CNN is defending its coverage of the Katie Couric editing scandal, even as its first on-air mention of the incident came six days after the story broke, and from a person who isn’t even employed by the network.
The Epix documentary, “Under the Gun,” which Couric narrated and executive produced, drew sharp criticism last week after audio revealed she and director Stephanie Soechtig deceptively edited an interview to make gun rights activist look foolish.
News of the film’s selective editing earned stories from some of the largest newsrooms in the United States, including the the New York Times and the Washington Post.
CNNMoney also covered the story when it first broke on May 25.
However, though the Couric scandal was covered by the network’s highly trafficked website, CNN’s coverage through the Memorial Day weekend was restricted to its online properties.
Other television networks also failed to mention the story on-air, but those groups don’t have programming dedicated specifically to discussing the media, like Fox News and CNN.
At Fox, “Media Buzz” host Howard Kurtz spent a significant amount of time Sunday morning discussing Couric’s documentary. His comments on the editing controversy came after other Fox personalities had already discussed the issue earlier in the week.
CNN’s media show, “Reliable Sources,” took a pass Sunday on reporting on the biggest media story of the week.
Instead, host Brian Stelter discussed, among other things, the war between tech billionaire Peter Thiel and Gawker and whether “racial anxieties” have contributed to the rise of GOP nominee Donald Trump.
The Daily Caller’s Betsy Rothstein reported this week that “Reliable Sources” was scheduled originally to discuss the gun documentary, but that CNN president Jeff Zucker had the segment killed.
“Turns out that Zucker … ordered Stelter to not run any segment on Couric. After all, Zucker and Couric are old friends who worked together on NBC’s ‘Today Show,” she wrote. “Couric was a famed co-host and Zucker was executive producer. Zucker also produced Couric’s daytime talk show that tanked after two seasons.”
“It’s hard to blame Stelter for this one, but one would hope he at least pushed back,” Rothstein added.
A CNN spokesman pushed back hard on this report, and said in remarks to the Washington Examiner’s media desk that Rothstein’s article is total bunk.
“The Reliable Sources team independently determines what topics and stories they cover for their weekly program,” said CNN’s Matt Dornic.
“They were not under direction to exclude or spike a segment on Katie Couric’s documentary. Any assertion to the contrary is merely conspiracy theory or flat-out fiction,” he added.
Rothstein, however, is not backing down.
“You’re right. It makes perfect sense that CNN wouldn’t address the biggest media story of the week on its media show,” she told the Examiner. “I don’t blame them for being embarrassed. It’s pretty embarrassing. I stand by my report.”
It wasn’t until Tuesday, nearly a week after the gun documentary story first caught national attention on May 25, that the Couric controversy was mentioned on-air at CNN.
However, the comment didn’t come from a network employee. It came from Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., as he fielded questions about Trump referring to an ABC News reporter as a “sleaze.”
“Katie Couric in her recent documentary on guns [misrepresented] those who she was interviewing. There’s a left-leaning bias, and so that [Trump’s] going after a media that leans left and, again, not you, but the media leans left and he starts to punch back,” the congressman said Tuesday.
“I think independents even like that,” he added, marking the network’s first on-air mention of the biggest media story of the last few weeks.
