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Media Gets Thumbs Down From Panel On Firearms
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Media Gets Thumbs Down From Panel On Firearms Coverage
By Jim Burns
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
April 29, 2002
Reno, Nevada (CNSNews.com) - The mainstream media gets a failing grade when it comes to covering firearms and Second Amendment issues, according to a panel discussion of media coverage at the National Rifle Association convention on Sunday.
Kellyanne Conway, a political pollster who runs her own polling firm in Washington, joked that media coverage of gun issues has actually improved slightly in the past year.
"You know why it's slightly better? Because there's been less of it. And that is fine and that is an improvement. There are fewer and fewer articles in the last year, certainly since September 11th , than there have been before," Conway said.
Conway noted that "not a single bullet was fired on September 11 and not a single firearm was used" in what turned out to be one of the worst attacks on U.S. soil.
"As far as I can tell, the only people who had weapons that day were security guards at the airport. Not the pilots. Not the passengers. Not even the terrorists, not even those cowards. But if the pilots were armed, as 64 percent of America believes they should be, some of those heroes might be before you, telling what it was like to defend themselves," Conway said.
At least one U.S. Senator agreed that airline pilots should be allowed to carry firearms in the cockpit. Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) told the NRA convention Saturday night the time has come for the idea to be enacted.
"Here at home, in our fight against suicidal terrorists who slit the throats of bound flight attendants and crash planes into our cities, the most certain line of defense is a skillfully trained, highly-dedicated, armed U.S. airline pilot. Our pilots want that choice and most Americans support them," said Miller.
"To President Bush and his administration, I say this: We trust the pilot in the cockpit with our lives. It is time to trust them with a firearm," Miller said, to thundering applause.
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and an NRA board member, believes the media gives the American people the wrong impression of the NRA, something that may interfere with gun owners' ability to elect people who will protect their Second Amendment rights.
"They (gun owners) don't go around knocking on everybody's door, insisting that you be a gun owner. We don't insist on annual parades explaining that gun owning is an alternative lifestyle and everybody has to appreciate us and tell us how swell we are. We just want to be left alone," said Norquist.
"If the media had been allowed to vote, (Arizona Senator) John McCain would be in the White House," Norquist concluded.
Norquist encouraged the NRA convention delegates to write letters to the editor, polish presentations for radio talk shows and even invite reporters to local shooting ranges as ways of getting the gun owners' message out and around the liberal media bias.
However, Michael Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, accused the NRA over the weekend of being out of step with "mainstream Americans."
"The NRA leadership does not represent the views of mainstream Americans. Rather than working to prevent gun violence, the NRA fights to keep military-style assault weapons, high-powered weapons with no civilian purpose, easily available and on our streets," said Barnes in a statement.
"NRA leaders repeatedly demonize America's law enforcement officers, most infamously calling federal agents 'jack booted thugs' for enforcing our nation's gun laws," Barnes said.
"Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of Americans, including gun owners, support sensible gun laws. Past is prologue, and Democrats and Republicans who want to win elections would do well to listen to their constituents and address gun violence prevention issues in their upcoming campaigns," Barnes concluded.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200204\CUL20020429b.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Jim Burns
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
April 29, 2002
Reno, Nevada (CNSNews.com) - The mainstream media gets a failing grade when it comes to covering firearms and Second Amendment issues, according to a panel discussion of media coverage at the National Rifle Association convention on Sunday.
Kellyanne Conway, a political pollster who runs her own polling firm in Washington, joked that media coverage of gun issues has actually improved slightly in the past year.
"You know why it's slightly better? Because there's been less of it. And that is fine and that is an improvement. There are fewer and fewer articles in the last year, certainly since September 11th , than there have been before," Conway said.
Conway noted that "not a single bullet was fired on September 11 and not a single firearm was used" in what turned out to be one of the worst attacks on U.S. soil.
"As far as I can tell, the only people who had weapons that day were security guards at the airport. Not the pilots. Not the passengers. Not even the terrorists, not even those cowards. But if the pilots were armed, as 64 percent of America believes they should be, some of those heroes might be before you, telling what it was like to defend themselves," Conway said.
At least one U.S. Senator agreed that airline pilots should be allowed to carry firearms in the cockpit. Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) told the NRA convention Saturday night the time has come for the idea to be enacted.
"Here at home, in our fight against suicidal terrorists who slit the throats of bound flight attendants and crash planes into our cities, the most certain line of defense is a skillfully trained, highly-dedicated, armed U.S. airline pilot. Our pilots want that choice and most Americans support them," said Miller.
"To President Bush and his administration, I say this: We trust the pilot in the cockpit with our lives. It is time to trust them with a firearm," Miller said, to thundering applause.
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and an NRA board member, believes the media gives the American people the wrong impression of the NRA, something that may interfere with gun owners' ability to elect people who will protect their Second Amendment rights.
"They (gun owners) don't go around knocking on everybody's door, insisting that you be a gun owner. We don't insist on annual parades explaining that gun owning is an alternative lifestyle and everybody has to appreciate us and tell us how swell we are. We just want to be left alone," said Norquist.
"If the media had been allowed to vote, (Arizona Senator) John McCain would be in the White House," Norquist concluded.
Norquist encouraged the NRA convention delegates to write letters to the editor, polish presentations for radio talk shows and even invite reporters to local shooting ranges as ways of getting the gun owners' message out and around the liberal media bias.
However, Michael Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, accused the NRA over the weekend of being out of step with "mainstream Americans."
"The NRA leadership does not represent the views of mainstream Americans. Rather than working to prevent gun violence, the NRA fights to keep military-style assault weapons, high-powered weapons with no civilian purpose, easily available and on our streets," said Barnes in a statement.
"NRA leaders repeatedly demonize America's law enforcement officers, most infamously calling federal agents 'jack booted thugs' for enforcing our nation's gun laws," Barnes said.
"Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of Americans, including gun owners, support sensible gun laws. Past is prologue, and Democrats and Republicans who want to win elections would do well to listen to their constituents and address gun violence prevention issues in their upcoming campaigns," Barnes concluded.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200204\CUL20020429b.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878