Your Privacy Choices
Before anyone leaps on “not politics” this does not look at the political issue, only the journalistic one.
Released to the collective groan of the gun community, Katie Couric’s Under the Gun “documentary” has come under the proverbial gun for “creative editing” of an interview with the Virginia Citizen’s Defense League. The New York Daily News gives the best brief I have seen:
Producer Katie Couric is apologizing for editing decisions on the documentary “Under the Gun” — which gave critics ammunition to shoot down the film’s message.
Second Amendment supporters are complaining over an eight-second pause edited in after a question about legal gun access for convicted felons and terror suspects posed to members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL). The pause makes the group look overwhelmed by the issue.
Audio recordings, however, reveal the members responded immediately.
“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,” Couric wrote in a post on the documentary’s official web site.
“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.”
Snippit from the film:
And the actual interview and response (here if not linked below).
This is journalistic malfeasance. It is a complete misrepresentation of what actually happened.
Now, if one was creating a stated politically motivated movie, say along the lines of Michael Moore who has actually stated that he makes movies, it would be entirely understandable if highly duplicitous (and I would strongly disagree with the conclusions drawn).
The problem is that this film, Under the Gun, was labeled a documentary, which per definition means that it purports to document truth and fact. The absolute fact of the matter is that what was shown was not what had actually transpired. While one can attempt to obfuscate by calling this “selective editing”, the fact that the truth was not shown means the “edit” is a lie. Calling it anything else is pure BS!
Katie Couric is being rightfully raked over the coals and her journalistic credentials should be seriously evaluated by any person consuming information from her. She is now a proven liar and to call her a “journalist” is a discredit to the word.
I, for one, hope that there is a solid grounds for the VDCL to take legal action.
