Journalists grapple with fear and doubts about firearms after Paris attack

Washington Examiner ^ | January 11, 2015 | Mark Tapscott

[SampleMan]

Newsroom security is a big worry among journalists in the wake of the Islamic terrorist attack that killed 10 Charlie Hebdo journalists in Paris Tuesday, but it's not a new issue in this country. .......

But Siewert's organization contrasts mightily with what appears to be a more widespread attitude of uncertainty that anything can be done to secure newsrooms against Paris-like attacks or outright revulsion against journalists being linked with firearms for any reason.

Most representative of the latter was this response from the BBC's Fiona Graham, who covers technology in business: "This is quite possibly the most bizarre and horrifying reaction I've seen thus far to the terrible events in Paris. It blows my mind that you would even contemplate this."

[SampleMan]

This is not a logic question for any thinking person. Obviously free, responsible people are orders of magnitude safer if they have a weapon when they are attacked; the better the weapon, the greater the safety.

So what is the real question? It's an ideological dilemma for Leftist journalists who have always asserted with religious fervor that individuals must never compete with the power of the state, even if it means sacrificing innocent lives. The problem now is that it ...is THEIR lives that might be sacrificed, and I imagine the real question is, "Am I really in so much danger that I have to admit the truth?"

I suspect that they will settle on solving their ideological problem by cutting staff and hiring security guards. Further, stories on Islamic violence will continue to mainly feature salutes to Islam and attacks on phantum Islamaphobia. Note that the articles covering the Charlie Hebdo attacks blur out the very images which are at the center of the issue, so as not to offend those who would respond with violence. I've never witnessed this "brave" and suddenly religiously sensitive media shy away from images insulting Christians.

Islam harbors everything that the media has always claimed that Christians are, i.e. intolerant, misogynist, oppressive, and violent, However, the only harsh words that they can find are for those who would dare point this out.

I hope that the last truly brave journalists didn't just die in France.

[yldstrk]

Get a gun!

[thackney]

Duncan's comments came in response to a question — do you want to be armed?

"Yes, but not all those idiots I work around" thought most of the journalists...

[UCANSEE2]

Headline: Reality hits Journalists like a bullet in the head.

[Sasparilla]

This should come as no surprise for BBC or any other media.
Mr. Van Gogh was killed in Amsterdam in 2004 by Muslim savages after his Mohammed with the bomb cartoon. It was a funny on wih the bomb in the turban with the lit fuse.
Its not like it didn’t happen before, and won’t again.

I would hazard a guess that even in the most liberal of U.S. newsrooms, there are some concerned staff now packing sidearms at work That is, where fringe lunatic Liberal governments and management allow it.

[Gaffer]

Asking themselves how they feel about guns in the wake of this French disaster and how they feel about the harm that might come to them really doesn't concern me, frankly. True stewards of freedom's expression should be fearless; they are not.

They are largely misery ghouls who continually self-promote and groan and agonize (when they aren't pushing some political agenda) whenever one of their own meets tragedy, yet the sadness they exhibit at those times just doesn't seem to be the same as the sometimes cavalier reporting they do for the common people under similar circumstances.

[mylife]

How do they feel about knives? Sharp pointy sticks?

These people are paralyzed by neurosis.

[Vaquero]

I would hazard a guess that even in the most liberal of U.S. newsrooms, there are some concerned staff now packing sidearms at work...

But they're elite. Only they and other elites should be allowed .(flaming scumbags that they are)

[Biggirl]

That is why the internet is going to be where free speech and press is going to be where there will be at.

[skinkinthegrass]

the Three Boxes...
SoapBox..BallotBox..AmmoBox
..in that order, Folks.

Just Saying. d:^P

[Pecos]

As I see it, they have four choices:

a. Remain true to their expressed ideals and refuse any and all armed protection,

b. Whine to the government to protect them,

c. Hire armed guards, thus saying to the world that they actually do understand the relationship between firearms and self-protection, but that they want to remain "above" the idea of actually handling firearms themselves,

d. Fight the liberal governments they helped put into power and actually arm themselves (after obtaining government permission) and take responsibility for their own protection.

My guess is that option "d" won't be used very much.

[Noumenon]

“Gun horror is not a productive emotion, but learned helplessness disguised as moral superiority.”
—Daniel Greenfield

Reality’s a stone cold bitch, isn’t it?

[TurboZamboni]

Which is why Obama wants to regulate that ,too.

[DJ MacWoW]

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[LouAvul]

Firearms. France’s (and Britain’s) worst kept secret. They’ve got firearms. Plenty of them. Except it’s the criminals who own them.

[MrB]

I’ve heard “honest” libs say “I can’t be trusted with a gun so I don’t want anyone else to either. “

[thackney]

I can’t be trusted with a gun

I wonder if they drive vehicles on the highway...

[ZULU]

Lock and load.

[PoloSec]

France, Britain and other European countries have fallen captive to progressive liberal democratic communism; as a result they a suffering a sort of Stockholm Syndrome which has suppressed their ability to exercise reason and common sense especially when it comes to guns, they have rendered themselves submissive to gov't control, their gov'ts do allow controlled protests to give the people the impression they are free while they are in fact victims of gov't enslavement. It works well except for the muslims who they (gov't) fear because they cannot control their discontent, as a result the muslims are allowed to riot, burn, pillage and slander gov't, without significant consequences; in this scenario the governments themselves are suffering a sort of Stockholm Syndrome, in short; progressive liberalism when it finds its end delivers death and destruction to civil societies.

Although here in the U.S. we manage to keep our right to bear arms, our rights are under constant assault, and in a plethora of other areas of assault by progressive liberalism we are losing; following the same path of destruction as those in Europe, we do not take dealing with islam seriously; not willing to do WHATEVER it takes to rid ourselves of the festering poisonous terminal disease called islam.

[ChicagahAl]

I wonder if they drive vehicles on the highway...

It's OK. They're just electric cars.