Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz lambasted Katie Couric on Thursday for her "distorted editing" of a gun documentary to embarrass pro-gun activists, referencing a story first reported by Stephen Gutowski of the Washington Free Beacon.
"The makers of a new Katie Couric documentary on gun violence deceptively edited an interview between Couric and a group of gun rights activists in an apparent attempt to embarrass the activists, an audio recording of the full interview shows," the Free Beacon reported on Wednesday.
In the middle of Under the Gun, Couric interviews members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights organization. She asks the group, "If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?"
In the documentary, Couric's question is met with nine seconds of awkward silence. The activists appear unable to come up with an answer.
However, raw audio of the exchange provided to the Free Beacon shows that instead of silence the Virginia Citizens Defense League members immediately had answers to Couric’s question, indicating the documentary was deceptively edited to make the gun rights activists look bad.
Kurtz and Fox News host Bill Hemmer played the clip in the documentary followed by the original audio.
"You said it was stunning silence," Hemmer said to Kurtz on America's Newsroom. "The only problem is the silence wasn’t real. It was edited."
Hemmer then read a statement from the director of the documentary, which said, "My intention was to provide a pause for the viewer to have a moment to consider this important question before presenting the facts on Americans’ opinions on background checks. I never intended to make anyone look bad and I apologize if anyone felt that way."
"In your experience, is that how it’s done, Howie?" Hemmer asked.
"That is absolutely not how it is done," Kurtz responded. "That kind of distorted editing would be against the rules in any network news division. [The producer’s] non-apology doesn’t go nearly far enough because what you just saw, the audience just saw, is that it looked like Katie Couric’s question left the members of this gun rights group not just stunned but kind of ‘deer in the headlights,’ didn’t know what to say. And in reality, as we heard from the audio, they had plenty to say, but that was edited out."
Kurtz added that Couric had issued a statement standing by the edited documentary and its director.
Couric told the Washington Post, "I support Stephanie’s [the documentary director’s] statement and am very proud of the film."
Nora Ryan, the chief of staff for EPIX, the cable channel that is airing the documentary, touted the film and affirmed her support for Couric in an email to the Free Beacon.
Kurtz said he spoke with the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, who told him "this whole thing is a nightmare" and "a total deception."
"You called it a distortion. It is, Howie," Hemmer told Kurtz.
"There is no other word to describe it," Kurtz said. "When I first saw this, I felt pretty confident that when this came to the attention of the producers and to Katie Couric that they would say, ‘Yes, this is a mistake. We are sorry. We regret this, and we are going to change it or fix it somehow.’ And instead ... they are kind of digging in. And this is not a close call."
"When you do this, you are blowing a hole in the credibility of your work, and I just don’t think it can be defended," Kurtz said.