Newsbusters: Thirty-strong Congressional Call for Holder’s Resignation

Our friends at Newsbusters are reporting that the calls for Eric Holder to resign are not only continuing, but the number of those making the call are growing. Newsbusters reported today:

Is the Mainstream Media Silent on Fast and Furious?

Yesterday we noted that numerous outlets, including even The Washington Post, have reported on Fast and Furious. The problem might not be with newspapers, but readership is down. Many Americans still turn to the evening news as their primary source of information, including national and world events.

Our friends at Newsbusters noted, “CBS Highlights ‘Fast & Furious”; ABC, NBC Place Heads in the Sand.” This is disturbing, but is worse when Newsbusters explains in detail:

“‘CBS Evening News’ distinguished itself among the Big Three networks on Monday by devoting an entire segment to the ongoing controversy over the ‘Fast and Furious’ program, where the federal government smuggled guns to Mexican drug cartels. NBC hasn’t mentioned the story on its news programs since April 17, while the last time ABC covered it was a news brief on June 15.”

It is important to note that CBS News essentially helped break this story, which could explain why ABC and NBC are silent, but consider that the two networks take time to note that Amanda Knox was acquitted, and last week devoted a segment to Michelle Obama shopping at Target! Those may be news stories too, but the fact that the Attorney General Eric Holder may have lied to Congress probably deserves some airtime!

Newsbusters: SF Chronicle Story Repeats AP ‘Fast & Furious’ Misinformation

Apparently FirearmsTruth.com isn’t the only site tracking “Fast and Furious Misinformation,” as our friends at Newsbusters have also been on the case. The Associated Press and now The San Francisco Chronicle are apparently trying to defect the damage that Fast and Furious might cause to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder by playing the “blame Bush” card.

The AP version according to Newsbusters:

“The federal government under the Bush administration ran an operation that allowed hundreds of guns to be transferred to suspected arms traffickers — the same tactic that congressional Republicans have criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for using, two federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday.”

As noted by Newsbusters, the SF Chronicle essentially parrots this information, but it was Townhall that spelled the difference:

” Yes, however, the key difference between Operation Fast and Furious under Obama and Project Gunrunner under Bush is that under Obama guns were allowed to go back into Mexico without interdiction or arrests.”

That seems like a major point to note. Let’s see if the rest of the mainstream media notices that point?

Newsbusters: SF Chronicle Story Repeats AP ‘Fast & Furious’ Misinformation

NewsBusters: How Will Media Cover Eric Holder and Fast and Furious?

Our friends at Newsbusters ask a great question, namely “How Will Media Cover Eric Holder and Fast and Furious?”

In early May of this year, Attorney General Eric Holder told Rep. Darrell Issa’s House committee that he was “not sure of the exact date” he learned of Fast and Furious, but that he “probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.

Now, CBS News has obtained documents showing that Holder was sent briefings on the controversial operation as early as July 2010, nearly a year before he claimed to Congress to have known about the gunwalking program. While the Justice Department claims that “Holder misunderstood that question from the committee – he did know about Fast and Furious – just not the details,” the video of the May 4 committee meeting suggests otherwise.

Do you think the media coverage of Holder’s lie to Congress will be as minimal as their coverage of the Solyndra scandal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
We at FirearmsTruth ask the same question. What do you think the media’s response will be?

Newsbusters Spread Word on “ATF Whistleblower” and Project Gunrunner

Still not much in the mainstream news about Project Gunrunner, also known as Project Gunwalker – or as the ATF originally called it Fast and Furious. But our friends at Newsbusters have been following the story, and noted that CleanUp ATF has launched as a forum as of last December.

Hopefully more news will finally spread about this ongoing issue along the Mexican border.

Bill Maher Calls GOP Party of “Assault Weapons”

This week our friends at Newsbusters noted that “comedian” (and we do use that word loosely) Bill Maher was on In the Arena on CNN with disgraced former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer, and the pair ranted about Republicans. Maher noted:

“There’s an attack in Arizona with assault weapons, and the party that backs assault weapons doesn’t get blamed.”

First, does this guy follow the news? As Newsbusters noted:

“Jared Jee Loughner used a semi-automatic pistol with a 33-round magazine in Tucson, not an “assault weapon.” Maher likely wants to ban those extended magazines as well, but it doesn’t give him an excuse to spout off a false detail.”

Maher routinely speaks out against any Republican or Conservative that makes the smallest error or mistake. But yet he does the same thing.

However, there is another point to all this. Maher clearly doesn’t get that guns are not just favored by Republicans. Many Democrats care about this issue too.

Time: Dead Man Walker?

Our friends at Newsbusters caught this story. Apparently time magazine have run a story with the headline “Wisconsin’s Governor Wins But Is He Still Dead Man Walker?” The post from Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters notes that this is just two months are all the fuss about “violent rhetoric and imagery following the tragic Tucscon shootings that almost killed Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).”

So where is the outrage now?

What is also notable is that the media has been mostly silent on the (barely) reported death threats to GOP State Senators, as well as the Republican Governor in Wisconsin. Where is the outrage, but where is the reporting?

MSNBC’s Mika Brezinski Says “Gun Show Loophole Was Closed”

How do you trust a reporter that doesn’t know the facts? Well, Mike Brezinksi of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” often makes strange gaffes – she once stated that “Abraham Lincoln” was her favorite Founding Father, despite the fact that Honest Abe was born in 1809, some 33 years after the Declaration of Independence.

So what do you make of the recent discussion she had with panelists on the show that discussed the gun show loophole. According to our friends at Newsbusters.org, which followed this story, Brezinksi’s husband, an investigative reporter, had bought several AK-47s at a Virginia gun show in an effort to prove how it easy it is to obtain the small arm.

During the segment another panelist noted: “A loophole was closed for a while.”

Brezinski replied, “right.”To which Barnicle said, “and then re-opened when they let the law lapse a couple of years ago.” Brezinski said, “that’s correct. That’s correct.”

Except, it isn’t correct. There was no ban of private sales. B&B (Brezinski and Barnicle) confused this with the assault weapons ban. That’s something entirely different.

But some other notable issues with this debate. During the segment Brezinski looks at the camera and says, “Just close the loophole. Governor Bob McDonnell.”

McDonnell is of course the governor of Virginia. Should a co-host of a news program comment like this, or worse command a politician? And exactly how should McDonnell go about doing such a thing?

Finally, even co-host Joe Scarborough got in on the act, and noted the following:

“Five times to go into the gun show and had nothing but his photo ID from Virginia Tech, and was able to fill up a trunk with semi-automatic weapons. The killings in the New York and New Jersey and the Northeast are traced to those Virginia gun shows. Like I said, the drug wars are being armed, the most dangerous terrorists in our hemisphere, the drug kingpins, are being armed by Arizona gun show laws – c’mon. 90 percent of Americans don’t want this to continue. 90 percent of Americans don’t want to continue, it should not continue.”

Who doesn’t want what this continue, and where does this 90 percent come from? We think most American don’t want to see senseless shootings? We doubt there is even 10 percent that would say, “yeah, senseless shootings I’m all for that.” As for 90 percent wanting the gun show loophole closed, well, that’s just plain wrong.

The so-called loophole isn’t a loophole. And trying to say that 90 percent want it closed it just bad reporting.

Time to Rethink The Second Amendment Says Richard Lui

It was just a “tease” before a commercial break for an upcoming segment but MSNBC anchor Richard Lui asked viewers whether it was time to rethink the Second Amendment reports our friends at Newsbusters.

This was for an upcoming segment where Chris Jansing would interview House Intelligence Committee chairman and former FBI agent Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Michigan). Harmless tease, evocative question or something more?

Video available at Newsbusters (MSNBC’s Richard Lui: ‘Is It Time to Rethink the 2nd Amendment?’)

Brady Campaign Not Anti-Gun?

Isn’t the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence anti-gun? That’s really a no brainer question, but our friends at Newsbusters noted that on ABC’s Good Morning America the group tried to present itself as anything but.

Here is what Newsbusters had to say: 

“According to Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts on Monday, the efforts of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence aren’t ‘anti-gun.’ The morning show co-host interviewed Colin Goddard, the group’s assistant director of legislative affairs, and promoted a new documentary on the ‘gun show loophole.’

“Colin Goddard survived the massacre at Virginia Tech and now works for the aggressively anti-Second Amendment organization. Yet, while talking to Goddard, she portrayed the group’s work as just common sense. She exclaimed, ‘Because you’re not anti-gun.’”

Read the rest of the story at Newsbusters: ABC Pushes Gun Control Documentary, Absurdly Touts Work of the Brady Campaign as ‘Not Anti-Gun’

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