The all-woman Blue Origin space flight doesn't seem to have elicited the response from the public that anyone involved expected, and CBS Mornings host Gayle King isn't having it.
Waves of criticism have been leveled at the participants for their out-of-touch statements about the trip, the expense and pollution of which have struck many as a "let them eat cake" moment in these times.
King has bristled at some of the comments, however, insisting that it was basically an act of feminist advancement and expressing her frustration with the "disrespectful" way the trip has been characterized as a "ride" rather than a mission.
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King said:
“You never see a man, a male astronaut who’s going up in space, and they say, ‘Oh, he took a ride.'"
The counterpoint, of course, is that King is no more an astronaut than a passenger riding the subway is a train conductor. Words, you know, mean things.
But it got worse from there, when King actually compared her journey to that of legendary astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to travel into space.
“We actually duplicated the route that Alan Shepard did. … No one said, ‘He took that ride.’"
"It’s always referred to as a flight or a journey, so I feel that that’s a little disrespectful to what the mission was and the work that Blue Origin does.”
No disrespect to Ms. King, but my Dad used to live down the street from Madonna's house, and one time we were driving behind her limousine for several miles. Does that make me a pop star?
According to King's logic, it would seem the answer is yes, which is... weird, to say the least. And as you might guess, it didn't go over very well with the internet, where a meme basically sprung up of people making similarly ridiculous claims.
Publicist Danny Deraney, for instance, joked on X that he is a World War II hero because he too has walked the beaches of Normandy.
And it took off from there, in increasingly ridiculous ways.
King's comments definitely struck people as tone deaf and bizarre.
Like, it's great that you and your fellow passengers had a wonderful experience, Ms. King, but the public doesn't have any responsibility to share in your catharsis. We've kind of got a lot going on right now.
