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| Katie Couric |
In a weekly company-wide meeting with Yahoo staff last Friday, Mayer expressed support for Couric, who at the time was beset by criticism over a documentary she produced independent from her role as Yahoo’s global news anchor, according to sources. That support has not wavered in the last day and a half, a company insider tells Variety, as controversy has surfaced over a second film.
On Wednesday, conservative website the Washington Free Beacon published an article that alleged that director Stephanie Soechtig’s 2014 documentary “Fed Up,” exec produced by Couric, had been edited to mislead viewers. Those claims echoed complaints raised last month by interview subjects from another Couric-Soechtig collaboration, “Under the Gun.”
“Yahoo was not involved in the creation and production of the independent documentaries, ‘Under the Gun’ and ‘Fed Up,'” a Yahoo spokesperson told Variety in a statement. “We’re confident in the work of the Yahoo News team, which adheres to the highest standards of journalism.”
Couric’s standing at Yahoo has been the subject of speculation as the company approaches a possible sale after struggling to better its fortunes under Mayer. Couric joined Yahoo in 2013 in a deal worth a reported $10 million a year — making her one of Mayer’s most high profile and most expensive hires. That deal afforded Couric the creative and professional freedom to work on non-Yahoo side projects such as “Under the Gun,” about mass shootings and gun-control efforts in the United States, and “Fed Up,” about the causes of obesity.
Though the films have been the subject of internal discussions at Yahoo, the company has launched no formal investigation into allegations that Couric violated journalistic norms.
Speaking to Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” Thursday morning, Dr. David Allison reiterated claims he made in the Free Beacon article that Couric, when interviewing him for “Fed Up,” had encouraged him repeatedly to stop at any time during the interview to collect his thoughts or rephrase an answer, and that one moment in which he did so was edited to make Allison appear unable to respond to Couric’s question.
The film shows Allison, after fielding a question from Couric about that link, asking to collect his thoughts, then taking a long pause. The movie then cuts to another interview subject and does not show Allison again.
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