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By David Codrea, GUNS Magazine

“U.S. Distrust in Media Hits New High,” Gallup announced, citing a poll concluding “Americans’ distrust in the media hit a new high this year, with 60 percent saying they have little or no trust in the mass media…”

Firearms owners weary of the barrage of disinformation, spin and outright lies we have come to expect as the norm when on gun issues could well wonder how 40 percent of the populace can be so thick.

A case study could be made of media malpractice in its coverage of Operation Fast and Furious gunwalking. When it was not ignoring the story, the media, with a few notable exceptions like CBS News, Fox News, and surprisingly, the Spanish-language network Univision, were working double-duty to carry the Obama administration’s water and to parrot its talking points.

When the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General released its long-awaited report on the scandal, it noted it had found “no evidence” Attorney General Eric Holder knew about the program prior to January, 2011. Media shills were quick to spin that into proclamations he had been “cleared” and “exonerated,” conveniently not mentioning that much evidence had been withheld, key witnesses had refused to speak to investigators, and the White House had refused cooperation with the probe citing lack of OIG authority.

Further breaches of integrity were evidenced when the report demolished a Fortune article claiming gunwalking had not taken place that the media had previously picked up on to derail further inquiry. Earlier, a Joint Congressional Report contained allegations their reporter may have been given information illegally obtained from the personnel file of a key whistleblower.

That administration mouthpieces were coordinating stories with a sympathetic press became indisputable when The Daily Caller reported the Justice Department’s public affairs chief and Media Matters, an influential leftwing advocacy site that has vociferously defended the administration and attacked its investigators, had actually corresponded and coordinated on stories about Fast and Furious.

On another front, the hostility and hypocrisy of legacy media to the right to keep and bear arms manifested itself perfectly in a story brought to light by citizen journalist John Richardson, who reported on the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence hosting a discussion on “Truth Telling: The Media’s Role in the Conversation on Guns,” where the panel was comprised entirely of anti-gun media hacks. A representative of the CalGuns Foundation was rejected from going and had his ticket money refunded because the organizers did “not feel it was appropriate for [him] to attend this event.”

That’s some conversation they wish to have.

Pat Caddell, a former Democratic pollster, thinks “we’re at the most dangerous time in our political history in terms of the balance of power and the role that the media plays,” and told a recent Accuracy in Media conference that rather than being protectors of liberty, the press “have made themselves a fundamental threat…and the enemy of the American people.”
Soviets joked about communist newspapers, Pravda (“Truth”) and Izvestia (“News”).

“In the Truth there is no news, and in the News there is no truth.”

 

Thanks to the GUNS Magazine team for this article. Visit their website please http://www.gunsmagazine.comTo see all of David Codrea’s columns in “Rights Watch” please click here http://www.gunsmagazine.com/category/rights-watch/. David’s blog is here http://waronguns.blogspot.com/.

 

Tags : media bias
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