Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the Daddy Warbucks behind the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex. In 2017, the anti-ballistic billionaire bully boy pledged $50 million to promote gun control. Without Bloomie’s multiple millions paying for professional organizers, it’s doubtful that Washington and Nevada’s “universal background check” bills would have ever seen the light of day. Bloomberg cash also supports The Trace, a pseudo-journalistic enterprise dedicated to cloaking anti-gun agitprop in mainstream media respectability. In their most recent email blast, they declare . . .
America’s Gun Violence Crisis Isn’t Letting Up. Neither Are Our Reporters. A self-congratulatory pat on the back? Well, yes. But wait! There’s more! Or, if you’re the mainstream media, less! Less money.
Now more than ever, it’s vital that the toll of everyday gun violence receives the in-depth coverage that traditional media organizations can’t afford. When the powers ushering in new norms include businesses and advocates with an agenda of normalizing guns in ever more public spaces, it’s crucial to have reporters digging into gun companies’ marketing tactics and dragging the gun lobby’s machinations into the sunlight. Amid inaction by lawmakers, there’s big value in assessing grassroots solutions and holding local leaders accountable for their performance in reducing shootings.
So The Trace is spending Bloomberg’s pocket change creating and disseminating the anti-gun spin the mainstream media can’t afford? I’m not entirely sure about Executive Editor James Burnett’s cash-strapped MSM hypothesis, but OK. And for the sake of brevity we’ll ignore the irony of billionaire Bloomberg’s brainchild talking about “grassroots solutions.”
Can I return to my regularly scheduled anti-gun animus now? Apparently not.
The Trace is here to help make sure that people have the facts on American gun violence — but as an independent, nonprofit newsroom, we need your support. On this Giving Tuesday, please consider funding our reporting with a tax-deductible donation.
Wait. What? Has Michael Bloomberg — he of the moribund Mayors Against Illegal Guns, not to mention the $42 billion net worth — abandoned another gun control baby? Or is The Trace just looking for some cream on top of Mike’s milk of human kindness?
We shall see. Meanwhile, The Trace’s begging bowl reminds me of Donald Trump’s forgotten pledge to self-fund his presidential campaign. One can only hope that The Trace’s benefactor’s anti-gun ADD will leave his propaganda machine where it would have been without his financial support. Nowhere.