Google Gun Bias (and some other things)
I use Google news alerts to keep me up to date on the assault weapons ban and other things. Google news alerts allows you to enter words and phrases (like Assault Weapons and Pit Bull) and any story that contains those words will be emailed to you. Good concept. I’ve discussed the fact that Google treats anti-gun press releases (term used very loosely) from groups like the Violence Policy Center, Brady Campaign, MMM, and JoinTogether as news.
It does also email neutral articles and pro-gun articles (as long as the pro-gun article is from a major news source). However, it didn’t send me an alert about this:
This is obviously a press release but it is a double standard.
It did, however, send a link to this today:
Re “NRA’s Eye Is Fixed on Bush,” editorial, May 16: Equating the expiration of the (entirely useless) assault weapons ban of 1994 with the easy availability of automatic weapons such as an AK-47 or Uzi is intellectually dishonest and sheds more heat than light on the subject of gun control. Fully automatic assault weapons have been tightly regulated and largely unavailable to the public since the enactment of the National Firearms Act of 1934. No matter what happens with the 1994 act, the status of these weapons will not change
So, I’ve decided it’s not anything intentional by Google. I’m not sure if these things require submission by those releasing the news or if it’s something Google tracks. So, I’d have to conclude an anti-gun bias in the media in general. Go figure.
And here’s some more guns in the media stuff:
Gun ban — In just four months, Americans will be able to walk out of a gun store with an AK-47 rifle, an Uzi or other weapon of mass murder under their arm.
That statement is absolutely false. First, if they are referring to machine gun versions of Uzis and AKs, those (machine guns) have been regulated since 1934 under the National Firearms Act. If they are referring to semi-automatic versions, those have been banned from import by an executive order since the 1980s (thank Bush 1). Again, the current ban is really quite useless.
Two newspapers in Ohio have published the names of citizens who obtained concealed weapons permits. Objective reporting, my ass.
I guess the words Uzi and AK47 conjure up the right amount of irrational fear. Here those words are used dishonestly again.
A growing trend: Anti-gunners targeting smaller gun manufacturers with bad press. You’ll see more of this soon.
May 19th, 2004 at 10:35 am
Google has some curious “news” sources including rushlimbaugh.com and paulmartintime.ca (which is a parody site on the Canadian Prime Minister). However, I don’t think its indicative of any bias on their part.
May 19th, 2004 at 4:14 pm
I’ve noticed that the yahoo.com anti-spam filter refuses to pass most google news alerts, shitcanning them almost all the time.
May 19th, 2004 at 6:44 pm
I wonder how legal it is to publish the names of folks who have lawfully obtained a CCW permit.
since the issuing of said permits is regulated by law enforcement, what right does any news organization have to that information.
that’s like publishing the names of those folks who have legally bought tylenol.
May 21st, 2004 at 4:08 pm
TM: AFAIK, there is no law against publishing the names of those folks who have legally bought Tylenol. No such records exist, of course.