Viewpoints
Outrage over CBS and the National
Guard Memos
by Glen Thompson
September 22, 2004
Wednesday
No one should really be surprised
that CBS LIED about these memos, they have a history...
For example, in his book, "Guns:
Who Should Have Them?" author David B. Kopel illustrates
this point by writing:
Persons who do not know much
about guns may be forgiven for thinking that "assault weapons"
are machine guns; these people are victims of what has been,
in some cases, a quite deliberate fraud. For example, CBS's Chicago
affiliate, WBBM-TV, showed a reporter buying a (then legal) semi-automatic
Uzi carbine (small rifle); the report later showed an automatic
Uzi being fired, and viewers were never informed that the guns
had been switched.
and:
People who get most of their
knowledge about guns from television may have different impression
of the lethality of "assault weapons" as the result
of bad reporting on the part of some stations. For example, in
early 1989, when 'assault weapons' had just become a major interest
of the media, a Los Angeles television station arranged with
the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for a demonstration
of the "awesome power" of "assault weapons."
Using a rifle like the one used by Patrick Purdy in the Stockton
shootings, an officer shot a watermelon that had been set up
on a target stand. The bullet punched a hole the size of a dime
in the watermelon, leaving the large fruit otherwise intact.
The television reporter complained that the result was "visually
unimpressive." The officer obligingly unholstered his service
gun (a Beretta pistol, not an "assault weapon"). Loaded
in the officer's pistol were high-performance Winchester Silvertip
STHP rounds. He fired once, and the watermelon exploded into
tiny fragments. By the time the "demonstration" had
been edited for broadcast, viewers saw only the officer holding
the "assault weapon" and then the exploding watermelon.
Viewers were deliberately misled into believing that the "assault
weapon" had caused the explosion.
Typical SPIN?
Glen Thompson
Ketchikan, AK - USA
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