Yahoo News’ Katie Couric will appear for one week in January as the co-anchor of the “Today” show’s news desk, a move that comes just months after she and a team of documentarians were caught deceptively editing an interview with a pro-Second Amendment group.
The Los Angeles Times reports on Couric’s return to NBC, where she co-anchored the “Today” show from 1991 to 2006:
Couric will be back alongside Matt Lauer for the week of Jan. 2 …
Couric will be substituting for Lauer’s current on-air partner, Savannah Guthrie, who is on maternity leave after giving birth to her second child Dec. 9. Guthrie recently signed a new long-term contract with “Today.”
Though Couric has appeared repeatedly as a guest on the popular morning program since leaving in 2006, January will mark her return to the show as a co-anchor, the L.A. Times noted, adding she also guest-hosted ABC’s “Good Morning America” for a week in 2012.
Amazingly enough, the L.A. Times’ report on Couric’s brief return to NBC makes no mention of the scandal she was recently caught up in over unethical editing of a taped interview. Instead, the article says only, “She recently produced ‘Under the Gun,’ a documentary about gun violence in the U.S.”
There is much, much more to that story. Couric and filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig were caught earlier this year selectively editing that documentary so as to make members of a Virginia pro-firearms group look foolish and, in the process, advance her film’s editorial viewpoint.
The gun violence documentary, “Under the Gun,” which Couric narrated and executive produced, shows the anchor interviewing members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. In the final cut of the film, Couric is seen supposedly stumping her guests with a simple question about background checks.
But uncut audio of the interview, which members of the group wisely recorded and passed along to Ammoland and later the Washington Free Beacon, reveals that the members of gun rights group were far better prepared to answer her question than the film suggested.
Couric and Soechtig tried at first to downplay the scandal, but they eventually admitted to doctoring the interview.
“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,” Soechtig said at the time in a statement to the Washington Examiner’s media desk. “I never intended to make anyone look bad and I apologize if anyone felt that way.”
Couric also admitted to the misleading edits.
“I take responsibility for a decision that misrepresented an exchange I had with members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League,” Couric said in a statement
“My question … 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,” she added.
However, audio from the interview showed there was no pause. The gun rights group was well-prepared to answer to her question, with several in the group offering nuanced versions of various arguments about the role of law and the effectiveness of background checks. Also, despite admitting to the edits, the filmmakers refused to amend the documentary to represent the interview accurately.
In the controversy that ensued, it was noted that Couric was accused of using similar deceptive edits in yet another documentary as well.
In September, after it became clear Couric and Soechtig would not amend the documentary, the Virginia gun group brought a $12 million lawsuit against the filmmakers alleging “actual malice” for publishing and distributing the “false and defamatory footage.” Her attorneys moved in November to have the lawsuit dismissed.
But just so we’re clear: Couric, who has admitted to a least one deceptive edit, and is embroiled now in a $12 million defamation lawsuit, will co-anchor the “Today” show’s news desk in January for one week. Remember what we said about fake news not going anywhere until media make an effort to re-establish its own credibility?
Yeah, about that.
