"If I Only Had An Honest Fourth Estate"

[unixronin]

John Lott on 20/20’s latest disinformation:

Gun control advocates look desperate.  Last Friday night, on April 10, ABC aired a heavily promoted, hour long “20/20” special called “If I Only Had a Gun.”  It is ABC’s equivalent of NBC’s infamous exploding gas tanks in General Motors pickups where NBC rigged the truck to explode.

[...]

No mention was made of the actual multiple victim public shootings stopped by people with concealed handguns nor did they describe who actually carried out such shootings.  Instead, ABC presented a rigged experiment where one student in a classroom had a gun.  But sometimes even the best editors can’t hide everything the camera sees.

The experiment was set up to make the student fail.  It did not resemble a real-world shooting.  The same scenario is shown three times, but in each case the student with the gun is seated in the same seat –- the center seat in the front row.  The attacker is not only a top-notch shooter –- a firearms expert who teaches firearms tactics and strategy to police -– but also obviously knows precisely where the student with the gun is sitting.

Each time the experiment is run, the attacker first fires two shots at the teacher in the front of the class and then turns his gun directly on the very student with the gun.  The attacker wastes no time trying to gun down any of the unarmed students.

In short, the fix is in from before the start in ABC’s “experiment”.  They decided in advance on the conclusion they wanted their experiment to show, then rigged the test to show the desired result — just like NBC did with the “exploding gas tanks” that wouldn’t cooperate and explode, a problem that NBC quite unashamedly solved by using explosives (which the “factual exposé” somehow failed to mention to the audience).

ABC never mentions a simple fact: all multiple victim public shootings with more than 3 people killed have occurred where permitted concealed handguns are prohibited.  Rather than studying what actually happens during these shootings, ABC conjured up rigged experiments aimed at convincing Americans that guns are ineffective.  Unfortunately, ABC’s advice, rather than making victims safe, makes things safer for attackers.

There’s a particular bureaucratic phrase that applies here:  “Does not serve the public interest.”  And when it not only ignorantly repeats, but blatantly manufactures, deliberate misinformation like this, ABC News is not serving the public interest.  If they can truly do no better than this, their FCC license should be revoked.

Comments

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

If they can truly do no better than this, their FCC license should be revoked.

Boy do I agree with that....

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

Fourth Estate, it's more like a Fifth Column....

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I think that sums it up pretty well, yeah.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Nicely said!

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

they are paid to report NEWS, not fictions.

rigging stories is extremely juvenile and possibly illegal? if posed as truth.

i'm waiting for someone else to come up with a counter demo.

#

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'm sure we could come up with one easily enough. Even with the same instructor as the "shooter". Only a handful changes to the setup would basically be required: Pick students who already have CCWs as "defenders", let them use their own holster and sidearm with the same paintball simunitions (I found the video, and couldn't help but notice how much trouble Student #1 had just getting the Glock out of that retention holster they inflicted on him), and let the "defender" sit anywhere in the room he wants — and don't give the "shooter" advance knowledge of where the "defender" is. Even throw the "shooter" a curve — put two defenders in the room sometimes and don't tell the "shooter" how many there's going to be.

Let's see how THAT changes the outcome...

(I don't know whether it's mendacity or mere ignorance that their "experienced shooter" first student had never shot anything but an Airsoft toy. I don't know whether they figured the audience wouldn't know the difference, or whether THEY didn't know the difference. Either way, I think it's a pretty safe bet they didn't care.)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I also noticed that all the other "students" in the room very efficiently bailed out, leaving the "defender" completely isolated to face the music alone. No panic, no milling about, just "Move away from the already-known target".

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

Not really any different than the "news" story a few years ago where someone went to FL to do a piece on "semi-auto assault weapons" - and had an on-camera demonstration of the gun, only the gun demonstrated was a fully-automatic M-16. During the entire "news segment" they never once acknowledged that the gun demonstrated was a) fully automatic (despite the fact that it was fired on camera in full-auto mode); b) already illegal for all US citizens to own without a Federal License.

I agree - if they can't do any better than that, their FCC license should be revoked.