By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Updated 5/27 — Katie Couric, the Yahoo news chief who narrated the controversial “Under the Gun” that aired on Epix, is under severe criticism for an edit that makes it appear she left gun rights activists speechless when she inquired about preventing terrorists or felons from acquiring firearms.
But the session was also recorded by a member of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, and an audio was revealed by the Washington Free Beacon. Listeners can hear the gun owners quickly respond to Couric’s question.
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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 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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A writer for National Review has called on Yahoo to “launch a thorough and comprehensive investigation of the VCDL’s allegations, and then — if the investigation confirms the facts stated above without revealing any material mitigating circumstances — fire her.”
David French, an attorney and staff writer at National Review, writes online that, “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.”
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, told TGM, “It is clear that the intent (of the film) was never to be unbiased.”
Author John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, told television personality Dana Loesch during an interview quoted by Ammoland that nothing from a nearly four-hour interview with Couric ended up in the film.
Writing at The American Conservative, Robert Verbruggen panned the film for inaccuracy.
“But as an attempt to grapple with the political debate,” he wrote on May 14, “the movie mostly fails. As it flits from issue to issue, it says too much that is untrue or misleading in the service of promoting gun control. Pro-gun viewers will find it hard to be convinced by something that tries so little to understand, much less represent, their point of view.”
There is something else about “Under the Gun.” According to the film’s website, there are some interesting “partners” identified. The groups include Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Americans for Responsible Solutions, Sandy Hook Promise, the Violence Policy Center, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, States United Against Gun Violence, Purpose Over Pain, the San Antonio Area Foundation and the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility.
These are all gun control advocacy groups. Not a single Second Amendment organization is listed.
In addition to the list of “Partners,” the Under the Gun website also has a link called “Take Action” that is directed at gun owners. Among the suggestions: “Reject the NRA.”
(Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that John Lott had written the Ammoland piece. We apologize for the error.)
