Statistics
Apr
20
Columbine brings out factually-challenged reporting and one-sided op-eds
April 20, 2009 | Tagged "assault weapons" ban, Columbine, Mainstream Media bias, Mexican gun violence | 3 Comments
It’s the tenth anniversary of the Columbine Massacre, so we should expect the Mainstream Media to do what they always do in terms of ramping up bias against guns and the people who own them. In my opinion, the Friday Edition of The Denver Post outdid itself, with one “news” story and two opinion pieces bashing our fundamental right to armed self-defense against crime, tyranny, and genocide.
On Page One, “Obama takes aim at flow of arms to Mexico,” the Post quoted Mexican President Calderon as saying that, “90% of the weapons seized in Mexico can be traced to the United States.” You would think that somebody, the President of Mexico, someone on the Associated Press staff, or someone at The Denver Post would have watched the Fox News story that blew the “90%” canard out of the water. (See my post: “Left overstates US gun impact on Mexican Violence,” tagged: “Mexican gun violence,” done on 04-07-09.)
In actuality, about 17% of the crime guns seized in Mexico came from the US market. By allowing this “90%” misinformation to stand without comment, both the AP and the Post seemed to demonstrate either ignorance or bias.
On Page 12 B, The Denver Post printed an editorial from the anti-gun rights Washington Post. In this piece, the writers opined that the Interior Department should reject the Bush Administration rule allowing concealed carry permit holders to carry in national parks in states that honor their permits. The editorial mischaracterized the rule by saying that the regulation allows “visitors” to carry concealed, loaded guns. In reality, all CCW permit holders in parks would be visitors, but not all park visitors would be CCW permit holders.
The uninformed reader would naturally believe from this piece that all visitors could legally carry concealed. The writers go on to emote a “parade of horribles,” including increased poaching, accidental shootings of wildlife and park visitors, and apparently (Gasp!) lead pollution from the tons of bullets that would presumably be sprayed around the parks by red-necked, racist, sexist, one-toothed, beer-swilling, gun-toting barbarians. (See my posts on the parks under the Category: “Concealed Carry.)
(According to a more recent post on the Volokh Conspiracy, the Washington Post got its wish. The Obama Administration has apparently decided not to appeal the liberal judge’s injunction against the Bush rule. The Department of the Interior will reportedly keep the matter under study, but I think that we can conclude that concealed carry in national parks is a dead issue, at least until after the next presidential election.)
The Washington Post editorial reflected its usual animus toward armed self-defense against crime. The Denver Post, by publishing this piece without comment, either exposed its own indifference to the details of the situation or a tacit agreement with the misinformation contained in the editorial.
David Sirota, in his op-ed piece, “Columbine questions we didn’t ask,” blamed spree killings on our warlike, violent society, that, according to him, has a “winner take all economy,” and “The killing machine…” of our “defense and security” establishments. Michael Moore said essentially the same thing in his distorted “mocumentary,” Bowling for Columbine. (See David Kopel’s excellent deconstruction of Bowling…here.)
Sirota wasn’t shy about his own bias. ”…the assault weapons ban expiration is an abomination.” Never mind the fact that the Centers for Disease Control and the National Academy of the Sciences could find no significant crime prevention benefit from the ban or other gun control laws. (See my posts under the Category: “Research.”)
At least, Sirota rejected the simplistic notion that guns cause crime, although he didn’t bother to explain his animus against semi-automatic firearms, which he misnames, “assault weapons.” It would be interesting to see his rationale for this dislike of these common guns, which many liberals seem to view as a necessary article of their faith.
Sirota’s opinion that the American defense establishment, journalists who support the military, and “every other suit-and-tie clad industry,” (whoever they are) promote the idea that “…killing is a legitimate form of national ambition and self-expression,” seems to be a bit over the top for my taste. (See my politically incorrect posts under the Category: “War on Terror.”)
In conclusion, Friday’s Denver post was rife with sentiment against guns and gun owners, without so much as a single, mewling letter to the editor expressing the other side of the argument. It’s no wonder that people who only get their “news” and opinions from Mainstream Media outlets are misinformed about the costs and benefits of firearms to society. (See my Category: “Benefits of Guns.”)
“Obviously a man’s judgement cannot be better than the information on which he has based it. Give him the truth and he may still go wrong when he has the chance to be right, but give him no news or present him only with distorted and incomplete data, with ignorant, sloppy or biased reporting, with propaganda and deliberate falsehood, and you destroy his whole reasoning processes, and make him something less than a man.” (Address to the New York State Publishers Association, August 30th, 1948)Bartlett, John, Familiar Quotations, Fourteenth Edition, Brown, Little and Company, Boston and Toronto, 1968, Page 1020 a.)
I would argue that the same concept applies to women and students of all ages. If more Americans do not get a balanced view of the world from the New Media, (Internet, Talk Radio, and Cable News) I believe that we are headed for a new Dark Age of ignorance and savagery. The ancient Romans thought that they had grown beyond the reach of history and that their republic would last forever. (Remember! Rome is the “Eternal City.”) Many Americans believe that we have grown beyond the reach of history…
Def Mech
Comments
3 Comments so far
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God said my people will perish from the lack of knowledge.What a true statement.
Jm
You can find all truth in the bible from God if you just look and listen with your heart.
JM