Virginia – -(Ammoland.com)- On Monday, Katie Couric issued a public apology about her purposely deceptive editing of the answers Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) members gave to a question about felons and guns.
Unbelievably In Her Apology, Katie Has *Again* Selectively Edited The Response To That Question!
You simply cannot make this stuff up.
On the obscure web page where Katie buries her apology, there is a transcript of the response VCDL’s members gave to katie’s question. The problem is that the transcript stops only about one-quarter of the way into the response, clipping off the most relevant parts of the answer!
And the transcript stops at a convenient place for Katie, where Patricia Webb has just asked Katie rhetorically, “Tell me one law that has ever stopped a crime from happening.” That sounds like an odd response by itself, but Pat goes on to clarify exactly what she means and it doesn’t help Katie’s case. There are other responses damning to Katie’s position on gun control, too, but none of that made it into the transcript.
All Katie had to do was put the audio of the full 4-minute response on the apology page, but she knew that people would be less likely to read a transcript than to listen to some audio. And if they did read the transcript, the last thing they read, with Katie’s edit, sounds like the group isn’t firing on all its cylinders.
If you ignore the twisting of gun-owner’s words by taking a comment out of context, that is not an appolgy.
AND COURIC STILL DOES NOT SAY SHE WILL FIX THE FILM!
Instead somebody watching the film on cable will have no idea that there is an “apology” buried on the film’s website for the unethical liberties Katie took with the VCDL members’ responses. Unless the actual responses are put back in the footage where she replaced them with silence, years from now, long after the so-called apology website is gone, this gun-control manifesto will be considered the correct version of events.
No, this is NOT an apology, but Katie simply twisting the knife. She just can’t help herself, I guess. She refuses to have her push for “universal background checks” shown for the worthless bureaucratic process that it is.
Here is the “apology”:
https://underthegunmovie.com/message-from-katie
Katie Couric
As Executive Producer of “Under the Gun,” a documentary film that explores the epidemic of gun violence, I take responsibility for a decision that misrepresented an exchange I had with members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL). My question to the VCDL regarding the ability of convicted felons and those on the terror watch list to legally obtain a gun, was followed by an extended pause, making the participants appear to be speechless.
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.
I hope we can continue to have an important conversation about reducing gun deaths in America, a goal I believe we can all agree on.
Transcript with VCDL Response:
KATIE: If there are no background checks, how do you prevent … I know how you all are going to answer this, but I’m asking anyway. If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from walking into, say a licensed gun dealer and purchasing a gun?
MALE: Well, one, if you’re not in jail then you should still have your basic rights and you should go buy a gun.
KATIE: So, if you’re a terrorist or a felon …
MALE: If you’re a felon and you’ve done your time, you should have your rights.
MALE: The fact is we do have statutes, both at the federal and state level that prohibit classes of people from being in possession of firearms. If you’re under 18 in Virginia you can’t walk around with a gun. If you’re an illegal immigrant, if you’re a convicted felon, if you’ve been adjudicated in same, these things are already illegal. So, what we’re really asking about is a question of prior restraint. How can we prevent future crime by identifying bad guys before they do anything bad? And, the simple answer is you can’t.
And, particularly, under the legal system we have in the United States there are a lot of Supreme Court opinions that say, “No, prior restraint is something that the government does not have the authority to do.” Until there is an overt act that allows us to say, “That’s a bad guy,” then you can’t punish him.
FEMALE: I would take another outlook on this. First, I’ll ask you what crime or what law has ever stopped a crime? Tell me one law that has ever stopped a crime from happening.
—
Here, again is the audio of the FULL response that Katie simply will not acknowledge:
About Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL):
Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
For more information, visit: www.vcdl.org.
