Penn Live Story Offers Anti-Gun Bias in Reporting

The key word missing today from a lot of the media: attribution. It seems that thanks to blogs, website posts and quasi-news organizations that attributing a statement or belief to someone isn’t so important. This is certainly true of a recent PennLive.com news story. The site, which is associated with the Central Pennsylvania The Patriot News offered a story this week titled “Gun ‘culture’ stirs frustration and grief.” Already that has a zinger of a headline that shows a lean that is anti-guns in general.

The story does discuss the growing problem of urban gangs and a fascination of youths to use a gun as a fashion statement, and to show how tough one can be. We don’t agree that this is how guns should be used, nor would most law-abiding gun owners. That’s the key, law-abiding. These men are not law-abiding, so the story could be as much about “gang culture” as it is about “gun culture.” But the feature also offers a snappy kicker:

“Some believe the gun laws in Pennsylvania don’t go far enough.”

We’re sure “some” people don’t believe this gun laws go far enough, but some probably think they go too far. This is a weak argument, and weaker still because it lacks any attribution. Who is this some? Was it so hard to find an anti-gun group out there? But the point by the author, who is likely among the “some,” is still made.