The Media – Page 14 – Shall Not Be Questioned

A Journalists Lament

A reporter for the New Republic wonders why, just like shooting tragedies don’t lead to discussions about gun control, why bad storms don’t lead to discussions about climate change. This, of course, makes me greatly amused by this ad:

Support thought-provoking, quality journalism. Join The New Republic for $3.99/month.

That’s worth a laugh, for sure. But you see the attitude that drives it. The gun control crowd says my owning a gun contributes to the climate of mass shootings. That’s just fanciful nonsense to anyone who stops and thinks. That’s about as ridiculous as suggesting that my owning a car contributed to Sandy. Could there be greater societal and climatological processes at work here that we ought to be talking about? Sure. But you can’t point to a single storm, or a single mass shootings, and draw broad conclusions.

Fortune Sued

You probably all remember the Eban article that appeared in Fortune Magazine a while back. Rank apologia if I ever saw it. Dave Hardy is reporting that Fortune is now facing a lawsuit by one of the whistleblowers for publishing a known falsehood. These kinds of cases are difficult to win, but as Dave notes, Fortune may be in trouble here.

Listen Up You “Machismo Fantasists”

Go ahead, New York Times, keep insulting anyone who believes that they have a right to defend themselves from criminal attack. It’s not like it motivates voters who realize just how far outside of the mainstream you really are or anything…

Also, did you know that your concealed carry permit is among the “worst measures” of American gun policy? The fact that guns are allowed to be sold at all is a “scourge.” In that case, I look forward to their attacks on their own lawmakers for allowing such horrors in their city. Oh, that’s right, that’s not a “worse measure” because that’s restricted to only the wealthy and politically connected in their city. That’s just fine. It’s when the little law-abiding people want to exercise such rights that the NYT is outraged.

When I see unhinged rants from the anti-gun media, I just kind of laugh. I beg them to keep going, just keep it coming. See, when they unleash their elitism through such insults, it makes gun owners and people who agree with the Second Amendment turn out and vote.

Chicago Tribune All But Accuses NRA of Stabbing Obama in the Back

This is beyond the pale:

When he ran in 2008, Barack Obama sang from the National Rifle Association hymnal: “I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in peopleâ€™s lawful right to bear arms. I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I wonâ€™t take your handgun away.”

It’s not surprising to see an interest group oppose a politician who breaks a promise. But the NRA is punishing one who kept his. This week, the group endorsed Mitt Romney.

So Obama never threatened to re-impose the ban on semi-automatic rifles disingenuously known as the “assault weapons ban?” He didn’t jeopardize the most important project we face right now, to define the scope of the Second Amendment in the courts, by appointing one justice who already voted to redact the Second Amendment from the Constitution, and another who likely will follow along as well? And the Obama Administration has certainly not worked with the UN to lay the groundwork for UN control over international trade in small arms? The Tribune acts like we’re insane to think anything other than confiscation matters.

OK, so Obama promised not to start a bloody civil war over by promising not to unlawfully confiscate private arms. That was never even on the table as a possibility, and it’s not a promise that was remotely hard for the President to keep. This is a straw man. It’s not the issue. The issue is that, objectively, Obama has put the Second Amendment in grave jeopardy though his court appointments, and is still on record as supporting banning the sale of a broad category of popular and common firearms. The case could be made that perhaps Romney didn’t deserve an endorsement either (given the Court risks, it’s not one I’d make this election cycle, but the case can be made), but that’s not what the Tribune has argued here. Sometimes I wonder if the media are just so many fools, or whether they think we’re fools.

Hey, We Know That Guy

Going through my Google Alerts, I notice Miguel’s face staring back at me, urging folks to “Keep Calm and Carry.”

It’s Time to Play, “Look at the Crazy Americans”

The foreign press often has a field day with our culture, and the Daily Mail in the UK is no different. But they are worse than our media about getting things right:

That looks like a .22 AR to me, rather than being an M16A2. The real irony is if the authors are thinking Americans are crazy for allowing ownership of guns like this, provided one obtains a Firearms Certificate, that firearm is perfectly legal to own in the UK. The UK did not ban semi-automatic firearms chambered in .22LR, and they have no “Assault Weapons” nonsense in their gun laws.

I won’t even get into the fact that even if that was an M16, it couldn’t have been an A2, since the A2 did not have a removable carry handle, and that the US Army has largely abandoned the M16 in favor of the M4 carbine. If they had said US Marines, that would have been correct, but they use the M16A4, largely.

The Ignorance As Expressed by the Denver Post

I always love it when the media gets all high and mighty on subjects they know nothing about. Such is an example here in the Denver Post:

Oh, please. The president doesn’t enact anything. Congress does. And therewouldbe a political downside for members of Congress if they were to go too far on gun control â€” a huge downside, as it happens, given existing public opinion supporting the right to own guns.

The President is empowered by the Gun Control Act to do a lot of things, and in their ignorance, the Denver Post seriously underestimates what could be accomplished. For one, the legality of importation of firearms into this country is entirely dependent on it being suitable for “sporting purposes.” Currently, importation guidelines are a matter of ATF policy, and not even regulation (the not-so-well known point system). This could be changed on a whim, banning an extremely large array of popular firearms overnight.

Hell, the Post even ignores, or is ignorant of the fact that Bloomberg presented a gift wrapped blueprint for ways to screw gun owners. Some of these changes, if enacted, could turn many gun owners into instant felons overnight, without them being aware.

So I suggest to the Denver Post that they relieve their ignorance, or at least check with an expert, before laughing at the quaintness and ignorance of gun owners and the NRA. In this case we know exactly what we’re worried about, and it’s actually you who are the ignoramuses.

DOJ & MMFA Collaboration: The Nature of Media Has Changed

I’ve read the Daily Caller story about the e-mails between DOJ and Media Matters for ~~A Socialist~~ America. I haven’t blogged about it until now because I just don’t think it’s the big deal a lot on the right think it is. You can read through all the e-mails here. In the past this might have been a big story, because the media operated on the pretense that it was objective. Does MMFA even make such a pretense? I don’t believe it does. They are partisan hacks, and fully admit to being as much. It’s not like they go through any great length to hide their biases, under the pretense of being objective.

So why is this a story? I would expect any Administration of either party to work with its relevant partisan media to spin stories. With the death of “objective” media, this is how things are going to be. What’s going to be the reaction when a Republican Administration is in the White House, and the left FOIAs documents that show the Administration working closely with the Daily Caller?

This would have been a story if they were seen in a cozy collaborative relationship with the Washington Post, or CNN, or any other outlet that still likes to pretend it’s an objective news outlet. That a partisan hack of a media outfit is helping out Administration flunkies is not shocking, it’s expected.

Salon Covers Crossroads of the West

Salon is not known for being a right-wing publication. If anything, they lean left. But I find this article about Crossroads of the West to be fairly balanced for a Main-Stream Media article. They do a pretty decent job of talking to both sides of the divide, and also being fair about describing the environment.

The Gun Room in City Hall

A look, by a reporter who feels the need to explain his qualifications:

I am not exactly a gun virgin – I have been to a shooting range, and I have a brother who hunts. I’ve never gone hunting with him, though I’ve politely inspected his three guns and his crossbow. That’s about it for my exposure to actual guns. I am well-versed, however, in the concept of guns. I’ve written for years about the corrosive, violent gun crime that plagues the city.

The concept of guns – the arguments, the fretting, the hand-wringing over the havoc they cause, the arguments over the Second Amendment – has nothing to do with confronting real guns, especially in the Gun Room.

You’ve been to a shooting range once? This my friend, means you have no business or knowledge to be opining on this topic, and should stop right here, any more than I have knowledge to have an informed opinion on proper veterinary care because I once dissected a frog in biology class in high school. The author goes on to call us uncaring liars, who don’t give a damn about gun violence. If you have a subscription to the Daily News, cancel is now. Starve the beast!