Verbal abbreviations...
I have a friend I've known since Junior High School, who is a PhD in "Communications," meaning that he researches and teaches about radio at a university. He has lots of previous on-air experience. He throws around the term "assault rifle" with reckless, uninformed, abandon, having never in his life been interested in guns and/or shooting. To the best of my knowledge he has nothing personal against guns and/or shooting, either.
Thing of it is, he throws around lots of verbal abbreviations with reckless, uninformed, abandon (though none other that bother me as much.) Media people tend to use lots of such verbal abbreviations--two-syllable quickies standing for much larger concepts--it seems to be part of the personal style that goes into being "in the media."
I've corrected him, privately and politely, at least twice, on the misuse of the term "assault rifle." I might just as well have corrected a concrete wall.
Generalizing from my experience, media people talk on the air--and think, off the air--a lot about subjects with which they have very little actual knowledge or experience. They aren't usually interested on filling themselves in on the details, because tomorrow will bring a whole new raft of things about which to talk on the air, about which they have very little actual knowledge or experience.
Example: A reporter covers an airplane crash. The reporter is not a pilot, never had anything to do with aircraft except riding in one as a passenger. How likely is this reporter to get all the technical details, understand them, and then explain them on the air in his 30 seconds?? Right, he just won't. And the aircraft community will castigate the reporter for not knowing the difference between lift and wind shear, or VFR vs IFR.
Being a patient in a hospital doesn't make you a doctor. Reporting on a shooting doesn't make you a gun expert.
I agree that we must continue to point out the important lapses made by the media. But we must also keep in mind that they will continue to make what we consider major lapses, just in the daily course of their doing their business. And we shouldn't blame them too much for the lapses--it's just in the nature of what they do.
As to Law Enforcement types, well, when they deal with the news media, they want it quick and to the point also. Some LEO's are actually anti weapons for the general public--guess how they'll state the case. Many other LEO's, IMX, are quite indifferent to guns--the one they're required to carry could be a pair of pliers or a hammer on their belt, but the regs say no, it has to be a gun so they wear it. These LEO's just don't care about firearms, as long as the perp they have to arrest doesn't have one. Guess how much technical knowledge of firearms such an LEO will bring to his news media statement.
