How can the MSM credibly report on firearms considering their lack of knowledge?

[searcher451]

"The lack of intellectual curiosity and more importantly intellectual honesty on the part of the commercial media is of such a longstanding and broad character, non-specific to any particular issue, that it can't be dismissed.

Entirely too many 'journalists' are ignorant, arrogant, indolent, prejudiced hacks. And far too many of those are PROUD of it."

Stereotyping is stereotyping, regardless of the window dressing you want to put on it. Merely stating that things are the way they are because you say that's the way things are is, in facat, exactly what you are accusing all journalists of doing. Sorry, but it doesn't hold up any any scrutiny.

Point out one journalist who fits the stereotype you paint and then prove your case with facts against this specific individual. Now do it again. Now do it again. And then keep going until you get through all of them. Sure, you are going to find some journalists who fit the broad picture you paint ... just as some gun owners fit the broad picture that the antis love to paint of us. But to lump them all into the same bag is silly, despite the assertion that it "can't be dismissed." In fact, it's easy to dismiss. We've had more than one thread on this forum in recent weeks allowing that this journalist got it right and that journalist didn't do a bad job and this other journalist worked hard to report the facts correctly.

I worked in mainstream media for 25 years, and the number of people I ran into who fall into this broadly painted picture constitutes a small list, indeed. The ones I knew then and know today prided themselves on getting the facts right because they knew that their jobs and their paychecks depended on it. The ones who didn't do that didn't last long in the business.

 

[Deanimator]

The ones who didn't do that didn't last long in the business.

How long did Dan Rather and Walter Jacobson last, two, three weeks maybe?

Maybe we should talk about Walter "famine, what famine?" Duranty...

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Vern Humphrey: They have the kind of personality that "knows," not the kind that studies and evaluates.

I have read the Thornberg/Boccardi report commissioned by CBS on the Rathergate mess and have tried to read Mary Mapes' book Truth and Duty (it is a struggle to read knowing how much she leaves out and what she does include she spins and misreports). Mapes ought to change her name to Cleopatra because she is the Queen of Denial, to steal a cliche.

We, the unwashed masses, know nothing to our news media betters tell us. A few years ago, me, my son and grandson spent a weekend in Mobile touring the battleship BB60 Alabama; next vacation, we'll visit the battleship CV11 Intrepid in NYC (my late friend, ex-Navy officer Bill Head called Intrepid an aircraft carrier, but the talking head on the news stood on the flight deck and called it a battleship, so it has to be a battleship, yes?).

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Dan Rather and Marla Mapes are the prime examples of newspeople who told such whoppers the other newspeople noticed.

 

[Cannonball888]

As commie as most of the major TV networks are I'm surprised Lou Dobbs and John Stossel still have jobs with their respective employers.

 

[liljohn]

I once saw a local news segment covering a boy that was accidentally killed by an air rifle (Crossman 760, I believe).

The reporter said the air rifle was intended for youth shooters and it had the power of a .38 special. It was nothing but a tool designed to kill.

I couldn't take it and I called him. Surprisingly, he answered. I told him there is no way an air rifle has the power of a .38--it's physically impossible. He said with a snotty sneer "how do you know?".

I said it's physics. The only equivalent ballistic data between a Crossman 760 firing BBs and a .38 special is the velocity (and even then, it would be a very low performing .38 load). But the mass of the projectile is so much different, which means the energy is, too."

He said I didn't know what I was talking about. He went to the FBI range (in DC) and witnessed the shooting of ballistic gelatin with both guns. The projectiles penetrated the same distance.

I said ballistic gelatin can be penetrated by a four year old child with a piece of straightened-out coat hangar wire. That doesn't mean it's as deadly as a .38. Penetration does not equate to energy or power.

He said with a snotty sneer "what are you, a firearms expert?" and hung up on me.

 

[BhmBill]

I told him there is no way an air rifle has the power of a .38--it's physically impossible.

I guess i'll be the devils advocate...

There are some air rifles with muzzle energies in the 600 - 700 ft/lb range. 2 - 3 times as powerful as some .38 specials.

Of course, the Crosman 760 (or any pellet gun you find at Wal-mart) CAN kill you (with the right shot placement), they're usually only around 5 - 10 ft/lbs energy.

But still... the media (as usual) spins things, demonizes, and misinforms the public of something THEY don't understand.

 

[zastrakara]

That article just gets better and better:

He said about three of every 1,000 AR-15 assault rifles have been modified to take .50-caliber bullets, the kind of high-powered ammunition designed for sniper rifles.

I'll assume it's not an outright lie, and that they found some 50 Beowulf.
In which case, they just assume that 50 caliber always means BMG.



Why hasn't the ATF released information showing how many US guns seized from criminals were sold to the Mexican government? That Barrett in the photo, for example?