News says Fort Hood killer used a a 5.7-caliber semiautomatic pistol. I think they mean the FN FiveseveN, which is close to a .22 caliber.

By most accounts, it’s looking like a case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome. Seems the shooter was upset about being deployed overseas, which makes you wonder about his career choice since that line of work stands a better than average shot at being deployed overseas. Witnesses report he shouted allahu akbar while shooting.

And there’s that whole matter of him being investigated for his online postings of threats and suicide. So, why wasn’t he investigated? If not that, why not at least inform his commanding officers of his tendency to talk about suicide bombing? The hints were there. Another in a line of fatal intelligence failures, I suppose.

Also, Pattycakes tells us that the narrative is shifting. I think after this incident, most folks won’t approve of that kind of PC scrubbing. The press is loathe to speculate about the shooter’s religion and that being a factor. But within minutes they were speculating about stressed out soldiers going crazy. No one should be saying that Muslims are inherently violent. That’s wrong and bigoted. But tiptoeing around the issue that violent acts that have been committed by someone whose religion influenced them is not. It’s called reporting. And the press needs to stop acting like it doesn’t exist.

Of course, the press couldn’t get the guns right. In less than 44 minutes, the guns went from sniper rifles, to uzis, to M16s, and lastly we learn it was handguns. I’m surprised the press didn’t throw in a gratuitous AK-47 reference for consistency.

People seem to like it, reasoned or not:

The newspaper was investing time and resources generating stories, but these other sites, run mostly as a hobby, were linking to those stories and moving the conversation about the articles elsewhere.

“There was a point at which KnoxViews was really taking off,” McElroy says, “and it concerned me as I thought, ‘Is the nexus of community dialogue going to be shifting away from the News Sentinel to an Internet forum, and what does that mean for our future?’”

KnoxViews had—and continues to have—an openly progressive tilt, so to forfeit the lion’s share of community dialogue to a site driven by a particular set of political and social values could have marginalized a great many other community voices; or it may have run them into their own respective realms, creating echo chambers of like-minded people rather than a Darwinian common ground where the best ideas survive.

So when the Sentinel relaunched its site in 2007, it linked comments to usernames and allowed them for every article. The effect was palpable. Randy Neal, founder of KnoxViews, says he immediately noticed an exodus from his site to the News Sentinel’s; with the help of some contentious local issues, before long knoxnews.com was hosting nearly 50,000 comments a month. The crisis of irrelevance had been averted.

Interesting. A forum was a threat to the local news rag. The local news rag opens comments and that impacts the forum’s traffic. Of course, about two years ago, was also when Knoxviews decided that dissent would not be tolerated. I find that funny.

No, I’m not talking about the Obama administration. I’m talking about the TeeVee show V. I watched that show and had quite a few belly laughs over how it’s tied to some current events. Some spoilers so don’t read more if you don’t want to know.

But the leader of the aliens, Anna, is a charismatic speaker who people get really into. Some characters compared the devotion to the visitors to religion and messiah figures. Anna spoke of hope and change. The visitors offered universal health care to the people. And the press agreed to ask questions that would not portray the visitors in a negative light. I don’t know if the writers of the show did that on purpose but a lot of the things were rather similar to criticism of Obama and some things were definitely similar to Obama. I laughed.

Update and bump: Also, seriously, 29 spaceships enter the atmosphere and hover above major cities. And people don’t bug out? If giant space craft landed over Maryville, me, the wife, and the kids would be hitting the back forty with lots of guns, skinning bucks, running trot lines, and doing other things from Hank Jr. songs. I wouldn’t be hanging around to see what happened.

Update: From Bitter, similar thoughts at the Chicago Tribune.

The NYT was controlled by Spitzer’s communications director.

In an update to this, Newscoma notes the irony since the press rarely links bloggers even though bloggers have been the source. True. I’ve seen stuff bloggers first wrote about appear in the press sans attribution plenty. But no one cried about it.

And Michael says:

Don’t you just love MSM growing pains?

Internet is serious business.

Via ACK, comes some whining about linking and crediting and whatnot. Yes, a blog is complaining that someone dared to draw traffic to it.

BTW, sparky, shouldn’t your post there link to the offending piece? I know these hyperlink thingies are hard for the press sometimes but that seems a bit, err, inconsistent.

Update: Grantham tackles both the hyperlink and the though questions:

How long the breadcrumb trail has to be before you are ripping off other people’s content is a very good question. Kleinheider did the right thing, but the editor of the Nashville City Paper online probably didn’t.

Links and such are an interesting thing. For instance, this morning I was doing some blogiating* and realized I had over 34 tabs open in the browser. So, by the time I had commented on something, I’d forgotten where I read it. As such, I likely didn’t credit one of the members of the breadcrumb trail. And that happens all the time.

* I think I just invented a new word.

Newsweek tells us that most folks haven’t heard of a serial killer in NC because the killer is killing black women. Because the press is racist. Kinda like how nobody outside of East Tennessee has heard of th Christian/Newsom murders.

Seen at The KNS:

“In the current case involving threatening communications made to attorneys representing a defendant in the Christian-Newsom murder trial, the FBI’s investigation into this matter was recently and prematurely exposed. In addition, the News Sentinel revealed yesterday the precise subject matter of a federal grand jury subpoena it received concerning this crime, citing the “newsworthiness” of this development and the absence of an explanation by the FBI as to why the subpoena’s secrecy was important.

“While the News Sentinel’s disclosure may indeed serve “the interest of transparency,” the revelations made to date may also provide the person or persons who committed the crime with the strategic knowledge necessary to now successfully frustrate this important investigation. This is the reason the United States Attorney’s Office asked the News
Sentinel not to disclose the issuance or substance of the subpoena.”

Lou Dobbs says people shot at his house. I’m sure bloggers and news columnists will be out there blaming a political ideology for this one, right?

Two shot in LA synagogue. Still on the loose. Little speculation on this one in the press.

And the FBI killed the leader of a mosque in a raid. While the NYT won’t tell you a lot of things, Moe Lane will.

But let’s make sure we continue demonizing Oath Keepers, who the press will tell you are domestic terrorists despite not terrorizing anyone.

Update: Looks like Dobbs was the victim of a rule four violation.

A newspaper published a letter that advocated killing hunters. Now, I expect people to have such bone-headed ideas. I don’t expect a newspaper to publish stuff like that.

Portrayed positively in the press? What’s going on here?

Michael Silence notes:

The FBI has expanded its investigation of reported death threats against the attorneys for the alleged ringleader in the torture slayings of a Knox County couple.

The News Sentinel was served Monday with a federal grand jury subpoena for information related to a comment posted in September on its Web site, knoxnews.com.

On the advice of corporate counsel, the newspaper turned over the information late Monday to FBI Special Agent Gregg Harmon.

MSNBC Anchor Introduces Jesse Jackson as Al Sharpton

Joe:

Back in the 1990’s the NRA couldn’t pay to get ads in many major publications. The ads would not be accepted even when offering to pay above the existing ad rates (and most ads are discounted from the published rates).

By admitting they were wrong:

We confess to harboring some reservations about the concealed carry law. Our fear was an increase in guns in public would result in more guns being displayed prematurely and/or more accidents.

White said recently: “All the fears over conceal and carry have never manifested.”

We concede the point.

Anecdotal evidence does not suggest an increase in accidents or unprovoked gunplay.

The evidence, however, does show people defending themselves from harm.

Except that, to some people, it is.

Newscoma notes a councilman used the word blogger as a slur. Well, to people in power, it probably is. After all, when they want a message out, they usually go to the press because they have a cushy relationship with the press. The press, after all, has to play nice if they wish to continue having access. Being a concerned citizen with an audience is threatening to those in power.

I don’t get Showtime so I haven’t watched but apparently they have a show called Lock n Load. It’s about working the counter at a gun shop. Tam says that should be pretty boring. Shockingly, gun owners are just people too.

Over at PJ Media, the reaction from the press to the show is highlighted:

Naturally, the first few critical salvos against the show were anything but positive. Newsday and Variety dubbed the show “aimless” and “toothless,” respectively, both bemoaning its lack of an angle.

By angle, they mean the show doesn’t demonize gun owners or the Second Amendment. Had the series taken an aggressively pro-gun stance, said critics likely wouldn’t like that particular angle one bit. The critics were likely expecting another Bowling for Columbine, one of Michael Moore’s many slanted polemics.

Whatever happened to introducing a topic and letting the audience draw its own conclusions?

Newsday goes further, saying Ryan is selling “death” even though many of the customers make it clear they want to own a gun to protect their loved ones against intruders. That critic should have holstered her biases at the door.

Bushmaster advertisement for AR-15s in issues of Maxim magazine:

From Gun Porn

Well, they do share the name of the inventor of the machine gun and sound suppressor. Also an ad for the Remington 870.

A few years back, I would never have imagined a men’s magazine catering to young men (some even say metrosexuals) would be advertising evil black rifles. Fantastic. Oh and go get your man card.

I think I’ve fallen back in love with Freedom Group.

The AP:

The FBI says the number of police officers slain in the line of duty fell sharply last year.

Bureau statistics list 41 law enforcement officers killed in 2008. The list includes one FBI agent, Sam Hicks, who was shot and killed during a drug raid outside Pittsburgh.

Felony killings of police officers haven’t been that low since 1999, although police officer support groups — which use different standards to count officer killings — say the number of officers killed hasn’t been this low since the 1960s

It doesn’t fit the narrative though so don’t expect a lot of reporting:

… considering it occurred during a year where concealed carry permit applications skyrocketed nationwide, along with the sale of ammunition, handguns, and so-called assault rifles.

Gun sales went up, and the killing of law enforcement officers went down. Just another inconvenient truth.

The two youths were just sitting there, minding their own business while rummaging through the homeowners’ stuff when they were shot by those vigilantes.

Should these Negroes be allowed to carry a gun?

Journalists shield Al Gore from hard questions.

Seems DVRs actually increase TeeVee viewership. But someone should tell them that people aren’t watching commercials.

Summing up the media treatment of NRA:

The Intelligencer Journal /Lancaster New Era negligently published a story that questions the NRA’s solution to the problem of “illegal guns” without calling and asking us.

My understanding from NRA folks I’ve talked to is that the press rarely calls them.

NSSF’s long form video on AR-15s can be seen here. Says NSSF:

The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s educational campaign on modern sporting rifles has added a new long-form video (long for the Web anyway, five minutes) to accompany its 30- and 60-second messages. The campaign is designed to reach a wide audience in the hunting and target shooting community, with emphasis placed on educating sportsmen whose preference for traditional-looking firearms can lead them to misunderstand AR-15-platform rifles and to even describe them as “assault weapons,” which inadvertently lends support to elected officials and organizations who want to ban these rifles.

No, really:

In the Chicago case, the justices are considering whether the 2nd Amendment should be applied to the states by either the 14th Amendment’s due process clause (which applies to “persons”) or its privileges and immunities clause (which protects only citizens). The court should say yes, even as it reaffirms its assurance in its 2008 decision that government may still impose reasonable restrictions on the right to bear arms.

This is no time for the court to start picking and choosing when it comes to the Bill of Rights.

The last sentence being reserved to editorial boards.

Time magazine lists upcoming important supreme court cases. Guess which one they get substantially wrong?

CNN fact checks a Saturday Night Live skit. Are you fucking serious? How much further in the tank could they be?

So does Yahoo news.

Meanwhile, CNN hasn’t updated the recession watch page since 2008. What’s different?

Eugene Volokh notes what we knew all along about the supposed study that was funded by an anti-gun group.

Addressing liberal bias in the Bible. No, really. Via Roger Dodger.

If you thought it would be a major paper covering their disappearing members, accusations they’re using names of mayors without the their permission or that a good number of them are in jail, you would be wrong. It’s about their action plan.

Michael on the Obama administration’s position on shield laws:

Boy, talk about alienating your base.

The headline heard all around Tennessee: 70 cities say no to guns in parks. But the truthiness:

The Union City Daily Messenger printed an article from The Tennessean stating that 70 cities have banned guns in parks.That may sound like alot but below you will find the facts. According to Tnhometownlocator.com there are 95 counties and 343 incorporated cities in Tennessee,that is 438 entities combined.That leaves 368 that have not voted to opt out,or not voted at all.If my math is correct that means 5 out of 6 allow it.So much for fair and balanced media.

Michael Silence at the local paper on the guns in parks stuff:

The shameless grandstanding on this meaningless topic has been pathetic pandering. And by the way, how much time has been spent by various state and local lawmakers this year on guns-in-whatever topics as opposed to say, oh, education?

Trouble is, the pandering by lawmakers, time spent on the issue, and the bogus claim that it was the year of the gun are all overstated and exist largely in the imagination of Tom Humphrey. This year, the legislature passed five or so gun bills out of how many total bills? Hardly a giant margin. Knox County passed one gun resolution, out of how many? Thirty or so? A whopping 3ish%? Hardly an indication of how much time is spent on this.

Where most of the time was spent on these non-issues was at editorial boards and opinion pieces at your paper. Just saying.

Reading the news media, you would think that a federal judge shut down Bulls Eye Shooter Supply because the DC sniper stole a gun from there. But it’s not true. You see, Bulls Eye Shooter Supply is still in business. The former owner had his FFL revoked and the new owner just got a shiny new one and plans to be in business for a long time.

There’s a pretty active media campaign portraying the NRA as bullies picking on the poor, hapless little mayors in Mayors Against Guns. It fits the narrative that NRA = bad. Unfortunately, the truth is more like quite a few mayors didn’t know what they were signing up for and, in fact, some didn’t even sign up at all and discovered they were members. Anyway, the press says you should lighten up about all that.

Odds a newspaper accurately reports on guns:

The Tennessean is the only Nashville news outlet to correctly report that felon who sold the gun that killed Steve McNair plead guilty to felon in possession of a firearm.

No, not that they both have lots of whores. It’s that the majority of their content is free on Al Gore’s internets.

Odd how the real violence from G20 protests is not getting as much play as the non violence from the Tea Party protests.