Half of Morning Joe's mainstream media panel Tuesday said they had not seen the edited scene in the Katie Couric-produced documentary Under The Gun that falsely depicted gun rights activists as unable to answer a question about background checks.
Host Joe Scarborough described the scene, which was edited by director Stephanie Soechtig to make it appear as though gun rights activists were dumbstruck by Couric's question. However, in the story broken by the Washington Free Beacon, an audio recording revealed that they immediately gave fulsome answers to Couric's question instead of the eight seconds of silence shown in the movie.
"It's one of the most stunning things I've ever seen ... Just a complete hit job on a group of Americans," Scarborough said.
"Unfortunately for the director of the film, the full tape was produced by this group that showed them giving long, well-thought-out, 10-minute response to the question," co-host Willie Geist said.
Scarborough polled the rest of his panel as to whether they had seen the clip, which was been available since May 25 and made headlines across the media landscape.
"I haven't seen the clip but I've read about it," Bloomberg's Mark Halperin said.
Neither Washington Post representative there had watched it, either, even though the newspaper's media blogger Erik Wemple wrote extensively on the story.
"I've read about it, Joe," columnist Eugene Robinson said. "I haven't seen the clip, but it sounds like the kind of thing that you don't do journalistically. You don't edit things to make them misleading."
Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza bemoaned that the decision gave gun rights activists more ammo in thinking the other side was up to no good.
"Haven't seen but I'll say this is exactly what we don't need," Cillizza said. "This is the exact kind of thing that convinces people who support gun rights that the other side is sort of plotting against them. The good will goes right down the toilet when you're trying to have a conversation."
Meet The Press host Chuck Todd said he'd seen the clip, and reporter Kasie Hunt was able to give details about it as well.
Although Geist said the documentary was presented as an even-handed look at the gun debate, the director has made no secret of her strong advocacy for gun control. The film places the National Rifle Association in a decidedly negative light.
Couric initially stood by Soechtig after the Free Beacon exposed the deceptive editing, but she ultimately apologized and took responsibility for the "misleading" decision. Soechtig has remained defiant, however, saying that she didn't mean to make anyone look bad.
Media critics assailed the two for the documentary edit, with Baltimore Sun writer David Zurawik calling it "outrageous." Wemple called Soechtig's explanation a "weaselly" excuse, and Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter said the excuse was "B.S."