There seems to be one topic dominating the internet, talk radio and television news stations these days and it is gun control. Following the massacre in Newtown, politicians, political pundits, television hosts and anyone with an outlet to express their opinion to people have weighed in on the subject. If you were not captivated by the lopsided railroading of Notre Dame by Alabama in the college football national championship game you may have made your way over to CNN and Piers Morgan's show. If not, you may have watched the interview in full online like I did the next day. Either way, it was worth watching for entertainment value alone.
Alex Jones of the Alex Jones show on radio, who is also associated with infowars.com, was the guest that evening. This was especially interesting as Alex had been instrumental in starting a petition on the White House website in regards to deporting Piers due to his strong stance on gun control. The petition has received over 100,000 signatures at this point. What ensued was a two segment interview, although using the word interview for what occurred is certainly an egregious insult.
Post Newtown, Piers Morgan has sought out gun rights activists to have on his show in order to push his agenda and ratings. As in most of Piers' interviews, the guest is usually a bit of a firebrand and someone who Piers can portray as a loon, which he proceeded to do the next day to anyone who would listen. Alex Jones most certainly fits this firebrand persona and did not disappoint. No doubt Alex had seen previous Morgan interviews where Piers characteristically resorted to name calling and speaking over the guest and came prepared.
Alex Jones most certainly carried his own agenda on to the show. He has a brand that he is trying to sell and probably cemented some of his base with his performance. As a Libertarian I agree with the majority of what Alex said but dislike the stereotype trap that Morgan set for him. Morgan had nothing intelligent to say and kept going back to the statistic about gun murders in the UK, completely disregarding the fact that UK violent crime hovers around three times as high the United States. Regardless, he painted Jones as a typical gun owner and second amendment advocate. Particularly cringe worthy was Alex's tone and body language when claiming that "1776 would come again" if the government tried to take our guns. While Alex made good points and did not let Piers control the argument, I can't help but believe that to those not already on his side he did more harm than good.
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