By Robert McGreevy, Daily Caller News Foundation | February 11, 2025
Former CBS News anchor Katie Couric decried the Pentagon’s decision to give office space to conservative outlets, saying the move will lead to “propaganda.” Her assertion ignores her own checkered history with the truth.
Responding to a report that the Pentagon would be rotating out legacy media from building offices in favor of conservative outlets, Couric said “Wow. This is how news becomes propaganda. It’s begun. Pay attention,” in a Feb. 1 tweet.
Couric, however, has been the recipient of propaganda accusations in her own news career.
In 2016, the National Review accused her of such after a documentary she hosted was allegedly deceptively edited.
Her 2016 “Under The Gun” documentary appeared to show a group of guns rights activists appearing speechless after she asked them a question.
“If there are no background checks for gun purchases, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing them,” Couric asked members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, who appeared to be stunned by her question.
The League, however, asserted that the nine seconds of silence was a deceptive edit.
In a $12 million lawsuit the group claimed the exchange “did not transpire as depicted. In the unedited footage, Couric’s background check question prompted approximately six minutes of responses from the VCDL members,” the group’s lawyers wrote in a civil complaint.
While the editing was done by the documentary’s director, Stephanie Soechtig, Couric, who was an executive producer on the film, accepted responsibility for misrepresenting the VCDL members and issued an apology.
“I take responsibility for a decision that misrepresented an exchange I had … I regret that those eight seconds were misleading and that I did not raise my initial concerns more vigorously,” Couric said in a statement, according to CNN.
The gun documentary wasn’t even the only film Couric was accused of deceptively editing in 2016.
Couric once again teamed up with “Under The Gun” director Stephanie Soechtig for “Fed Up,” a documentary about the food processing industry which came out in 2016.
Dr. David Allison, like the Virginia Citizens Defense League, accused the filmmakers of editing to make him appear speechless to a Couric question.
Dr. Allison, responding to a question about studying whether sugary soda drinks increase the risk of obesity more than other products, began to answer before asking if he could collect his thoughts. Couric had previously told him it was fine if he paused to collect his thoughts, he told the Beacon.
“Of course I gave an answer. I gave an answer to every question she asked me in a 90-minute interview that was a barrage of questions. And out of a 90-minute interview she chose to show the approximately 10 seconds when I paused and said, ‘Let me collect my thoughts,'” he told the Beacon.
2016 was a banner year for Couric, as it was also the year she interviewed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Years later, in her 2021 memoir, Couric admitted to again not telling the whole story with Ginsberg.
Couric confessed to cutting quotes from a Ginsberg interview where the late justice criticized people for kneeling during the national anthem. Ginsburg specifically called out Colin Kaepernick, according to the Daily Mail.
Ginsberg asserted that by kneeling they showed a “contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life,” Couric wrote in her 2021 book “Going There.”
The comments did not make the final version of the Yahoo News interview after the Supreme Court’s public affairs head claimed Ginsberg “misspoke” and asked Couric not to include it, she admitted in her book.
Couric was also involved in a plagiarism scandal in 2007 when CBS revealed that an installment of her video essay series “Katie Couric’s Notebook” was in large part lifted from a Wall Street Journal column, according to Reuters
The network said, Couric was unaware of the plagiarism and they fired the producer who was.
Robert McGreevy is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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