Is NBC waking up? (contact them!)

[siglite]

As gun owners, we're quick to jump on the media when they advocate gun control. We're quick to decide not to do business with an organization that does not support freedom and our 2nd amendment rights. In short, we're very quick to jump all over organizations that perpetuate the lie that is gun control. I believe this is absolutely correct behavior. I advocate continuing to do this. Continue to send the message. Continue to express your views with your patronage, your words, and your dollars.

However, behavioral conditioning (even for large organizations) requires not only punishment (emails, "boycots" etc...) for poor behavior, but reward for positive behavior. When organizations do things right, they need to hear from us that they're doing it right. They need to see the reward. Otherwise, there's no reason for them to alter their behavior.

Read the email I sent to the Today show. If you agree with it, compose a similar message and send it to them. Let them know that we took notice. Let them know that there's a potential reward (more eyeballs) for abandoning the lie. Send email to [email protected] and thank them for finally locating an ounce of sanity somewhere.

I want to thank you for this morning's coverage of the horrific Omaha incident. I watched your segment on the shootings twice. For once, it appears your correspondents, your anchors, and your experts are asking the right questions, and addressing the right issues. You're asking about and discussing the PEOPLE who commit these crimes. You're asking about and discussing the social conditions which drive disturbed murderous killers to commit heinous atrocities.

At no point during the entire segment did I hear the typical media madness assigning blame on the tools used to commit the crime. Instead, you focused your reporting on the victims, the impact, and the insane "losers, killers, and psychopaths that want their day in the sun." Your guests, Pat Brown and Dr. Janet Tayloer should be commended for NOT championing the lie and advocating gun control which would have done nothing to prevent this. Additionally, Al Roker should also be commended for the same reasons.

I generally do not watch NBC due to their history of network-wide anti-gun neurosis. Perhaps NBC has seen the light. And you may have won a viewer back by finally focusing on the real causes of violence and crime.

Sincerely,

 

[Spot77]

I agree 100%. If they don't know what they're doing RIGHT, it's easier to continue doing WRONG.


Good email.

 

[Wayne G.]

Very nicely articulated. We need more like you doing what you did!

Kudos to siglite!

 

[lance22]

Sent. Thank you for posting this.

 

[Beatnik]

How about a cross link in Activism?

 

[v35]

Good letter, and good idea. However, I am as yet unwilling to return to NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, or a number of other mainstream "news" outlets after having abandoned them years ago for their obvious and consistent anti-gun, anti-freedom, anti-capitalist, and general anti-American slant.

I have voted with my dollars. If they only knew how many untapped sources of those they have forsaken, they'd surely fix the problem. Frankly, I don't care. There are simply way too many sources of reliable and unbiased news today for NBC to have any relevance for me. NBC might as well dry up and blow away.

At this point the only change that would cause me and my dollars to consider returning to them would be for them to adopt a "pro-" approach to these subjects. I'm not holding my breath.

As for me, I am not wasting my time writing to thank them for reporting the news.

Don't interpret that as criticism, because as I said it's a good idea - if you care about NBC. If you choose to write them, you might consider passing along my sentiments. When and if they change, I might be back. No promises.

 

[Robert Hairless]

Well done indeed, Siglite. Thank you.

 

[siglite]

V35,

I certainly understand your skepticism. But NBC reaches one helluva lot more people than you or I do. If we can chip at the stone, and let them see rewards for not being stupid, we can, by proxy, begin to reach that same audience.

I'm pretty freakin' far from believing that NBC as a whole believes in the 2nd amendment. But they have to see the rewards for being right as well as the costs for being wrong.

 

[bogie]

V35, siglite said it politely. I'll probably be a little more blunt.

Get your head outta your fourth point of contact!

You have to praise 'em when they do right, or they just keep doing crap. Haven't you ever trained a puppy before? They may be starting to understand what the real problem is. The past is the past, and you can't go there again. What we have is the FUTURE.

You don't like 'em when they blather about all the crap that Brady feeds 'em. Fine. What gets me is that you _also_ don't seem to like it when they take an impartial look at things, and actually get some stuff right. Make up your mind!

In the war for public opinion, we NEED to have these folks, if not on our side, at least not on the Brady side. This sort of piece is actually a major swing. Welcome it. I'll take a fence-sitting journalist over a Brady journalist any day.

Thing is, they won't continue this swing without the proper feedback.

Now drop the nice folks a polite note - 3 lines, take you five minutes. Don't even use the word "gun" in it. "Thanks for paying attention to the need to discover the real causes of these horrible crimes" - something like that.

Keep it short. Don't ID yourself as a "gun" person or an NRA member. Just deliver the proper reinforcement that you admired their insightful reporting.

 

[REPOMAN]

Sent.......

 

[Beatnik]

Well, V35, I agree with you in that I'm not holding my breath.
I mainly get my "news" from NPR, although I have to barf once in a while.
Interestingly enough, NPR usually mentions donations from the "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation".
Also interestingly enough, NBC's web news service is called MSNBC.

So the dollars argument rings hollow with me. Until everyone in the US starts buying unadvertised pre-installed linux machines from Dell, NBC and NPR are going to be around.

The money argument doesn't work for me. If we had a link to where we can hear the story, I'd email as well.

 

[siglite]

I'm flipping back and forth between THR and work right now. But I'll see if they have the story available online later. If I can find it, I'll drop a link in.

 

[Walkalong]

I emailed this to NBC.


Dear NBC

And I Quote:

"I want to thank you for this morning's coverage of the horrific Omaha incident. I watched your segment on the shootings twice. For once, it appears your correspondents, your anchors, and your experts are asking the right questions, and addressing the right issues. You're asking about and discussing the PEOPLE who commit these crimes. You're asking about and discussing the social conditions which drive disturbed murderous killers to commit heinous atrocities.

At no point during the entire segment did I hear the typical media madness assigning blame on the tools used to commit the crime. Instead, you focused your reporting on the victims, the impact, and the insane "losers, killers, and psychopaths that want their day in the sun." Your guests, Pat Brown and Dr. Janet Tayloer should be commended for NOT championing the lie and advocating gun control which would have done nothing to prevent this. Additionally, Al Roker should also be commended for the same reasons.

I generally do not watch NBC due to their history of network-wide anti-gun neurosis. Perhaps NBC has seen the light. And you may have won a viewer back by finally focusing on the real causes of violence and crime."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I agree whole heartedly with the above email writers viewpoint. Thank you for focusing on the problem and not just using it as an excuse to champion the lie that is gun control.
Sincerely, Anthony Castanza

I could not have said it better myself, so I borrowed siglite's letter. AC

 

[bogie]

No, No, NO!!!!

DO NOT COPY AND PASTE FORM LETTERS!

These people are NOT stupid, and if they think that there is an sort of organized attempt to contact them about an issue, they swing the other way!

 

[v35]

Siglite I completely understand your reason for writing and as I said (twice) it's a good idea. Perhaps they will eventually come around.

I believe in rewarding vendors for a superior product or service by buying it, but I also take time to write on occasion to vendors to express my appreciation for them. If the company is publicly traded, I'll even buy its stock. Everyone benefits. It's capitalism at work. If a vendor's products or services become inferior, there will be a period of time in which consumers may continue to consume it, but eventually other competitive products or services will emerge to fill the void. There are an abundance of alternatives to NBC today. It has, for me, become utterly irrelevant.

In the case of NBC and its ilk, in my opinion they have arrogated themselves to some superior position in which capitalism has become irrelevant to them. Perhaps it's that they see themselves as providing a public service like some community sewage system that you can't do without, but that's simply not the case with TV. I have seen each of them slip from the ideals of journalism to promoting an anti-capitalist, anti-individual, pro-collectivist agenda that fits with the image of themselves as a public utility existing for the common good. "You need us" seems to fit their corporate persona.

At best, the legacy network "news" reporting serves as banal entertainment, not information. To me, obtaining information implies that I've been informed, not brainwashed. I find myself with little need for the service they provide. If I want news, there are reputable news sources. If I want entertainment, I have Netflix. If I want brainwashing, well, there are enough places for that. NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN... all have chosen to sink itself in that vast ocean.

Anyway, sincere kudos for you and everyone else for trying to resurrect this once-great company. As for me, I'm just fine without them, thanks.

 

[bogie]

You're missing the point.

They're there whether you watch it out not. Now, you can either encourage them to at least stick to the middle of the road, or you can sit back and bitch when they say things you don't like. It isn't about resurrecting them. Sheesh.

What we have here is the equivalent of someone who doesn't vote bitching about the SOB who got elected.

 

[v35]

Get your head outta your fourth point of contact!

Love that expression!

Tell you what... I'll consider what you said. Give me some time to do that and I'll post back here tomorrow. OK?

 

[Brad Johnson]

Done.

Brad

 

[Owens]

Done.
Owens