CBS Defends Airing Gingrich Quote

CBS had poor timing, not bad judgment, when it aired a tape of Kathleen Gingrich whispering that her son called the First Lady a “bitch,” a network news executive said in Pasadena on Saturday.

“We did not take advantage of Newt Gingrich’s mother,” CBS News President Eric Ober told the Television Critics Assn. “The problem was in releasing a 20-second sound bite of a 12-minute interview.” The network erred in promoting the quote out of context as Gingrich prepared to take the oath as House Speaker on Wednesday, Ober said.

CBS and Connie Chung have been criticized for airing the remark, which Mrs. Gingrich whispered after Chung told her it would be “just between you and me.”

In an interview in today’s Patriot News in Harrisburg, Pa., Mrs. Gingrich said Chung was wrong to air the remark. “Once you say, ‘Between you and me,’ it should be between you and me.”

But Ober said Mrs. Gingrich, surrounded by cameras and lights, spoke in an obvious stage whisper.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has invited Gingrich and his mother to a private tour of the White House. Gingrich said Saturday that he and his mother have accepted.