There's hope for the media

I would like to relay something that just happened to me, a good something.

A couple of days ago, the local ABC affiliate had a story about a marijuana bust, in which there was also a machinegun confiscated. Now, I watch ABC because it's the least objectionable network to watch, and the local affiliate has been hiring a great crop of eye candy (not to mention I'm pals with one of their reporters). And my ears perked up at the mention of 'machine gun'.

But when they went into the story, they listed the 'machine gun' as a "Mack 10".

WTF?

So I went onto the affiliate's web site to look further, and the ATF hasn't even decided on whether to charge the guy, so to me, it's looking like the firearm may not be full-auto after all.

Then Chris Cuomo was on the national news telling us how easy it was to get a grenade launcher. I wish!

So I bitched to the news director in an email, and got a rather frank response.

Apparently, the director says he can't do much about what ABC does, but he sent my e-mail to the others in the newsroom, having this to add:

Subject: FW: Comments about two stories last night (Jan 27)


I will give Mr. [redacted] a detailed reply, but first I want to share his note with everyone. It perfectly illustrates the point [redacted] and I have been making about the level of gun sophistication in the (...) viewing area and the requirement we face as journalists to rise to the challenge. To be clear, I am not saying we got the Mac 10 thing wrong – I’ll dig around on that question – just that we have many, many viewers who will not respect us if we regularly reveal a lack of gun smarts.

[redacted]

So maybe I'm not the only one sending pointy e-mails around.

In his reply, the director also notes that my e-mail comes at a time when the newsroom was already planning a gun education session with the staffers, and my comments only bolstered his case.

Now that seems like progress to me.

pm