Posted on 04/14/2009 12:27:57 PM PDT by JoeProBono
New information has surfaced about the depth of bias that surfaced on ABC’s 20/20 hit piece that aired Friday, April 10 with Diane Sawyer as the host.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation revealed Monday that it had been “asked numerous times by 20/20 Senior Producer Muriel Pearson to participate in the story, but understanding the piece was a set-up, we refused.”
NSSF is a firearms industry umbrella group that offers education about firearms safety and programs including “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy,” aimed at helping the industry deter illegal straw purchases. Its biggest annual effort is the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show, a huge exhibition of new products in the shooting, hunting and law enforcement fields.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, fewer than 100 kids 15 and under are killed in gun accidents every year. - ABC's John Stossel
NSSF Public Affairs Director Ted Novin reported Monday afternoon that, even though the organization declined to participate, it reminded Pearson of the 20/20 team’s “responsibility to ask hard-hitting questions of those supporting gun control.” NSSF also provided 20/20 with information on the thousands of state, local and federal gun laws, along with data from the Department of Justice and Bureau of Justice Statistics related to firearms.
“Unfortunately,” Novin said, “given 20/20’s refusal to disclose any of the information we provided – information that interfered with their already pre-established and desired anti-gun conclusion – it has become all too clear that journalistic impartiality on firearms issues is limited to John Stossel.”
Stossel is the reporter who did the expose “Myths, Lies and Straight Talk” and the author of Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity.
The Centers for Disease Control...completed a review of studies of various types of gun control: background checks, waiting periods, bans on certain guns and ammunition. It could not document that these rules have reduced violent crime.
Sawyer’s Friday evening hit piece suggested that many criminals get their guns from gun shows, but that’s not accurate, according to a study done for the Justice Department. Anti-gunners have tried to rebut that study with a report called Debunking a Myth: The Gun Lobby’s Claim That Less Than 1% of Crime Guns Come from Gun Shows.
This was produced by the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. Their argument: “It is possible that many of the firearms reported as coming from a ‘flea market’ ‘friend/family member,’ ‘fence/black market source,’ ‘off the street/from a drug dealer,’ or ‘in a burglary’ were obtained at gun shows and subsequently trafficked to inmates.”
The government wants to say regulations and laws like the Brady Gun Control Law are making a difference, but they aren't. Some maximum security felons I spoke to in New Jersey scoffed at measures like the Brady law.
Yes, and it is also “possible” that I might win the lottery tomorrow. It is also “possible” I might get hit by a meteorite. If that’s the best they can do to “debunk a myth,” the gun prohibition lobby is firing blanks, as did Sawyer’s one-sided program.
It is curious that on the ABC 20/20 website, it offers links for people on “How to stop gun violence.” The only links listed are for gun control groups. There is no link to the National Rifle Association, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, or any other genuine gun safety organization.
Perhaps ABC should register as a lobbying organization.
bang
ABC is to the left of Castro
In this family we REMOVE the romance from firearms by taking the kids to the range and showing them WHAT a weapon can do -- the damage it can cause.
A huge percentage of "kids" the media blares die from firearms each year ARE KILLED IN DRUG OR GANG RELATED SHOOT-OUTS OR DRIVE-BYS IN INNER-CITY GHETTOS -- THE DEMOCRAT RUN VOTER INCUBATION PLANTATIONS. So much for the efficacy of the now 50 year-long War on Poverty and "improvements" in the government schools.
But SOME kids die because their parents have NOT removed the romance by doing the stupid "forbidden fruit" thing and failed to educate their kids with firearms or teach them gun safety.
Many of these untrained/uneducated kids die in the home of ANOTHER equally uneducated kid after finding a weapon there. I didn't want MY kids to be one of them so did the sensible thing and EDUCATED THEM!!!
The constant media drumbeat to DISARM the American populace begs the question "Why?"
HERE'S WHY THEY WANT -- MUST TAKE -- OUR GUNS!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j73SsNFgBO4
From what I saw of the “report”, it was a joke.
Possibly, in the very narrow situation where you are sitting in a small room behind a desk, and a gunman enters the room and starts firing, yes, you may not be able to unholster your weapon and take him down.
However, in the Virginia and Columbine shootings, the shooters went from room to room. Surely, if you were in room #2, or 3, or down the hall, or around the corner, you’d have plenty of time to get your weapon out, assess the situation, and react to the detriment of the shooters.
The “logic” seems to be that if a gun wouldn’t help the first few people surprised by the gunman, than it wouldn’t help anyone down the victim list, and that is just preposterous. If it were true, then having armed police officers would make little sense.
I think it was ABC news on Saturday that had another hit piece on guns. This time they were hitting the “gun show loophole”. They gave a young man $5000 and sent him into a gun show, and he came out with an armload of guns. Early in the piece they quickly slipped in something like “all dealers are required to run background checks”. But all they asked the guy was “did you have a check run?” and he said “no, not once”. Of course they didn’t ask him who he bought from (individuals), instead insinuating that it was dealers.
Bookmark for reference on tv gun shows. Thanks Joe.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.