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MSNBC’s error-laden attack on Gottlieb no substitute for journalism
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Sitting in for MSNBC’s Chris “Obama makes my leg tingle” Matthews on the cable network’s Hardball program on Monday, April 6, award-winning David Schuster demonstrated why conservatives, and particularly members of the firearms community, have such disdain for MSNBC.
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Hosting an appearance by New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, who had authored a piece headlined Pitchforks and Pistols that appeared in the newspaper April 3, and Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, Schuster immediately bared his rather partisan fangs and went for Gottlieb’s jugular.
Rather than allow Gottlieb time enough to breathe, much less explain his position or respond completely to a question, Schuster used the favored tactic of the demagogue: Interruption, sprinkled with obfuscation.
Some of the things Schuster demanded that Gottlieb explain were things that the gun rights leader had never said, nor advocated. Schuster tried to fluster Gottlieb first by challenging him to justify Fox talk jock Glenn Beck’s *alleged* remarks about so-called “FEMA concentration camps” (when, indeed, Beck’s program that very afternoon, broadcast at the same time as Hardball, was actually refuting internet reports of such FEMA camps), and by challenging Gottlieb’s statement that Barack Obama is widely seen as a divisive president.
As a prepared journalist, Schuster earns an “F.”
According to a just-published Pugh Research survey, Obama is rather polarizing. That’s not Gottlieb talking, but Schuster either did not like what he heard, or did not want his listeners to hear. Remember the adage about not killing the messenger?
For all of his hopes about bipartisanship, Barack Obama has the most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades.
On the other hand, not once did Schuster rudely interrupt or try to talk over what Blow had to say about his column, in which he tried to both marginalize and demonize American gun owners over concerns that the Obama administration at some point plans to take measures against gun rights.
They’re apocalyptic. They feel isolated, angry, betrayed and besieged. And some of their 'leaders' seem to be trying to mold them into militias.
Schuster challenged Gottlieb to offer evidence that the Obama administration is anti-gun. Before he was allowed to answer, Schuster again interrupted him and essentially called him a prevaricator.
Well, when one examines the facts, one will reach the quick conclusion that someone on that program was being, er, disingenuous, and it wasn’t Gottlieb.
Attorney General Eric Holder created a firestorm when he acknowledged earlier this year during a press conference that the Obama White House would like to renew the ban on so-called “assault weapons.” Maybe Schuster was on vacation that day.
But the other day in Jiutepec, Mexico, Holder told another press conference that the administration was pushing forward with a plan to block what have turned out to be remarkably exaggerated illegal gun shipments to Mexico. Holder, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, noted, “I don't think our Second Amendment will stand in the way of the efforts we have begun and will expand upon.”
I don't think our Second Amendment will stand in the way of the efforts we have begun and will expand upon.
So, perhaps Schuster could elucidate on that.
While he’s figuring out how to blame that one on gun owners, Schuster might consider offering an apology to Gottlieb for the shabby treatment, and he ought to also consider correcting himself on the allegation that Beck has been pushing some myth (rather than busting it) that FEMA is setting up “concentration camps.”
Uh…don’t hold your breath.
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