CNN rapped over gun segment

The Washington Times ^ | 5/19/2003 | Robert Stacy McCain

[Redcloak]

CNN has found itself the target of criticism for misleading viewers about the types of weapons prohibited by a federal law due to expire next year.

Two CNN broadcasts last week, which featured firing demonstrations by the sheriff's department in Broward County, Fla., suggested that firearms banned under a 1994 law are more powerful than similar, legal weapons. Yesterday, CNN admitted that was not true.

[Redcloak]

Maybe we should start calling him Jayson Zarella.

Here's the CNN transcript of the exchange between the NRA's Wayne LaPierre and CNN's Krya Phillips...

PHILLIPS: Now we give you the other side from the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre

Wayne, thanks for being with us.

WAYNE LAPIERRE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NRA: Hi, Kyra. Good to be with you.

PHILLIPS: Well, if the ban on assault weapons expires, what kind of weapons would be legal?

LAPIERRE: Kyra, let me say this to start: I'm glad you ran the story because apparently the only difference between "The New York Times" and CNN is that when a reporter for "The New York Times" fakes a story, he's fired, and at CNN he's not.

Your bureau chief, John Zarrella, deliberately faked the story yesterday and intending to show that the performance characteristics of banned firearms on the list are somehow different from the performance characteristics of firearms not on the banned list. He was -- he was implying that these were machine guns or fully automatic guns. That's not true.

PHILLIPS: Mr. LaPierre, I have to stop you there. No one fakes stories at CNN and John Zarrella definitely did not fake a story at CNN. You're very off base. I'm going to let you say your opinion, and let's have a conversation, but don't accuse our reporter of faking any stories, sir.

LAPIERRE: Let me say it again. In front of the whole country, your reporter faked that story yesterday. It deliberately misread...

PHILLIPS: All right, we're going...

LAPIERRE: There's no way it could be true and I challenge CNN to defend it.

PHILLIPS: Well, we're not going to continue this interview because our reporter did not fake...

LAPIERRE: Because you don't want the truth. The truth you don't want out there.

PHILLIPS: OK, that is not true. We did not a fake a story.

LAPIERRE: You ought to register your -- you ought to fill out a lobby form and register.

PHILLIPS: Why don't we ask another question? What are the uses for an assault weapon? Tell me what the uses are for this.

LAPIERRE: Why can't you accept the truth? There is no difference, Kyra, in the performance characteristics of the guns on the banned list and the guns not on the banned list. They don't shoot any faster, they're not more powerful, they're not machine guns, they don't make any bigger holes, all which your reporter, John Zarrella, implied in that story.

PHILLIPS: Let's talk about the ammunition. Folks had problem with the ammunition. We've heard a lot in the last 24 hours from viewers who made the point that it's not the weapons who do the damage, it's the ammo. OK? Can legally be bought, ammunition. Now does this do -- do just as much damage than an illegal weapon?

LAPIERRE: Kyra, they all fire the same ammunition. Why can't you accept the truth? There is no difference in the guns on the banned list and the guns not on the banned list.

Your reporter's story was deliberately misleading the viewers. Bill Clinton deliberately misrepresented the House and the facts to the House of Representatives in the Congress and I don't believe this House of Representatives is going to fall and have the wool pulled over their eyes the way what happened did in '94.

The truth matters. The public needs to hear the truth and the truth is every police officer on the street knows it. There's not a dime worth of difference between the guns on the banned list and the guns off the banned list in terms of their performance characteristics and I challenge CNN again to defend that story to its viewers because it's not true.

PHILLIPS: What do you say...

LAPIERRE: All day yesterday you misled the viewers.

PHILLIPS: What do you say to the members of the law enforcement community that we had on the air who say assault weapons don't belong on the streets?

LAPIERRE: Kyra, I got calls all day yesterday from law enforcement officers going crazy over that story you ran saying it's not true. They were dismayed that there was a law enforcement officer on there lending himself to it.

The story misrepresented the facts. What we need to do to stop crime -- every time you catch a criminal, 100 percent of the time, prosecute him. Put him in prison.

We have all kinds of gun laws. Catch a violent felon with a gun, put him in jail. Catch a violent drug dealer with a gun, put them in jail 100 percent of the time. That's what rank-and-file cops know stops crime. But again, I challenge CNN in the headquarters to take an objective look at that story and defend it because it's simply not true.

PHILLIPS: All right. Executive vice president...

LAPIERRE: "The New York Times" reporter was fired, John Zarrella ought to be fired.

PHILLIPS: Executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, that's why we are interviewing you today and that's why we're addressing this to show both sides of that story.

And we all stick by John Zarrella and how credible of a reporter he is.

Thank you for your time, sir.

Kudos to Wayne for outing the weasels!

[DoughtyOne]

I don't think there's a leftist in the nation that knows (or perhaps more accurately admits) what a semi-automatic weapon is. They describe 99.99% of all guns as fully automatic machine guns.

[Redcloak]

BANG!!

[Redcloak]

And that, of course, was the reason Sarah's minions went after these guns. Josh Sugarman admitted years ago that they planned to capitalize on the public's confusion.

[Joe Brower]

[Redcloak]

ping...

[Redcloak]

Dang you're fast!

[martin_fierro]

John Zarella

[Dan from Michigan]

Wayne LaPierre gives CNN the smackdown!

[familyofman]

"Two CNN broadcasts last week, which featured firing demonstrations by the sheriff's department in Broward County, Fla., suggested that firearms banned under a 1994 law are more powerful than similar, legal weapons. Yesterday, CNN admitted that was not true."
So CNN made the mistake of saying the banned gunned are more dangerous than unbanned guns - why is this a good thing in trying to get the AWB reversed? In my view - if both types of weapons are equally destructive, why not ban all of them? I wonder if that is what the NRA was trying to prove - strange thought.

[M Kehoe]

I call this the "Eason Jordan syndrome." The disease is chronic at cnn.

5.56mm

[GraniteStateConservative]

Fully automatic weapons, such as machine guns and AK-47s, are regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934. They are not among the semiautomatic guns prohibited by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

RTKBA people oppose this law, too, and the SCOTUS rulings of the era on the subject, so this report is really not that big of a deal. Nuclear weapons are covered under the 2nd amendment. Any arms the government has, we have a right to have. I want my Patriot Battery, and one for my kid.

SDI kicks ass!

[snooker]

The only way the original gun ban got passed is the liar for a president and the lies in the media that supported it.

You need to realize what the media is doing is ... scaring the soccer moms. That is their purpose. That is why they have to lie. So the scare works. Otherwise the facts don't work by them selves.

I never watch CNN. Thanks for summing it up nicely.

[Grampa Dave]

Jason Blair Zarella, another frigging liar working for CNN is outed for his left wing lying!

[demosthenes the elder]

EXCELLENT!
I love it when weasels get caught... and skinned alive.

[VaBthang4]

What the hell was the cheesball Sherriff doing even talking to CNN? Anyone honestly think he believed they werent trying to spin a story? He should be fired for even granting them an interview.

[timestax]

CNNLIES

BIGTIME !

[Redcloak]

You need to realize what the media is doing is ... scaring the soccer moms.

Of course that's what they're doing. The hamfisted message to the soccermoms is "The NRA wants to shoot your kids with machineguns." I would be utterly shocked if they actually ran a retraction during the same hours they aired "Jayson" Zarella's original pieces. They're more likely to make sure that the same batch soccermoms never sees any retraction.

[cruiserman]

In my view - if both types of weapons are equally destructive, why not ban all of them? I wonder if that is what the NRA was trying to prove - strange thought.

I agree. As a corrollary, the NRA says that only 1-2% of guns used in a crime are "assault rifles", so they shouldn't be banned. By that logic, handguns should be banned, since they are used much more often than "assault weapons" in crime.

[Chemist_Geek]

So CNN made the mistake of saying the banned gunned are more dangerous than unbanned guns - why is this a good thing in trying to get the AWB reversed? In my view - if both types of weapons are equally destructive, why not ban all of them? I wonder if that is what the NRA was trying to prove - strange thought.

Most people in the U.S. don't know about firearms. Thus, they think due to the gun-grabbers' willing accomplices in the media that the 1994 Crime (of a) Bill bans fully-automatic firearms. Those of us who are firearms enthusiasts know this to be false; that the 1994 law only bans firearms based on their appearance and not functional characteristics. The Great Unwashed don't, though, and thus they supported the ban and probably will support its renewal.

The point they're trying to make is that the banned firearms are no different functionally from firearms with which most voters have no problem. Therefore, the ban should sunset.

(The other option, of course, is to ban all of them, and that will not fly.)

Once this ban is in the /dev/null of history, then we can start to work on educating the majority of voters, to the point where a roll-back of other laws is possible. Remember, politics is the art of the possible, and a repeal of the 1934 National Firearms Act is not possible given the current political climate. One step at a time, though, and we'll see progress.

[hattend]

CNN LIES...BTTT

[Redcloak]

The NRA's media people tried to contact the Sheriff, but got no where.

rtsp://rnd31sea.activate.net/am/content/video/lo/20030516-034633r869.rm

[BartMan1]

check this out, esp #1....

[TexasCowboy]

"I don't think there's a leftist in the nation that knows (or perhaps more accurately admits) what a semi-automatic weapon is. "

Sorry, but you're on the wrong track, in my opinion.
The truth is that they JUST DON'T CARE!

If it fires bullets - one at a time or a thousand in sequence - it doesn't matter; they don't like them!
Weapons, and the ability to defend oneself with those weapons, are the antithesis of socialistic doctrine.
In Karl Marx's perfect world the masses are subjugated to the whims of party officials without the means of objecting.
This is not now, nor has it ever been, a confusion about semis and fully automatic weapons.
This is about confiscation of ALL guns!

[coloradan]

In 2000, Sheriff Jenne, a former Democratic state legislator,

Lies are the backbone of the 'rat party platform.

[coloradan]

In my view - if both types of weapons are equally destructive, why not ban all of them?

The goal is to ban all types of guns, and prevent citizens from having any means of destruction available at all. Of course, the purpose of the Second Amendment is to put the power to destroy a tyrannical government into the hands of the people. (This must be why some politicians are so eager to remove that power, little by little.)

[Redcloak]

They want the same power over us that Saddam had over the Iraqi people. They were disarmed long ago. And a disarmed man can't object in any meaningful way to having his children dropped into a shredder.

[Sender]

Sheriff Ken Jenne was about the most unbiased and untruthful LE representative I've seen. There's no doubt in anyone's mind about where he stands on mere common citizens having weapons.

Now John Zarella might plead ignorance since so many journalists are ignorant about guns, but that's all the more reason he should have done his homework and consulted with firearms experts...IF he were an objective and professional reporter, that is.

[hadaclueonce]

busting a cinder block? I can do that with a hammer...what's the point?

[Hugin]

As a corrollary, the NRA says that only 1-2% of guns used in a crime are "assault rifles", so they shouldn't be banned.

Can you provide any evidence that the NRA has ever said that? That the reason they should not be banned is because they are seldom used in crime? I doubt it.

They have pointed out that statastic to counter the Brady/Clinton adminstration claims that the banned guns are the "weapons of choice" for criminals. Should they not refute that assertion?

[Teacher317]

So CNN made the mistake of saying the banned gunned are more dangerous than unbanned guns - why is this a good thing in trying to get the AWB reversed? In my view - if both types of weapons are equally destructive, why not ban all of them?

Personally, I strongly urge them to try. It will finally bring about the public debate to settle the issue once and for all... one way or another. This nickel-and-dime crap got old about 20 years ago.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

"So CNN made the mistake of saying the banned gunned are more dangerous than unbanned guns"

You are being deliberately obtuse. CNN lied (deliberately or otherwise) in indicating that fully automatic weapons were being prohibited by the 1994 ban.

"In my view - if both types of weapons are equally destructive, why not ban all of them?"

Because people have a right and I would even argue, an obligation, to defend themselves. These weapons are an effective and reasonably safe means of defense. To deny people the means of defense is not just legally wrong (as in the 2nd Amendment), but morally bankrupt as well.

[Sender]

In my view - if both types of weapons are equally destructive, why not ban all of them?

Why ban any of them? They are only dangerous to the innocent when misused, just like chainsaws and ladders. And these are the exact type of weapons that were meant to be safeguarded by the 2nd Amendment...chainsaws and ladders do not enjoy such protection.

[Badray]

Are you a gun owner or familiar with guns?

What this AWB did was restrict your freedom (and mine) to buy guns of our choice based solely on their appearance. Not lethality, appearance. One (out of 5 or 6) characteristic, good. 2 characteristics, bad.

Those who didn't turn in(or remove the banned items) those banned weapons are now criminals. The gun grabbers are already trying to not only extend, but EXPAND the ban. What is legal today is illegal tomorrow.

Does this make sense at all?

What do you own that the government might decide is bad?

[BigTime]

One thing that is not clear from your post, when did Wayne's segment air on CNN? Before or after the "correction" aired?

To read the transcript, I wonder if the news reader would have reacted differently to his justified attacks if CNN had already recanted its story. I wonder if she would be so quick to defend the putz that aired that ridiculously flawed story complete with "wow's" for effect.

Now had she known they retracted the story and she still maintained the reporter's integrity in this way, that tells you a lot about the culture at CNN.

Just curious to know the sequence of events and whether Wayne's comments actually prompted the retraction.

[Redcloak]

The Brady Bunch claimed that these guns are the "weapon of choice" for criminals and thus ought to be banned. This, of course, isn't true. The affected guns are used in ~1% of all violent crimes. Why point this out? Because no gun law shuld be enacted on specious reasoning.

The law as a whole is similarly flawed. There is no difference in performance between the banned guns and other semi-autos. The reasons for banning this gun but not that one is strictly due to cosmetics. But once the ban passed, we were a step close to banning guns based on performance. Letting the "weapon of choice" lie stand would have helped towards that end. The grabbers would have been able to say "This gun is functionally identical to this ugly, banned gun and is thus the weapon of choice for criminals." And, in fact, that's what's been happening in California. New gun laws here are performance based; but it was the bill on appearence that got the ball rolling.

You can't let these people get away with any of their lies. The one you leave unchallenged is the one they'll hang you from.

[talleyman]

There's a network called CNN?

[Travis McGee]

So CNN and the Broward COunty Sheriff who faked the full auto fire, also faked another demo by missing the cinderblocks entirely with one weapon, while pretending it hit but did no damage!

Outrageous! Are Florida FReepers on this guy's case? It should be a local scandal!

[Redcloak]

Wayne was on CNN on 5/16. The "Jayson" Zarella piece was aired several times the previous day. The "retraction" was issued yesterday.

[ibbryn]

This isn't the time for NRA bashing.
CNN got caught lying and, from the sound of the transcript, the NRA spanked them hard.
Lets get the assault weapon ban sunsetted and move on to the next problem.

[Shooter 2.5]

No, what the NRA implied perfectly is if you want to know about weapons and legislation, the last place you would get your information is CNN.

What was said in the broadcast or what gun did what is now immaterial.

CNN got busted. They were exposed finally as the liberal liars they are. One of the "call ins" said he doesn't have a gun, won't own one, isn't a member of the NRA but he's making sure all of his friends are watching this controvery unfold. It's a major disaster for CNN and in my opinion, much worse than a writer not knowing which way a house points to a field such as what was written in the New York Times.

[sharktrager]

Even some M-16's are not truly fully automatic in the traditional sense. Some used by national guard units are limited to 3 round bursts.

This is not what most people think of when they hear "machine gun".

[IncPen]

We should talk about this...

[joesnuffy]

The head law enforcement offical...an officer of the court....lied
He Lied....without a second thought
What kind of law enforcement goes on in his county....Broward County?
The people he is sworn to protect and serve....are being sorely misrepresented imo
Its amazing to me how these people do not give a second thought to lying to get what they want...
Satan is the father of all liars according to the bible...this guy is a danger to others imo

[Hugin]

You can't let these people get away with any of their lies.

I know. It just irks me when other pro-gun groups take the NRA's refutation of the gunophobes lies and twist that to mean that the NRA supports gun control. Or when the NRA successfully gets some of the worst parts of a gun control bill removed, they assert that they support the rest of the bill. For example, this bill would not be expiring at all if the NRA hadn't lobbied to have a time limit included, but that was twisted to mean that they supported the bill.

[in the Arena]

His stance is evident in the last paragraph of the article...

In 2000, Sheriff Jenne, a former Democratic state legislator, supported a bill in the Florida Legislature, HB-363, that would have banned several types of rifles under a broad definition of "assault weapons" and also would have prohibited many handguns. The bill died in committee.

[familyofman]

"You are being deliberately obtuse. CNN lied (deliberately or otherwise) in indicating that fully automatic weapons were being prohibited by the 1994 ban."
No I'm not being obtuse, deliberate or not. My question/point was simply one for clarity purposes - to define what CNN lied about. If they misled/lied about the comparative lethality/power of banned vs non-banned weapons, and overstated the differences between the two - is that good or bad?
The AWB should receive a roll call vote either way. I can't get too excited about CNN's great lie at this point in time.

[Shooter 2.5]

"I can't get too excited about CNN's great lie at this point in time.

Did you ever get so wrapped up in watching the news, you felt like tossing something into your own TV? This may signal a reduction to that feeling. This may be a huge victory for us or just business as usual for CNN. It's up to us.

[Sender]

Sheriff Ken Jenne's Website

[geedee]

This is about confiscation of ALL guns!

Spoken like a true Texan! Atta boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!