Katie Couric's Anti-gun Film Deceptively Edits Gun Group's Interview Response

This news comes as no surprise as supporters of firearm freedom should not have expected Katie Couric to be involved in a fair and balanced look at the issue of gun rights.  Several sources  reported yesterday that responses by members of another Virginia gun rights group interviewed for the film Under the Gun were edited out to make it look like they had no answer to a question on background checks.  The Washington Free Beacon reports that a little over 21 minutes into the film, Katie Couric is shown interviewing members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL).  Couric asks the members, “If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?”  The next clip is an "awkward nine seconds" silently sitting saying nothing.  But VCDL has a habit of making recordings when they are interviewed and this was no exception.  According to the Free Beacon, audio of the interview shows that instead of silence, Couric’s question is met immediately with answers from the member's of the group that included a back and forth over the issue of background checks that went on for more than four minutes after the original question is asked.

At first, responses from the cable network EPIX which produced the film, deflected the question and talked about how the film is "critically acclaimed" and stood behind Couric and the film's director Stephanie Soechtig.  The heat apparently got to be too much for them as Soechtig told Erik Wemple of the the Washington Post "the pause was so viewers could consider the question" and "I never intended to make anyone look bad and I apologize if anyone felt that way.”  Wemple, who writes about media for the Post wrote:

Many of those who sampled the discrepancy between the video and the audiotape were already enraged by the depiction of these gun owners. The statements from Soechtig and Couric will surely intensify the backlash, as well they should. An apology, retraction, re-editing, whatever it is that filmmakers do to make amends — all of it needs to happen here.

NRA was contacted to participate in this propaganda and rightly decided not to be used.  It looks like Couric and Soechtig had no idea they would be caught.  It will be interesting to see if more mainstream media picks up this story.  The AP this morning has only the briefest of reports and does not include any of the detail that Wemple or the Free Beacon put out yesterday. NRANews.com's Cam Edwards discussed the issue with Stephen Kruiser, a commentator and columnist for PJ Media.