CNN’s Chris Cuomo dodged questions this week about Katie Couric’s selectively edited gun documentary, and instead defended the Yahoo anchor as a “solid” journalist, and said questions about her documentary should be directed to her, not him.
“Getting lots [about Couric] documentary and allegations of deceptive editing. I know nothing except what read. I know her to be solid. Ask her,” he said Thursday on social media.
“What happened here must be assessed then [you] judge,” Cuomo added.
The Epix documentary, “Under the Gun,” which Couric narrated and executive produced, shows the anchor interviewing members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. In the finalized version of the film, Couric is seen supposedly stumping her guests with a simple question about background checks.
But uncut audio of the interview, which was obtained first by the gun blog Ammoland and published later this week by the Washington Free Beacon, reveals members of the gun rights group were far better prepared to answer her question than the film suggested.
“My intention was to provide a pause for the viewer to have a moment to consider this important question before presenting the facts on Americans’ opinions on background checks,” director Stephanie Soechtig said of the edits in a statement to the Washington Examiner’s media desk. “I never intended to make anyone look bad and I apologize if anyone felt that way.”
Couric also told the Examiner this week she is “very proud of the film.”
“I support Stephanie’s statement,” she added.
Cuomo has been unwilling to comment on the issue, let alone state outright that Couric and her team engaged in a deception, despite the audio evidence and Soechtig’s admission.
His response to the gun documentary scandal stands in sharp contrast to how he handled the release of 17-plus hours of undercover footage revealing Planned Parenthood’s controversial practice of harvesting organs from the remains of aborted children.
For that story, Cuomo repeated the group’s go-to defense that the surreptitiously recorded videos, which were produced by the pro-life activist group called the Center for Medical Progress, were deceptively edited to make it appear as if the nation’s largest provider of abortions was in the business of donating organs for profit.
The CNN anchor has not only repeated this charge on air, but he has also rebuked and interrogated CMP founder David Daleiden and former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, who mentioned the videos during a GOP primary debate, for suggesting Planned Parenthood engaged in unethical, possibly illegal behavior.
Daleiden denies the videos were doctored. A research firm, Fusion GPS, claimed in a study funded by Planned Parenthood that the tapes were altered. Fusion GPS researchers, however, watched only four of 16 undercover videos.
Cuomo, who maintains the tapes were deceptively edited, claims to have watched all of the nearly 20 hours of raw footage.
He was unable, however, to decide between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning whether the five-minute audio posted by the Free Beacon and Soechtig’s statement were enough to make a judgement call on the Couric scandal.
“I need to know more,” he said on Twitter the day after the documentary’s director admitted to the editing.
“I will look into it,” he promised.
On Friday, more than 24 hours after the audio was posted and the documentary’s director issued a statement admitting to the deceptive edits, CNN’s “New Day,” which Cuomo co-hosts, took another pass on the story.
Network spokespersons did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s multiple requests for comment.
