An honest account of media misinformation after the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy has to take into account Rupert Murdoch’s tweet about the need to ban “automatic weapons,” when none was used to kill any of the 26 people. Can the chairman of News Corporation, the parent of Fox News, be this ignorant about the nature of gun laws and guns in America?
He asked, “When will politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons?” He urged Obama to exercise “bold leadership” on the issue.
Deep inside his story about the comments, Gabriel Sherman of New York magazine noted, “Despite Murdoch’s plea, automatic weapons are already illegal in the United States; Adam Lanza [the killer] used semiautomatics.”
In fact, automatic weapons are not technically illegal but are subject to extensive regulation and are very difficult to obtain.
One interesting aspect of this controversy is that left-leaning reporters such as Dylan Byers of Politico publicized Murdoch’s comments without correcting him. Others followed suit. “Rupert Murdoch demanded tighter gun control in the aftermath of the horrific shooting in Newtown, Connecticut,” reported The Huffington Post, without noting that his remarks were inaccurate and the “gun control” he talked about was already in effect.
This is fascinating because, in the past, liberal media have tried to claim that Fox News personnel spew misinformation about current events, leading to a lack of knowledge about important matters of public policy. Here is a case of the owner of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and other properties saying something that is completely erroneous and irrelevant to what happened in Newtown, Connecticut.
But why would liberal publications not want people to know that Murdoch was in error? There are several possible explanations:
- They do not understand gun laws, either, and didn’t realize Murdoch was wrong.
- They don’t care that Murdoch was wrong and wanted to use his mistaken comment to spread misinformation to the public about the killings.
- They know Murdoch was wrong but wanted to use his comment to send a message to Fox News Channel hosts and commentators that they should get on the “gun control” bandwagon with their boss.
Some conservative-oriented news sites did correct the media mogul. “Early news reports indicate that automatic weapons were not used in yesterday’s school shooting,” Breitbart News reported, in a brief story about Murdoch’s comments. Indeed, no evidence of automatic weapons being used has turned up. Twitchy Media noted, “Closer attention to the reports coming out of his media properties would have informed Murdoch that automatic weapons weren’t used in today’s mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.”
Also oblivious to the facts, Malcolm Turnbull, who reportedly knows Murdoch, replied by saying that the politicians would act when pressured by the media and that “I suspect they will find the courage when Fox News enthusiastically campaigns for it.”
This, then, is why the comment is getting so much attention from the left. The political progressives saw it as an effort to send marching orders to the conservative news channel to back Obama’s controversial call for more legislation.
Media Matters, the George Soros-funded left-wing organization, jumped on the comments, contrasting Murdoch’s “Call For [A] Weapons Ban” with how Fox News Channel commentators supposedly were guilty in the past of “Extreme Pro-gun Rhetoric.” The “rhetoric” consisted of comments in favor of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
The New York Post, another Murdoch property, has already demonstrated Murdoch’s influence by following his lead and running an editorial on December 18 insisting that Lanza’s semi-automatic rifle somehow functioned like a “fully automatic” weapon. The editorial seemed like an attempt to justify Murdoch’s erroneous comments.
“It is very discouraging that Murdoch thinks that machine guns have anything to do with these attacks,” noted John Lott, the author of More Guns, Less Crime.“There are strong self-defense reasons for people to have semi-automatic weapons.”
In addition to such figures as Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America, Lott has been willing to take on those in the media, especially on CNN, who are guilty of spreading misinformation about the massacre. But he has not been invited to appear on Fox News to rebut gun grabbers like Murdoch.
Referring to Lott’s credentials as a FoxNews.com columnist, Eric Wemple of The Washington Post notes that the Fox News Channel is failing to use its “go-to guy on hand” to counter federal calls for more “gun control” legislation. He said Lott’s “low profile” on FoxNews.com since the killings suggests that the network and its website are “treading carefully” on the subject.
Rather than “treading carefully,” it appears that the Fox News Channel is marching to Murdoch’s directives, as revealed on his Twitter page. Perhaps Lott’s willingness to rebut Murdoch on his blog helps explain why he in particular is not being effectively utilized by the channel.
What’s worse, as Gabriel Sherman has reported, a Lott column about the differences between semiautomatics and so-called military style assault weapons was actually killed by FoxNews.com.
What we are seeing here is a coordinated attempt to use Murdoch’s erroneous comments to further a political left-wing agenda. Murdoch’s employees are capable of understanding that the comments are being exploited for political purposes. But it is quite another thing to say on the air that the boss is wrong and to keep churning out facts that contradict Murdoch’s dubious position.
We appear to be witnessing self-censorship on the part of Fox News, in order to serve Murdoch’s agenda.
Fox News has to be carefully monitored in the weeks ahead to see if the Murdoch comments have a continued impact on the channel and are used to muzzle the case for gun rights as Obama and his other media allies lay the groundwork for further restrictions on the Second Amendment.
The information source many conservatives go to for accurate and informed coverage appears to be going the way of the liberal media.
Read more stories like this at AIM.org.
Photo credit: World Economic Forum (Creative Commons)
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And just imagine, ole Murdoch is the owner of; guess what?
FOX News!
Doesn’t it appear strange to you that the owner of what *YOU* think and have been led to believe is a conservative News station is actually a rabid Obama supporter and has now admitted he is also anti- 2nd Amendment? Now I ask; How could such a person in all good conscience own and run a real conservative talk show station? –THEY CAN’T– And I knew these things for years about ole Murdoch, and ya’ll are still in denial, stupid yankees! And ya’ll call me a hick, ignorant, incestuous, redneck and all sorts of derogatory names. Seems you didn’t look at yourselves in the mirror before you claimed all that!
Michael– Deo Vindicabamur
BETTER TAKE A LOOK AT ALL OF THIS SITE WITH THE VIDEOS.S
ANDY hOOK WAS A SET UP WITH MASSIVE DISTORTIONS SO THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN AMERIkA
CAN STEAL YOUR DEFENSE WEAPONS. JUST AS IN PREVIOUS FALSE FLAG OPS BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOUR FRIENDLY
COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT IN DC.
http://atruthsoldier.wordpress.com/tag/was-there-more-than-one-shooter-at-sandy-hook/
Murdoch and the other news organizations all have the same globalist goals, but have different ideas of how to achieve them. The ends justifies the means. Fox News and MSNBC and CNN are dividing us as a nation, as our leaders and other players on the world stage move further towards tyranny. http://www.westernjournalism.com/selective-outrage/
@Sal Traina
You said it all EXACTLY right!
Dead on, spot on, BULLSEYE!
Now to get the dummies to understand this…………?
Thanks,
Michael– Deo Vindicabamur
Seems they didn’t like my original post.
Again
And just imagine, ole Murdoch is the owner of; guess what?
FOX News!
Doesn’t it appear strange to you that the owner of what *YOU* think and have been led to believe is a conservative News station is actually a rabid Obama supporter and has now admitted he is also anti- 2nd Amendment? Now I ask; How could such a person in all good conscience own and run a real conservative talk show station? –THEY CAN’T– And I knew these things for years about ole Murdoch, and ya’ll are still in denial, stupid yankees! And ya’ll call me a hick, ignorant, inces…, redeck and all sorts of derogatory names. Seems you didn’t look at yourselves in the mirror before you claimed all that!
Michael– Deo Vindicabamur
So?
@lorlan4
So… It just so happens by happen-chance that Murdoch is a liberal who espouses conservative ideas through FOX News. Is not that a conflict of interest? If you say no, that he is entitled to make money, I will say he has no morals and is a hypocrite, that he is evil. At the same time I will say he is using his powers to manipulate the media, making it appear conservative in nature, while actually supporting a Marxist/Globalist agenda. All of which means Murdoch does not care anything about anything except money, and mammon is the the root of all evil. So Rupert is a very evil person! If you wish, you can follow him to Hades believing FOX News and it being conservative….
Michael– Deo Vindicabamur
So? What’s the point. Fox does the news better than the rest and Murdoch makes the money. Greedy, but makes the money. The more they make the more they want. Noone says Murdoch is a conservative, heck, he’s not even a patriot!!!
@lorlan4
It means you can’t trust Murdoch and that means you can’t trust his news media, FOX News or anything else he owns. It does not mean that FOX News is conservative. It is NOT! It only gives the appearance of being conservative. As I said before, it makes Murdoch a hypocrite and evil. He is using people for his own gain and in a very bad way. Yet millions of people are devoted to FOX News being brainwashed by them. I see many such people every day… They are being propagandized and don’t even realize it!
Michael– Deo Vindicabamur
I still have not heard ONE person tell the public how gun control will stop mass murder or bring crime rate down. Never has..never will!!!
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used in order to inflict damage, harm or death to enemies or other living beings, structures, or systems. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, and warfare. In a broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a strategic, material or mental advantage over an adversary. Any instrument/object when used to cause bodily harm is an assault weapon. Water, sound, electricity can be also used as a weapon to assault.
There were weapons, murders and killings long before there were guns.
A person could take 3 guns that hold only six rounds each and take out up to 18 people. How does banning assault weapon stop people from killing? It DOESN”T!!! All it does is cause a person to come up with another plan
Do people really think that banning what will be determined as assault weapons would have stopped the killers from accomplishing their task or obtaining a gun on the black market? Banning assault weapons will make the price go up on the black market.
When they advertise a drug on TV they have to mention the side effects. There are some we are warned in rare cases can cause a person to have suicidal thoughts. How do we know these people who get suicidal thoughts decide to take a bunch of people with them. Look how many killed themselves after their killing spree. So we blame the gun not the medication. Why not ban drugs that alter a person thought patterns. I think every US citizen should have a gun and law enforcement classes to teach people how to use them.
If the every teacher at the school had a gun and knew how to use there would have been less people killed, because someone could have taken him out.
If assault weapons were were banned it would not have stopped him. Maybe slowed him down. A person does not need an assault weapon to commit mass murder!
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/07/aurora_shooting_how_did_people_commit_mass_murder_before_automatic_weapons_.html
http://www.neontommy.com/news/2012/07/doing-math-guns
To say banning assault weapons will stop mass murders or stopping a person from killing is ridiculous!!!
So the guy walks in with a ninja’s sword and starts hacking kids heads off or learns how to make a chlorine gas bomb and tosses it in the window.The nutjob will find a way! A guy in china slashed and killed 28 kids in a school with a knife. So yes,if someone is determined to do evil they will do evil with whatever method they can get their hands on.That is the reality of it.
BTW, did you know the ACLU prevented his mother from institutionalizing him.
A Connecticut mental health bill was recently defeated, because the ACLU said the bill would infringe on patients’ privacy rights.
That bill was defeated by the same vermin on the left who are trying to take your guns away.
Yep we need to ban whatever is causing a person to kill!
Jim Jones killed more people with Kool-aid than all the all the so called “assault weapons” attacks combined !
Rupert Murdoch is a commie scumbag that wiil kick the bucket at anytime
I’m a gun-huggin, liberal-hating Texan. I own sem-auto handguns, rifles and shotguns. I fired fully auto weapons in proud service to my country and I know the difference. between semi and fully auto. I will add to the controversy by saying that semi-auto weapons are more dangerous than fully auto and I will declare that the Connecticutt nut job would have killed fewer children with a fully auto M-16. Why ? Because a fully auto weapon in the hands of an amatuer is uncontrollable and he would have wasted most of his ammo shooting wildly. I will state that a semi-auto AR15 with a thirty-round mag is a devastating weapon. I understand that he had three thirty round mags plus hand guns as well. The parents of children in that school are very fortunate that this nut-job was not a trained assassin. It could have been far, far worse.
So what’s my point? All I hear is that liberals don’t know the difference in the types of assault rifles (yes a semi-auto rifle with a 20-round mag is an assault rifle) didn’t the Conn. killer prove that? We defenders of the seond amendment need to get away from this losing battle. He was using an assault rifle. Let’s grant that and get about the solution.
Ban mags over ten rounds? Ok by me.. That might save some lives and it won’t prevent me from defending my home. Most conceal-carry weapons have only six or eight rounds and they serve the purpose every day.
How about making anyone; parents, teachers, Doctors who are aware of someone on the brink of a massacre responsible for the outcome. It would have prevented the disasters in Columbine, Arizona and Colorado, and maybe in Sandy Hook if the brother or father knew this kid was a ticking time bomb.
My point is that someone usually knows and they should be held responsible. If the nut-cases can be outed before they commit an atrocity then our health-care system must step in with realistic confinement and treatment.
There are solutions available. Liberals want all Americans disarmed so they can finish their subjugation of all of us. There’s 270 million guns out there and they will not be turned in. Believe it.
What you have stated, *JustRon* was very well written. I for one appreciate your input. It has made me rethink about what gun control is all about. I have been referring to Fox News as “FOX NO NEWS” for several weeks now. I was glad to see that others are feeling the same way.
I could on about the left, media, liberals and possibly fill several paragraphs of negatives but i won’t because as of late FaceBook has censored several of my posts. However, it is true that without forums like this we would be left allmost totally in the dark.
Misinformation or a lack of is one of our biggest problems. We are so grossly out numbered and unorganized that I see nothing but an uphill battle in front of us. We are in dire need of a leader with a good game plan.
Good response. You will notice that most of the gun haters have no military experience. And MOST are not patriots, but, only care about their selves and the almighty dollar.
AS LONG AS we have billionaire Globalist-”Progressive” that own and thus CONTROL our national media then we will ONLY get the “news” and information that THEY want us to know about! ~ The national media has become nothing more then “Pied-Piper” leading the gullible and ignorant down the wrong path!!!
OUR FOUNDERS realized the IMPORTANCE of having a “FREE PRESS”, that the people be kept abrest and well informed concerning the works of their government, thus they gave us the First Amendment to our U.S. Constitution! ~ What has happened over time is that ALL major media has been bought-out by Social Democrat, Liberal-”Progressives” for the purpose of THEIR “END-GOALS” and NOT the good of we the people OR our nation!!!
“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
~Thomas Jefferson
@ANTICRIME
It’s just not the media and press that the globalists own, they own the politicians in Washington DC also, and they will own whoever is elected and sent there. It was Amschel Rothchilds who said, “Give me control of a nations money supply, and I care not who makes it’s laws” Of course we all know that the Rothchilds are the world’s foremost globalists and financiers. They own the world, including your country… So you do as you are told by your government…
Michael– Deo Vindicabamur
“What has happened over time is that ALL major media has been bought-out by Social Democrat, Liberal-”Progressives” for the purpose of THEIR “END-GOALS” and NOT the good of we the people OR our nation!!!”
You are correct and I’m afraid it’s all over, as least to the point that we will never again see a conservative in the Oval Office. The Progressives have followed the path laid out in the sixties to the letter and ignorant Americans have refused to believe in the danger they represent. I thought that the electorate would see the light after four years of American decline but they just don’t care as much as they care about personal, more minor issues, like gay rights, immigration, food stamps, etc. They don’t yet see that America following the European model into second-nation status, high unemployment, loss of national sovereignty, declining living standard, destruction of the middle class, etc, is our inevitable future if we continue on the path laid out intentionally by the Progressives. They will wake up eventually of course, but like the Russians, Germans, Italians, Venezuelans and others they will wake up too late when the Progressives have total police and military control. I expect the current regiem to accomplish that status during the next four years, including accomplishing Obama’s third, fourth, how many does he want, terms.
I am not surprised that the whole Propaganda Ministry is onboard with the Propaganda Master of the Commie World. The Main Stream Media is bountifully paid by the Federal Reserve and will have as much Money “Digitized” to their accounts as they deserve. Now that the Main Stream Propaganda Ministry is All On Board for the Commie Muslim World Order to be ruled by the Anti Christ In Chief, the ILLEGAL ALIEN President of the These United Commie Muslim States of Amerika. We will see extreme stories on Commyism and Muslimism. What Joy!
Murdoch’s just another Elitist Totalitarian disguising himself as a capitalist
Donations by Media Companies Tilt Heavily to Obama
All the major media companies, driven largely by their Hollywood film and television businesses, have made larger contributions to President Obama than to his rival, former Gov. Mitt Romney, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit, nonpartisan Washington-based research group that publishes the Open Secrets Web site.
The center’s numbers represent donations by a company’s PAC and any employees who listed that company as their employer.
Even companies whose news outlets are often perceived as having a conservative bias have given significantly more money to Mr. Obama. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, for example, has contributed $58,825 to Mr. Obama’s campaign, compared with $2,750 to Mr. Romney.
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/donations-by-media-companies-tilt-heavily-to-obama/
Why the Chinese Demand US Gun Control
http://www.thedailybell.com/28470/Why-the-Chinese-Demand-US-Gun-Control