CBS Morning co-host Gayle King was heavily criticized for glossing over “The Color Purple” author Alice Walker’s notoriously anti-Semitic beliefs during an interview on Wednesday.
Walker sat down with King to discuss her newest release, “Gathering Blossoms Under Fire,” and only answered the morning show host’s softball questions about fame and aging.
King didn’t come close to asking about the author’s anti-Semitic views, which were made public when she praised author David Icke, an anti-semite who believes in a conspiracy theory that Jews are lizard people who run the world in secret.
In a 2018 column she wrote for the New York Times, Walker said that Icke’s “And the Truth Shall Set You Free” was on her nightstand. “In Icke’s books there is the whole of existence, on this planet and several others, to think about. A curious person’s dream come true,” she wrote.
In his book, Icke claimed that Jews funded anti-Semitic attacks against them, and erroneously posits that the Holocaust did not actually happen. In a follow-up statement, Walker didn’t walk back her support of the author.
“I do believe he is brave enough to ask the questions others fear to ask, and to speak his own understanding of the truth wherever it might lead,” she said. “It is a sad day for freedom of inquiry, thought, and speech, when an attempt is made to frighten people into lying about what is on their nightstand.”
“Alice Walker an unapologetic anti-Semite who believes in lizard Illuminati. But because Jews don’t count, she gets this kind of fawning, uncritical treatment by the mainstream press,” criticized journalist Bari Weiss.
“Alice Walker is an unrepentant antisemite,” parroted Atlantic writer Yair Rosenburg. “She has a new book out. If media outlets want to platform her to discuss it, that’s fine. But if they don’t ask about her history of bigotry at the outset, they’re not doing their job of informing the public.”
“Alice Walker’s antisemitism is something the “we-are-in-it-together” folks prefer not to talk about,” wrote another.
“Gayle King is one a poor excuse for a journalist. She just had a cozy sit down with unrepentant anti semite Alice Walker and never once asked about her views. What are you scare of Gayle? Making #Oprah proud,” someone spat.
King’s best friend, Oprah Winfrey, starred in the 1985 adaptation of King’s book, and will produce the upcoming 2023 musical reboot alongside Steven Spielberg.
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