Katie Couric may have claimed responsibility for a doctored interview with a pro-Second Amendment group, but the gun rights activists targeted in her documentary are angry her mea culpa included only a partial transcript of their discussion on background checks.
“Katie has again selectively edited the response to that questions!” Virginia Citizens Defense League president Philip Van Cleave said.
“[T]his is not an apology, but Katie simply twisting the knife. She just can’t help herself, I guess,” he added.
The Epix documentary, “Under the Gun,” which Couric narrated and produced, drew sharp criticism last week after audio revealed she and director Stephanie Soechtig edited an interview with the Virginia Citizens Defense League in such a way as to make its members appear foolish.
Couric and Soechtig tried at first to downplay the scandal, but the director
eventually owned up to doctoring the gun group interview.
On Monday, the Yahoo anchor followed suit and admitted to the deception. She offered an apology for the film’s deception.
“I take responsibility for a decision that misrepresented an exchange I had with members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League,” Couric said in a statement released late Monday evening.
“My question … regarding the ability of convicted felons and those on the terror watch list to legally obtain a gun, was followed by an extended pause, making the participants appear to be speechless,” she added.
Her statement, which was published on the “Under the Gun” website, included a partial transcript of her interview with the gun rights activists.
However, because the included transcript covered only 1 minute and 43 seconds of the total 4 minutes and 45 seconds of uncut audio provided to media outlets by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, the group’s president said Couric’s apology is not nearly good enough.
“On the obscure web page where Katie buries her apology, there is a transcript of the response VCDL’s members gave to Katie’s question. The problem is that the transcript stops only about one-quarter of the way into the response, clipping off the most relevant parts of the answer!” Philip Van Cleave protested this week.
The excluded responses, he added, are “damning to Katie’s position on gun control, too, but none of that made it into the transcript.”
“All Katie had to do was put the audio of the full 4-minute response on the apology page, but she knew that people would be less likely to read a transcript than to listen to some audio,” Philip Van Cleave wrote. “And if they did read the transcript, the last thing they read, with Katie’s edit, sounds like the group isn’t firing on all its cylinders.”
Unless the film is updated to include the entire conversation on background checks, Couric’s so-called apology is worthless, he continued.
“Years from now, long after the so-called apology website is gone, this gun-control manifesto will be considered the correct version of events,” he said.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
