind the set, King said, “We liked each other before and we still like each other so, so far so good.”
The morning show switched things up in May when Norah O’Donnell and John Dickerson exited the program, with O’Donnell taking the “CBS Evening News” anchor chair formerly occupied by Jeff Glor. King remained on the show after negotiating an $11 million deal, and Mason and Dokoupil joined her.
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