Media bias is as much about what stays off the news as what goes into it; bias by omission can be a powerful tool to keep topics buried deep in the memory hole. Such as this: “NRA’s LaPierre: Why Don’t Media Ask Obama Why Chicago Is Last in Enforcing Gun Laws?,” as spotted by Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters:
WAYNE LAPIERRE: I mean, let me give you the real sad thing though. Let me hold up a mirror right now to the whole national news media and the White House. I just got the track data from Syracuse University of enforcement of federal gun laws. Last time I was here, I brought it from 2011; it just came out from 2012.
Do you know where Chicago ranks in terms of enforcement of the federal gun laws? Out of 90 jurisdictions in the country, they ranked 90th. Why doesn’t NBC News start with, “Shocking news on Chicago. Of all the jurisdictions in the country, Chicago’s dead last on enforcement of the federal gun laws?” Why doesn’t the national press corps, when they’re sitting down there with Jay Carney and the president and the vice president, why don’t they say, “Why is Chicago dead last in enforcement of the gun laws against gangs with guns, felons with guns, drug dealers with guns?
DAVID GREGORY, HOST: And you support those as felonies, being charged as felonies?
LAPIERRE: Absolutely. And we want them taken off the street. I mean, if you’re the president and the vice president, and the attorney general, and your job is to enforce these laws against the– I’m talking about drug dealers, gangs, and felons that are walking around with guns in the street, and you don’t do it? You bear some responsibility. It is a tragedy.
As Noel writes, this topic is memory holed for multiple reasons — it doesn’t fit the media’s all gun control all the time narrative, and Chicago’s current mayor is Mr. Obama’s former chief of staff.
Meanwhile, Ann Coulter touches the nanny state’s third rail, asking a question that’s been even more embargoed in the MSM, as can been seen by the hyperbolic tone of her transcriber at left-leaning Mediaite blog:
This might be perhaps the greatest segment of Geraldo at Large ever known to man. During what was supposed to be a debate about NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s various “public health” laws — indoor smoking bans, hidden cigarette displays by mandate, bans on large sugary beverages, etc. — Ann Coulter attempted to flip the “liberal nannying” logic upside-down by bringing up illegitimacy, sodomy, AIDS, and gay bathhouses.
Suffice it to say the segment went off the rails. And did so quickly.
Anti-obesity advocate (and big Bloomberg fan) MeMe Roth started off praising the mayor’s various efforts by noting that he is a “student of behavioral psychology” who understands that “increasing the inconvenience just a little bit” will lead to better choices by the consumer.
Coulter was not having any of it. She tore into Bloomberg by suggesting we just be done with it already and “have a death penalty for smokers,” before changing the subject to the negative behaviors that liberals are unwilling to stigmatize, such as illegitimate birth.
Geraldo Rivera‘s efforts to corral the segment away from unwed teen pregnancy were for naught. When Roth made the claim that bans on various unhealthy activities are warranted because “we pick up the tab” for other’s bad habits, Coulter countered that “I think you’re going to have to do something about the gay bathhouses.”
“AIDS is very expensive, and if I’m paying for it, how about discouraging that behavior?” she explained.
Later, while clarifying that she doesn’t actually want to ban homosexual activity, she told Roth, “If you’re argument is ‘Smoking: we all have to pay,’ then why not ‘Sodomy: we all have to pay.’” She told Roth that a consistent position on “nannying” would require her to be “anti-bathhouses” in addition to anti-smoking.
Well, yes. It’s all fun and games until the Brave New World of the Nanny State and “Progressivism’s” concomitant mindset of “What can we ban today?” impacts an activity you want to keep legal.
(Coulter post found via Kathy Shaidle, who has much more on the topic.)
Update: Michael Walsh on Michael Bloomberg, Liberal Fascist.
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