Veteran broadcast journalist Katie Couric admits in her forthcoming memoir that she edited a 2016 interview she carried out with the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The former “Today” anchor wrote in her book, “Going There,” that Ginsburg told her during their discussion that athletes kneeling during “The Star-Spangled Banner” are expressing their “contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.”
Couric argued she edited the comments out of the interview because she “wanted to protect” the Supreme Court justice, whom she believed had a “blind spot” on the issue of racial injustice, according to the Daily Mail.
Ginsburg, who died in September of last year, made the comments after Couric asked the jurist for her thoughts on former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who, at the time, drew stark criticism for taking a knee during the national anthem.
“Would I arrest them for doing it? No,” Ginsburg said of athletes protesting the anthem. “I think it’s dumb and disrespectful. I would have the same answer if you asked me about flag burning. I think it’s a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act.”
Couric, again, pushed Ginsburg, asking her if she believes athletes like Kaepernick are “within their rights to exercise those actions,” such as kneeling.
“Yes,” the justice replied. “If they want to be stupid, there’s no law that should be preventive. If they want to be arrogant, there’s no law that prevents them from that. What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that.”
That same year, Couric came under fire for editing yet another project.
She apologized in May of 2016 after she was called out after it was received she and her team deceptively editing footage for the documentary film “Under the Gun.” The edits made it appear as if Second Amendment supporters were baffled by Couric’s question about background checks, purportedly sitting in silent for nearly 10 seconds, Variety reported.
In reality, the pro-gun advocates answered her immediately.
“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),” Couric said at the time. “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,” she continued. “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. … I regret that those eight seconds were misleading and that I did not raise my initial concerns more vigorously.”
This is also not the first time in recent history Ginsburg has been edited.
In September, the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union tweeted a pro-abortion quote from the late justice, removing any reference to women or female pronouns — all in an attempt to be more inclusive of those who espouse a transgender identity.
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