When Christian Science Monitor reporter Sarah Miller Llana interviewed me about the ATF’s recently refreshed, entirely misleading stats on the source of Mexican drug cartels’ guns, she kept talking about the different “sides of the issue.” I kept telling her the stat story wasn’t about left vs. right, or gun control vs. gun rights. It was about the truth about the drug thugs’ guns. Either the Mexican cartels get the majority of their firearms from Bob’s Gun Store or they don’t. Either the ATF is massaging the truth for their own ends or they’re not. And guess what? They are. Anyone who takes a cold, hard look at the trace data in its proper perspective can see it. It pisses me off that the mainstream media values theatrical conflict over honest-to-god journalism. Still, it’s nice to be noticed.
What you have failed to realize RF is that the media frames these stories in Hegelian terms precisely to avoid the facts or to foster the belief that there is some ongoing dispute as to what the facts really are. For the Left and the establishment media, their cherished narratives are impervious to facts.
Gotta love the MSM. If it wasn’t so biased, the world wouldn’t need blogs like TTAG. Who said the internet is for porn?
Everyone…
A reporter from the CSM came to the 2009 NRA Convention out here to do a piece on how pro-2nd Amendment forces clobber (figuratively speaking) the gun-grabbers when it comes to online activism.
The piece was informative, balanced and very fair, and was a credit to the dying art of the journalism. Give the CSM a chance, and they may just the story right.