As the controversy over a Katie Couric-narrated film “Under the Gun” continues to heat, a writer for National Review called on Yahoo to “launch a thorough and comprehensive investigation…and then — if the investigation confirms the facts stated above without revealing any material mitigating circumstances — fire her.”
At issue is some curious editing of an interview Couric had with members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. The final version makes it appear they are tongue-tied when asked how they would keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and felons.
However, the VCDL also recorded the session, and the audio of that exchange reveals that people responded quickly to her question.
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Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
UPDATE: A publication called The Wrap reported that Couric has indicated “regret” for the edit, which resulted in an eight-second pause after her question. An unidentified source is quoted as suggesting the pause was “an unnecessary mistake.” The story quotes director Stephanie Soechtig, who said about the pause, “I would never misrepresent someone’s point of view and I don’t think I did by doing this. I don’t think I misrepresented gun owners or the people featured in the film.”
The Washington Free Beacon (see link above) quoted Philip Van Cleave with the Virginia Citizens Defense League asserting that Couric “intentionally removed their answers and spliced in nine seconds of some prior video of our members sitting quietly and not responding. Viewers are left with the misunderstanding that the members had no answer to her question.”
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David French, an attorney and staff writer at National Review, writes, “The case is clear. Katie Couric, a person Yahoo employs to be the face of its news division, was caught in a grotesque deception. Then, when she was publicly exposed, rather than apologizing, she doubled down — defending the choice to cast innocent Americans as ignorant rubes rather than allowing them to speak for themselves. She has lost her credibility. Any news organization that continues to employ her loses its credibility as well.”
Gun rights advocate Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said, “It is clear that the intent (of the film) was never to be unbiased.”
Among other complaints about the film is the one from author John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. His remarks to Dana Loesch during an interview on The Blaze are quoted at Ammoland where he revealed that nothing from a nearly four-hour interview with Couric ended up in the film.
(Correction: An earlier version of this story attributed the Ammoland piece to Lott. We apologize for the error.)
H/T Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
Related:
- NRA shreds Katie Couric for deceitfully-edited anti-gun ‘documentary’
- Richmond mayoral candidate: Killing NRA members ‘wouldn’t be a bad start’
- Clinton ramps up anti-gun rhetoric; NRA leaders say fight is on
- Actress Marg Helgenberger: ‘One can only hope’ NRA members are shot dead
- Liberals on Twitter call for murder of NRA members after NRA press conference (Video)
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