Sarah Palin is taking delight in a $12 million defamation lawsuit targeting her 2008 interrogator Katie Couric, accused of making a Virginia gun rights group look foolish.

Sarah Palin and Katie Couric. Photos vua networths.com and Wikimedia Commons
As Variety noted about Couric’s “Under the Gun” documentary: “The [suit] contends that the manipulated footage harmed the reputation of the Virginia Citizens Defense League and its members. … At issue is an exchange in the documentary in which Couric asks the members, “If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?’

The members are shown as silent and looking away.

“In reality, the lawsuit says that unedited footage shows that members immediately began explaining their position on background checks and to rebut the premise of Couric’s question,” Variety said. “The suit says that the members spent six minutes responding to Couric’s question.”

In 2008, Palin looked foolish in unedited footage of her answering a Couric question about what newspapers and magazines the vice-presidential candidate had regularly read.

(Palin eventually replied: “Um, all of ’em, any of ’em that, um, have, have been in front of me over all these years.”)

But Couric is expressing regret about the edit:

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.

Before the Couric mea culpa, Palin tweeted her glee.

Palin wasn’t alone targeting Couric.

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