I fired this off to NPR when I got home from work today. Another turd journalist. I guess you could call it "turdulism".
June 24, 2009
This morning I heard a brief report by Jason Beaubien titled, "Mexican Drug Cartels Buy Guns Easily In U.S. This piece was a slap-dash chunk of what sounded like "last-minute deadline" panic, cobbled from snippets of various other news items. The report was aggravating to me and, in my opinion, unworthy of air time.
Opening statements referred to a " new U.S. government report says 87 percent of the guns seized by authorities in Mexico's drug war are traced back to the United States". That figure has been effectively and factually disproved publicly, with several administration officials embarrassed by having publicly touted the misinformation. The reporter then goes on to state that " Mexican drug cartels find it much easier to obtain firearms north of the border. There are tens of thousands of licensed gun shops in the U.S. There is just one in Mexico, and it's run by the army." That statement is an offhand, cavalier, uninformed, libelous statement inferring that any licensed gun dealer in the US could be a source for drug cartel weapons. That statement does not dignify any further response.
In the spirit of full disclosure I believe in all of our Constitutional rights including the Second Amendment. I do not believe that the reporter in question has committed to full disclosure, as he obviously has an anti Second Amendment agenda OR is simply bad or sloppy at his job. Either way his work is unworthy of public supported media.
I submit three points to consider in assessing this "news" piece.
One, the firearm industry is very highly regulated. Drug cartels do not like regulation and paper trails, and considering the ease with which contraband is moved around worldwide it is ludicrous to believe that cartel guns are purchased from licensed US gun dealers.
Two, the US and other world powers have spent decades arming south America and Mexico. It is no wonder that American weapons are found in Mexico. The largest gun runner in the world is our own government.
Three, I call attention to the flaming hypocrisy that gun violence among drug cartels would not be a problem if the corrupt Mexican government was functional and was able to crack down on the tons of illegal drugs the cartels ship into the US. They line their pockets with drug money while turning their heads to the violence in their streets, blaming US citizens and US industry for their drug cartel violence problem.
It is my opinion that NPR editors let a journalistic turd loose here. If they believe this to be legitimate journalism, then they either have lost their way, or they have no shame.
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