[Stelter:] Editors have the power to inform, but that also means they have the power to misinform. Deceptive editing is at the heart of two unrelated stories right now, and both examples have been exposed by conservative news sources. One involves the State Department. But the first one involves the new documentary called "Under the Gun" executive-produced by Katie Couric. This week, Couric said she took responsibility for a highly misleading edit. Let me show you the scene and you can decide for yourself. This is Couric interviewing a group of gun rights activists. Notice what happens after she asks her question.
[Katie Couric, Journalist:] Let me ask you another question. If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?
[Stelter:] Eight seconds of silence, making the activists look ignorant, they didn't have an answer. But the truth is that they responded to her question right away. Now the NRA wants Katie Couric fired. You can see the tweet right there. Meanwhile, gun control groups are rallying to her defense. Here's the head of the Brady Campaign thanking her for standing up to bullies and telling the truth. Let me bring back Elizabeth Harrington, staff writer for "The Washington Free Beacon," and David Zurawik, media critical with "The Baltimore Sun." Elizabeth, "The Free Beacon" has led the way on this story. First, the director came out and said she regretted how this went. She said she was trying to add that pause there in order to let people think about the question. But that seemed like B.S. to me. And then this week, Couric took responsibility for it as well. Are you satisfied by what the director and by what the executive producer have said?
[Harrington:] No, I don't think so, because what Katie Couric said is that she raised objections to this initially.
[Stelter:] While it was being edited, right.
[Harrington:] Right. And then once the editor said, oh, well, we only added this pause for dramatic effect, she was, like, OK, that's fine. Well, it's not fine. It's totally misleading. And the eight seconds in fact, this gun rights group defended themselves very well against the question. And it's really so misleading and a blatant lie to show that eight-seconds pause without anything. So, it's a documentary. She shouldn't be saying, oh, well, this makes this more dramatic, then this is the way we should go. No, she should stick with the facts and what actually happened.
[Stelter:] Obviously, it is a point of view documentary. But, David, is there any way to defend that kind of edit that was made?
[Zurawik:] Absolutely not, Brian. Really, if I vented the contempt I have for that dishonesty in the documentary format, I think I would drop over right now from a stroke. It's outrageous. And that what you call the B.S. explanation, absolutely. That was so bad. I couldn't believe it. We wanted the listener to pause and think about it. Please. And the lie upon lie. Dishonest documentary makers are one of the lowest forms of life in media. There's no defense.
[Stelter:] We were talking earlier in the hour about Donald Trump attacking the media and how conservatives tend to be skeptical. Well, there's reason for them to be skeptical, and something like this seems to perpetuate that narrative. Let me turn to one other editing controversy. This one involves the State Department. There's been something going on for years. This goes back to 2013 about a news briefing involving the U.S. and Iran's secret nuclear talks. A portion of the video of that briefing was deleted at the request of an unnamed State Department official. And now Republicans are demanding an investigation. This is something, David, that FOX News was involved in. It was James Rosen asking the question back in 2013, and FOX has been hounding the government for answers. We might not agree with FOX on everything, but this is an example of FOX really getting to the bottom of this and getting answers, isn't it?
[Zurawik:] It's absolutely true. And James Rosen has done that before. We mentioned him in the earlier block about how they went after him for his reporting on the State Department. Even beyond that, that's outrageous. Since the start since, as we mentioned also, since 2010, this administration has tried to control FOX in a way, cut it from the herd,. Delegitimize it is really what they tried to do. And I will tell you what, though, is troubling to me about this in a deeper sense...
[Stelter:] Tell me.
[Zurawik:] ... is that this is the historical record in a way. This is the historical record of a government agency. You don't you don't just try to punish FOX. You are cheating the American people when you start cutting things out of that official video of that. And then for their explanations, and we still they are still telling us, oh, we don't know who did it. We don't know. We can't we don't have the means or whatever to find that out. That's outrageous.
[Stelter:] Right.
[Zurawik:] They could find it out now, and somebody should be held accountable. Really, this is part of the and I hate to say it, because it sounds like I'm attacking but the Obama administration war with the press, this is part of it. Whether you like the ideology of that channel or not, it's part of the press. You don't do these kind of things with it if you're the executive branch.
[Stelter:] Yes.
[Zurawik:] The founders didn't know about video, but they knew about the executive branch and the First Amendment and the free press and the importance of it to democracy.
[Stelter:] I'm out of time here, unfortunately. But, David Zurawik, Elizabeth Harrington, thank you both for being here talking through these stories with me.
[Harrington:] Thanks.
[Zurawik:] Thank you.
[Stelter:] When we come back here, a moment to return Muhammad Ali and his relationship with the media. We will be back in a moment.