Embattled media celeb Katie Couric said she takes “responsibility” for the deceptive editing in Under The Gun, her new documentary about gun violence.
WATCH: Exclusive (Edited) Interview with Katie Couric
Couric posted a statement on the documentary’s website after the Washington Free Beacon exposed an instance of blatantly deceptive editing in the film that made a group of gun-rights activists appear unable to answer one of Couric’s questions.
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Couric acknowledged being aware of the “misleading” editing and had “initial concerns” about it that, looking back, she wished she had raised “more vigorously.”
When I screened an early version of the film with the director, Stephanie Soechtig, I questioned her and the editor about the pause and was told that a “beat” was added for, as she described it, “dramatic effect,” to give the audience a moment to consider the question. When VCDL members recently pointed out that they had in fact immediately answered this question, I went back and reviewed it and agree that those eight seconds do not accurately represent their response.
VCDL members have a right for their answers to be shared and so we have posted a transcript of their responses here. I regret that those eight seconds were misleading and that I did not raise my initial concerns more vigorously.
Couric’s statement differs substantially from the one sentence response she gave when the deceptive editing was initially exposed — simply stating her support for the film’s director, Stephanie Soechtig, and her pride in the film. In this one, she appears to be throwing Soechtig under the bus.
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That’s understandable, from Couric’s perspective. She is the big-name star with the $10 million salary, the $12.2 million Upper East Side condo, and the $6.3 million estate in the Hamptons. She’s also in a rather tenuous position as her employer, Yahoo, is putting itself up for sale, meaning her days at the company could be numbered.
Soechtig, on the other hand, is the no-name commoner who can’t even afford to rent in the Hamptons, and probably lives in Brooklyn with all the weirdos and does her own grocery shopping. Shame on her for trying to ruin Couric’s career over a stupid editing faux pas that Couric would have definitely fought to keep out of the film if she had known there was a separate audio recording of that interview with the gun-rights activists.
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Soechtig has yet to weigh in following her initial statement, in which she acknowledge inserting a dramatic “pause” for effect, and apologized if the editing made anyone “look bad” (it did) because that definitely wasn’t her intention (uh huh).
Couric’s statement has done little to address the concerns of her critics, who note that the film is still being distributed in its current, deceptively-edited form.
Interesting. No mention of correcting the film itself which is still running on Epix.
https://t.co/WgIu2mIay2— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) May 31, 2016
I mean, of course she regrets getting caught. Is film being pulled? Is anything MEANINGFUL being done in response? https://t.co/1anHFNKAQ6
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) May 31, 2016
TAKE THE POLL
