Guntards.net

The acceptable face of ignorant bigotry

Posted by simonov on 26 June 2007

You’ve probably seen this on other gun blogs, a CNN report highlighting how gun owners are particular hazardous to pregnant women:

Now, aside from the preposterous notion that pregnant women are at particularly high risk for being crime victims,* on the strength of the American media’s latest news substitution story (the scary buck Negro murders pregnant virgin white girlfriend case, though CNN doesn’t quite put it that way, despite their understanding that’s precisely why it is such profitable broadcasting fodder), CNN once again is using their broad brush of bigotry to gain viewers. Only instead of going after the thrilling scary buck Negro angle, which would justifiably alienate many of their advertisers, CNN has decided to paint tens of millions of law-abiding (male) gun owners and collectors as particularly dangerous people for (white?) (pregnant?) women to date or live with or marry or allow to father their children, buy their car, pay their mortgage, whatever it is the loyal CNN-watching distaff wants from men these days.

Strangely, they haven’t made any similar leaps of logic to suggest pregnant white women should avoid dating adulterers, police officers, African-Americans, Ohioans, meth-heads or people who use bleach.

Pay special attention to the bogus statistics about “leading causes of death” for pregnant women. Sorry, CNN, that should have been “leading forms of homicide,” which are probably almost the same proportions as in the general population. But you knew that, didn’t you, CNN? It’s odd that you continue to find it necessary to lie to your viewers whenever you discuss guns, CNN, since we gun rights advocates almost never feel the urge to do so.

You can tell Paula Zahn what you think of her reporting, or tell her bosses.

* Update: Our friend over at the excellent Grappling With Guns blog takes exception to this point, and insists that pregnant women are in fact at greater risk of being violent crime victims. Grappling arrives at this conclusion based on formal studies of criminology and discusses it in more detail in a blog entry on the Paula Zahn segment.

Also, it may be that Pat Brown’s report here was presented out of context, that some of her comments about gun owners were meant to be directed towards psychopaths specifically. She attempts to clarify her views in this e-mail response appearing in the comments section on Xavier’s blog. Be that as it may, it sure would have been nice if Pat Brown had pointed out how the statistics Paula Zahn asked to her comment on were deliberately misleading. Apologies to Pat Brown if we seem to be unfairly slurring her, but clearly CNN is trying to push forward an agenda, the usual one for them. I can’t find a transcript of the show on CNN’s website, but you can very clearly hear the first words in the clip (from a different talking head), “. . . another big aspect is men who are gun owners as being particularly dangerous.”

I’m happy to set the record straight here, but of course none of this does anything to mitigate the absurdity of linking gun owners and gun collectors, the vast majority of whom are peaceable, law-abiding people, with a propensity toward misogynistic violence.

Update II: Pat Brown makes it clear on her own blog that her words were taken out of context. Apologies to Pat Brown, but none (so far) will be offered to Paula Zahn and CNN.

On the other hand, I do object to this: “Now, after doing interviews on the Jessie Davis murder, those from the right are taking one statement out of context and going nuts about it.” Some of us aren’t from the right, Pat.

You know, to be honest, it wasn’t even Pat Brown’s comments in that clip that got my fur up so much as the misleading chart and the initial words (possibly less damning in their full context as well), “. . . men who are gun owners as being particularly dangerous.” That, and the sordid business of fabricating an anti-gun fable out of the pregnant white virgin killed by scary black man story. But hey, if it bleeds it leads, right CNN?

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