Katie Couric and a team of filmmakers have been accused of selectively editing a 2014 documentary called “Fed Up.”
The film, which was directed by Stephanie Schoetig, examines the obesity crisis in America, and it includes interviews with several health experts. Two of these experts, however, claim that their interviews were sliced up to make them look foolish.
“I tried to contact them,” Dr. David Allison of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center said Wednesday in an interview with the Washington Examiner‘s media desk. “I asked if I could have an opportunity to screen [‘Fed Up’]. I asked if I could see the film, and never was offered to go see the film before it came out.”
The filmmakers “clearly didn’t reflect an interest in sharing the important scientific dialogue and evidence,” he added.
There’s a scene in “Fed Up” in which Couric asks Allison to explain his objection to claims that sugary drinks contribute more to the obesity crisis than other foods. Pushed for clarification on his take, which seemingly differs from the filmmakers’, the film then shows Allison reduced to total silence by Couric’s supposedly tough line of questioning.
But that’s not what happened, said the doctor and his team.
“The pause in the interview was not edited out. Instead, [Allison’s] answer was omitted. When Dr. Allison asked for a moment to provide a thoughtful response and paused, Couric showed the pause but edited out the answer completely — using a pause to suggest he did not have an answer when he in fact provided a good one, which was relevant and would have been informative to the audience,” a spokesperson told the Examiner‘s media desk.
In short, according to Allison, Couric and Schoetig edited his interview so that it appears the Yahoo anchor scored a devastating “gotcha.”
“You can speculate, I think, about motivations,” he told the Examiner. “It’d be an interest in drama … pushing a certain point of view. An interest in selling movies.”
Allison said he has contacted the filmmakers twice in an effort to correct the record.
The first time that he reached out to the production team was immediately after the interview, he said, explaining he sent Couric a letter that included all the relevant data pertaining to her questions.
The second time he contacted the production team was just before film’s release in 2014, after he heard his interview had been doctored to make him look dumbstruck.
“The question was important enough to be asked. And it’s important enough to give the answer. And I gave the answer. And Couric chose not to show the answer. She chose instead to show seven seconds of silence,” he told the Examiner.
Dr David Allison Fed Up Interview from David Rutz on Vimeo.
There’s another scene in “Fed Up” in which a second interview subject, Lisa Gable of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, appears to be stumped by a tough line of questioning from the filmmakers. Except Gable also appears to be the victim of deceptive edits.
“Industry sources say audio of Schoetig’s voice was edited into an interview in an effort to embarrass the spokesperson,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. “The scene in question features Schoetig and Gable discussing whether the food industry would remove products from store shelves under a deal struck with the White House.”
“At the end of the exchange, the director can be heard off camera saying Gable was avoiding her question. The spokesperson is then shown sitting silently for about three seconds before the film cuts to another interview,” the report added.
However, sources familiar with the movie claim the audio of Schoetig’s voice is from a separate part of her conversation with Gable, and that the scene as it appeared in the final version of the film is deeply misleading.
“[Gable] is badgered about companies’ willingness to reformulate their products, to which the producer answers, ‘It feels like you’re avoiding the question,'” a source told the Free Beacon. “That response from the producer didn’t actually follow that particular exchange and was edited to make it look like that was how their conversation actually went.”
Lisa Gable Fed Up Interview from David Rutz on Vimeo.
This isn’t the first time that Allison has sounded the alarm on Couric and her production crew. At around the time that “Fed Up” debuted in 2014, he denounced the alleged edits.
“Unfortunately, despite my repeated requests, the producers have not provided me an opportunity to view the film yet and therefore I cannot comment in detail,” he told Reason.
He said the filmmakers targeted his public-health research specifically because they believe the food companies fund him.
Though his initial objections drew little attention when “Fed Up” came out, there has been a renewed interest in Couric and Schoetig’s filmmaking techniques after it was revealed this year that they edited interviews with a pro-Second Amendment group for the documentary “Under the Gun.”
The Epix documentary, which Couric narrated and produced, came under scrutiny last month after audio revealed the filmmakers edited an interview with the Virginia Citizens Defense League in such a way as to make its members appear foolish.
Couric and Schoetig tried at first to downplay the scandal, but the director eventually owned up to doctoring the gun group interview. Later, the Yahoo anchor also admitted to the deception, and offered an apology of sorts.
“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 on the film’s website.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League rejected her mea culpa.
“Years from now, long after the so-called apology website is gone, this gun-control manifesto will be considered the correct version of events,” said the group’s president, Philip Van Cleave.
Neither Couric nor Schoetig have responded to the Examiner‘s request for comment. They would not say if they would make the raw, uncut interview footage from “Fed Up” available so that viewers can see for themselves whether Allison was rocked by a smashing Couric “gotcha.”
