Fake news purveyor Katie Couric is very upset about fake news.
So upset, in fact, that Couric believes the phenomenon is “tearing [America] apart at the seams.”
“I remember I got sent a lot of stories from friends who were quite educated and were like, ?Did you see this?'” she recalled in an interview with the New York Daily News published Thursday. “And I would say, ?Come on, you’re kidding, right? This is BS.'”
“We’re not doing enough of a good job of breaking down complicated issues and helping people really understand them,” she added.
Couric’s self-awareness deficit appears to be even more severe than that of Least Self-Aware Celebrity Gwyneth Paltrow, an actress who recently attacked the credentials of actual doctors for questioning the medical safety of “vaginal egg crystals.” That’s a very high bar, but one that Couric just leapt right over with all the buoyancy of a decorated high school pole vaulter.
Remember back in 2016 when Couric was caught selectively editing a documentary to misrepresent an interview she conducted with members of a pro-firearms group?
Here’s what the Washington Examiner‘s T. Becket Adams reported at the time:
In the finalized version of the film, the anchor says to the gathering of gun rights activists, “Let me ask you another question: If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?”
Couric’s question is followed by eight solid seconds of awkward silence, as her previously chatty guests are reduced to staring silently at their shoes.
However, that’s not at all what happened in real life.
In reality, the activists responded immediately to the inquiry, meaning Couric’s crew removed those answers and added nine seconds of video sourced from another portion of the interview to leave viewers with the impression that they had no response to a critical question.
Of course, the former “Today Show” anchor, who narrated and executive produced the film, would have gotten away with deliberately spreading false information to her audience if the raw audio had never surfaced.
But when it did, of course, she and the film’s director were forced to apologize for their deception. This wasn’t the first time she’d been accused of precisely this kind of selective edit, either.
In that context, how Couric has the audacity to lecture anyone else on “fake news” boggles the mind.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
