There’s even a hashtag for it: #GunGate.
Katie Couric was caught lying about gun rights advocates in her EPIX “documentary” Under The Gun. Through a bit of creative editing (Which is fine for movie making, but not for something that’s allegedly journalism.) Couric and her minions made it look as though the gun totin’ Virginia hicks were dumbfounded by her question about background checks. In fact, the editors spliced in a nine seconds of “B-roll” footage from before the interview started. What she didn’t realize is that the members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League had made their own audio recording of the interview…
So no, Under The Gun isn’t journalism. But in Ms. Couric’s defense, it wasn’t supposed to be. She was getting paid to deliver a product to her clients; not to do real journalism. And per the film’s site, these clients include:
These are groups that paid good money for a “documentary” and they expect results. The last thing they want is an even handed work of actual journalism. They wanted something that says what they want to hear. They wanted an infomercial; not a documentary. Do you think that Couric would ever have lunch in this town again if she delivered the latter? Of course not!
So in her defense, she was simply giving the customers what they asked for. Don’t you wish that all of your vendors were as compliant as Katie Couric?
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