“I don’t think he was complicit in the hoax,” Couric told David Novarro and Lori Stokes. “I don’t think he and the guy got together and said, ‘hey, let’s pretend like I have this online girlfriend’ … I don’t think that’s the case. I think that he didn’t really make an effort to refute some of the things that were being said.”

• Related, TVNewser: Here’s the Katie Couric We Haven’t Seen in Awhile

Couric was also interviewed Thursday morning on KTRK, the ABC O&O in Houston. Watch Couric’s WABC interview after the jump. continued…

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After an extensively-reported Deadspin article revealed that Manti Te’o‘s dead girlfriend never existed, a November interview the Notre Dame football star did with WBBM anchor and Notre Dame alumnus Kate Sullivan has made its way into the national spotlight.

• Related, TVNewser: CBS News, Many, Many Others, Duped by Manti Te’o Girlfriend Death Hoax

Te’o talked extensively about his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, in an interview that was conducted by Notre Dame and featured on the university’s website. Te’o recounted sleeping on the phone with her as she was in the hospital and told Sullivan that Kekua had written him a letter for every game before she died (video above, beginning at the 2:40 mark). continued…

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