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Katie Couric Responds to Criticism of Deceptive Edit Through Anonymous Third Party

'It did not represent editing someone's sentences, there was no factual error, this is not a mistake that is a substantive mistake'

Katie Couric
Katie Couric / AP
May 27, 2016

Katie Couric reportedly responded to criticism of a deceptive edit contained in her documentary Under the Gun through an anonymous third party on Friday.

Couric is upset that edit has received negative attention and even calls for the Yahoo News anchor's firing, according to a report from The Wrap. Somebody the publication described as having "knowledge of her thinking" blamed director Stephanie Soechtig for the edit. The source said it was Soechtig who decided to remove the original answer given to Couric by gun rights advocates and replace it with silent B-roll from a different part of the interview.

However, the source told The Wrap that while edit was a mistake it was not a substantive one.

"This was an unnecessary mistake," they said. "It did not represent editing someone's sentences, there was no factual error, this is not a mistake that is a substantive mistake. It could have been avoided. This was a poor decision that was made and it involves silence."

On Wednesday, the Washington Free Beacon posted raw audio of an interview Couric did with some members of the gun rights group Virginia Citizens Defense League which showed a segment in Under the Gun had been deceptively edited. In the scene, Couric asks the gun rights advocates "if there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?" The advocates are then shown sitting in silence for nine seconds before cutting away to another scene. The video can be seen here:

However, raw audio of the interview shows the gun rights activists immediately responded to Couric's question. Multiple members of the group can be heard answering Couric's question and the conversation on background checks goes on for more than four minutes. The raw audio of the exchange can be heard here:

Though neither Couric nor Soechtig responded to the Free Beacon's original request for comment on the edit, Soechtig did defend the film to The Wrap and other outlets. "I stand by the film as it is," she told The Wrap. "I would never misrepresent someone's point of view and I don't think I did by doing this. I don't think I misrepresented gun owners or the people featured in the film."

Published under: 2nd Amendment , Guns