So hard to get it right

amen!

We live in an academically lax society,
e.g. Browning's creation, the .45 AUTOMATIC pistol,
e.g. the M2 carbine, bearing only the standard M1's internals, a true SEMI-AUTOMATIC "machine gun"

Perhaps folks should be writing to the shows producers showing how stupid their idiots are and how they have lost all credibility with the gun community who will no longer patronize their advertisers.........

NOW you have their attention

There's a new thread every day about how TV producers, and anchormen don't know firearms from a hole in the ground.

If I was a reporter and I was doing a piece on antique furniture, I would fail miserably. I don't know anything about antique furniture. Antique furniture aficionado's would go on the antique furniture forums and crucify me.

Do you have any other hobbies that have ever been in the news? How well did they report it? When I was younger, I used to be an amateur sponsored skateboarder. Guess how many times a news reporter wrongly named a skateboard trick in a news piece. It was kind of annoying, but I realized that they didn't really care about my sport, so I got over it.

This doesn't have so much to do with firearms as it has to do with stupid people.

They could do some research, but now you're really asking for too much.

Tin foil is not aluminum foil but tin foil hat has a certain ring to it.

Get used to the media ripping apart your hobbies in the most inaccurate way possible. If there is coverage about anything I do, I expect the coverage to just butcher it and get thing so completely wrong. It gets worse when they try the internet...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJqeAhjsjAw

Do you have any other hobbies that have ever been in the news?

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This, a thousand times this.

Whenever I come across a show (or news report, or... ) about a subject I consider myself reasonably knowledgeable on, I often find the coverage to be almost painful to watch. Sometimes there are so many errors of fact or intent they manage to turn what someone says or does 180 degrees.

Get into the editing and scripting that goes on behind the scenes at these "unscripted" shows and it gets even worse.

Yet, listen around the water cooler at work/school/whatever... more often then not, a lot of the discussion will center around the latest "reality" shows. We even do it here w/ Top Gun and its ilk.

I don't get it, so I am climbing back into my hole for a bit.

Miscellaneous gun tidbit: I think the 9x19, properly loaded, is adequate for most self defense purposes.

Certaindeaf said:

Tin foil is not aluminum foil but tin foil hat has a certain ring to it.

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I see his computer is posting on its own again. Neat trick.

The above comments are all very true. The more knowledgable you are, the worse the reporting will be - to you. It really makes you wonder that if we fact-checked every news story from last week, what percentage of the facts would be true?

I work on a "product" that's in the news quite often these days and we pass news stories around as great amusement - and disappointment - at how horribly inaccurate the news coverage is.

As was said above, if the news is about something we know nothing about, we tend to accept the "facts" as being true, whether they are or not.

Line I'm going to use in my book:
"Toss me a clip"
"It's called a magazine."
"It's two less cyllables; just toss me the dang thing!"

Reason why my character calls it a "clip" is for efficiency over accuracy.

"It's two less cyllables; just toss me the dang thing!"

Reason why my character calls it a "clip" is for efficiency over accuracy.

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But it's yet another sentence to explain why the character mispells "syllables"

Saves more cyllables in the long run. Plus its another way he can annoy the by-the-book character. Sort of a running gag.

Kidding aside, I get your point. And every reader "knows" what a clip is, but if you say "toss me a magazine", they may wonder if the character is heading to the restroom...

I'll admit, when I first saw Air Force One and the guy yells to his partner in Russian "hand me a magazine, quickly!" I had no clue why that sentence fit within that context. I was 9 when the movie came out, in my defense.

While I agree that news anchors, authors and producers may fail at representing the item/hobby in question, I think it ruffles the feathers of firearms enthusiasts justifiably so. When a news report classifies everything as a glock or an AK or an assault rifle or a sniper rifle, it gives the antis more fuel to ban those things. Firearms are described in a way as to make them seem dangerous and scary.

When's the last time you heard of a politician wanting to ban skateboards or antique furniture?

Ban skateboarding? Always, actually. My local city wanted to ban the riding of skateboards on city sidewalks a few years ago.

I'm not saying our frustration isn't justifiable.

I'm saying stop being surprised.

I stopped being surprised at the misinformation provided by mainstream media a long time ago. What I am constantly frustrated about is the lack of fact checking and passing said misinformation off as fact.

Again, that is most topics being reported.

Untill you get pro-gun people reporting news, it'll probably stay that way.

But the facts about skateboards and antique furniture will then still be wrong.

100 Most Often Mispelled Misspelled Words in English •misspell - What is more embarrassing than to misspell the name of the problem? Just remember that it is mis + spell and that will spell you the worry about spelling "misspell."

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http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/spelling-and-word-lists/misspelled.html

Sorry but I had to correct your correction!

But it's yet another sentence to explain why the character mispells "syllables"

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There is more than just stupid going on when the media does gun talk.

There is agenda purposed errors, and there is sensationalism.

mnrivrat said:

There is more than just stupid going on when the media does gun talk.

There is agenda purposed errors, and there is sensationalism.

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Except that these errors of ignorance are present in every subject that they cover.

The media cares more about making something sound sensational than about getting it right. They really don't care if it's accurate if it gets them headlines. Pretty pathetic, actually.

Many valid points. Yes, the news gets it wrong more times than not. But on most subjects their inaccuracies only lead their viewers to sound stupid in front of more knowledgeable people, i.e. a news story i once saw describing a small turboprop-powered commuter plane's "turbofan" engines. Being an aviation geek, i rolled my eyes at that.

But when it comes to guns, news media so often errs on the side of sensationalism and fear, it's sickening. It wouldn't bother me so much if their editorializing was more uniform, like deciding to add that the car involved in a crash was capable of "over 200 mph," or the farmer ticketed for burning his trash during a burn ban "threatened to burn down the greater metropolitan area with his raging inferno."

But no, most often only firearms related stories get the "Oh-my-god-they'll-kill-us-all" treatment...

Skribs said:

Line I'm going to use in my book:
"Toss me a clip"
"It's called a magazine."
"It's two less cyllables; just toss me the dang thing!"

Reason why my character calls it a "clip" is for efficiency over accuracy.

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If you're worried about efficiency have him call it a "Mag"...one less letter than clip so it saves on ink too!

But then I miss out on the joke, and the continued running gag.

"I need another clip."
"Here's your magazine. Stop eating ammo!"