Morning Joe -- Gun Rights Advocates Were ‘Eloquent,’ Katie Couric Tried to Present Them as ‘Idiots’

From Breitbart's Big Hollywood:

During the June 7 airing of MSBNC’s Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough said the gun rights advocates in Under the Gun were “eloquent,” and Katie Couric tried to present them as “idiots.”

Scarborough said Couric’s film was an old-fashioned “hit piece” that blew up on her because some of the people she interviewed were recording the conversations too. Therefore, when she inserted an 8-second pause to make gun rights advocates appear stumped by gun control questions, those same advocates produced their own footage showing that they had, in fact, responded immediately to Couric’s questions. Moreover, they had rebutted her.

Scarborough pointed out that Couric showed “shots of [pro-gun advocates] looking stupid, like, ‘Wow, we really stumped them with that question.'” But he explained that some of the advocates “were smart enough to actually record the whole thing, and they all had very quick, eloquent answers” without any pause.

He added, “It’s stunning. It’s one of the most stunning things that I’ve ever seen as far as just a complete hit job on a group of Americans.”

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza was a guest on Morning Joe, and he concurred with Scarborough, saying, “This is exactly what we don’t need. This is the exact kind of thing that convinces those who support gun rights that the other side is plotting against them.”

Mr. Cillizza, That's because you and your ilk ARE plotting against them.

Update -- Couric Takes Responsibility for Inaccurate Edit in 'Under the Gun' Film

From Newsbusters via H/T at Instapundit:

Couric Takes Responsibility!

When I screened an early version of the film with the director, Stephanie Soechtig, I questioned her and the editor about the pause and was told that a “beat” was added for, as she described it, “dramatic effect,” to give the audience a moment to consider the question. When VCDL members recently pointed out that they had in fact immediately answered this question, I went back and reviewed it and agree that those eight seconds do not accurately represent their response.

VCDL members have a right for their answers to be shared and so we have posted a transcript of their responses here. I regret that those eight seconds were misleading and that I did not raise my initial concerns more vigorously.

That’s a nice bit of PR spin. But as Mollie Hemingway tweets, “of course she regrets getting caught. Is film being pulled? Is anything MEANINGFUL being done in response?”

Couric should join the long legacy of disgraced reporters. Rather, Peter Arnett, Jason Blair, Steohen Glass, et. al.

NPR -- Katie Couric’s ‘Manipulation’ Of Gun Rights Responses ‘Unfair, Unwarranted’

From Breitbart's Big Hollywood:

On May 26, National Public Radio (NPR) weighed in on Katie Couric’s “manipulation” of gun rights responses by labeling it “unfair and unwarranted.”

NPR was reacting to the almost nine-second pause in Couric’s gun control film, Under the Gun, inserted between her question about background checks and the response by gun rights supporters.

In reality, the gun rights supporters answered immediately — even refuting Couric’s intimations about the need for more background checks. So the pause was inserted during the editing process and makes the gun rights supporters appears stumped by Couric’s question.

NPR not only described Couric’s editorial approach as “unfair and unwarranted” but also intimated it never would have released a film with such “manipulation” because NPR has higher standards. NPR reported that the decision to insert pauses into interviews to make respondents appear stumped “would not pass muster at NPR under its principles for fairness in handling interviews.”

They suggested Couric was trapped by the fact that she was not interviewing people–in this case, members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League–to actually see what they believed, but she was interviewing them to get the answers she wanted to hear.

my, how the mighty have fallen. Even NPR is bashing Katie Couric for being dishonest.

Audio Shows Katie Couric Documentary Deceptively Edited Interview with Pro-Gun Activists

From 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.

At the 21:48 mark of Under the Gun a scene of Katie Couric interviewing members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights organization, is shown.

Couric can be heard in the interview asking activists from the group, “If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?”

The documentary then shows the activists sitting silently for nine awkward seconds, unable to provide an answer. It then cuts to the next scene.
..............................

However, raw audio of the interview between Katie Couric and the activists provided to the Washington Free Beacon shows the scene was deceptively edited. Instead of silence, Couric’s question is met immediately with answers from the activists. A back and forth between a number of the league’s members and Couric over the issue of background checks proceeds for more than four minutes after the original question is asked.

Lies, more lies, and the liberal media.