Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Wow. An Entire Year Has Gone By...

...without the journalists at NBC Nightly News covering the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal.

Explain that one to me, Walt.

13 comments:

ProudHillbilly said...

More coverage, though restrained, on the Corzine thing. But when a Democrat does something it does stay quiet. Republican, all hell breaks loose.

Walt Taylor said...

Am I being name-checked? As the apologist for the MSM? A great responsibility. There's no way to go back through their on-air broadcasts, but MSNBC's online news archive has plenty of references to Fast & Furious. Hope you don't mind if I don't take Breitbart's word for it--his reputation for truthfulness is not exactly stellar. By the way, has it been proven that F&F is unequivocally responsible for the agent's death, as Breitbart claims?

Bob said...

@Walt Taylor: You're engaging in a bit of misdirection, Walt. I singled out The NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams, as did the Big Journalism article, and you point instead toward the entire MSNBC website. As for MSNBC itself, Brent Bozell's Media Research Center (Newsbusters) has sufficiently documented lack of Fast and Furious coverage by on-air MSNBC personalities such as Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow.

You also engage in misdirection by attributing the linked article to "Breitbart." Andrew Breitbart didn't write the article, Mary Chastain did, so if you're going to make accusations of poor journalism, it should be at her, not at Breitbart. After all, I don't snarl "Sulzberger" when I see inaccurate crap in The New York Times; I blame the particular journalist who wrote the article, and the editor above him who let it be published.

In any event, you're avoiding answering the question, so let's frame it as a hypothetical, so you'll have fewer qualms about answering it:

If The NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams has failed to televise a Fast and Furious story in the last year, to what would you attribute that failure?

Bob said...

@Walt Taylor: And as for Fast and Furious itself, no one, not even the Justice Department and ATF, is disputing that Fast and Furious weapons were recovered at the Brian Terry murder scene. Yet the Justice Department and FBI have not been forthcoming about the ballistics of the bullets that killed Terry, and in fact the Brian Terry investigation has been sealed at their request. Not a good sign when "the most transparent government ever" engages in such tactics.

Walt Taylor said...

Terribly sorry for the misdirection, old chap. I see now I should have said "Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism website has a reputation for truthfulness that's less than stellar." I hope this has pointed you back in the right direction. And I did overlook the specificity of your reference to NBC Nightly News and not to the entire news organization. Sloppy reading on my part. It should be pointed out, though, that I don't snarl; that's Fox-talk. I merely observe superciliously.

The reason I "avoided" answering your question is that you didn't ask me one. You instructed me to do something, which I decline to do, since I am not an apologist for the MSM, and have on several occasions acknowledged that their liberal bias shows. My primary point has always been that such bias seems to me to be cultural, and not a conscious implementation of the liberal master plan to create a totalitarian state. My secondary point is that you have a tendency, probably exacerbated by your choice of reading matter, to overreact to what you see as examples of this bias, such as the silliness surrounding the crazed Muslim terrorist stalking the streets of Hollywood.

So, to sum up: my "misdirection" was inadvertent, and I apologize for any confusion caused by it; I am not a spokesman for the MSM, and merely encourage a calmer attitude on your part; and, almost forgot, I think there obviously has been some skullduggery as well as a whole lot of stupidity re: F&F.

And on the topic of avoided questions: how about Breitbart's website's claim that Fast & Furious is responsible--not might possibly be responsible--for the agent's death? Such distinctions matter to those of us on the left, as well as to our judicial system.

(Sorry for the verbosity: on my first, strong, cup of coffee.)

Bob said...

@Walt Taylor: The nearest I can see that Breitbart & Co. have claimed that Fast & Furious is responsible for Brian Terry's death is this passage:

Too many people have died, including Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, because of this operation.

The law recognizes that there are degrees of culpability and responsibility in the commission of a crime. In the case of Brian Terry's death, the person/persons who pulled the trigger have direct responsibility for the crime. At one remove is the person(s) who furnished the weapons to the killers: the straw buyers. At two removes is the organization that allowed (encouraged?) those straw buyers to act without interference: ATF/Justice Department. The fundmental question is this: Had ATF not allowed those straw purchases, would Brian Terry still be alive? Probably. I'd say that the Justice Department has a lot to worry about, and within the realm of legal jurisprudence Breitbart & Co. are correct to say that ATF/Justice is responsible - - albeit indirectly - - for Terry's death.

Walt Taylor said...

Probably? Are you saying that incident would not have taken place if that one weapon had not been gotten from the Fast & Furious operation?

That's not rhetorical, that's a real question. I'm not nearly as well-read as you on the subject.

Bob said...

@Walt Taylor: Two (not one) AK-47 clones from Rumania were found at the Terry crime scene. Both were traced to Fast & Furious straw purchases. A possible third weapon, an SKS, may or may not exist, and is the subject of inquiry by Congress and is the probable reason for the Terry investigation being sealed: the SKS is theorized to have been in possession of a DEA or FBI informant present at Terry's death.

And I'm saying that, if those drug cartels had not been armed, they would not have been in the Arizona desert that night, yes.

Bob said...

@Walt Taylor: "I'm not nearly as well-read as you on the subject."

Well, obviously I didn't get my facts from The NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams.

Walt Taylor said...

"if those drug cartels had not been armed." Are you saying that there was no other source of arms for the drug cartels besides Fast and Furious?

Bob said...

@Walt Taylor: Nope. I'm saying that the US government should not have been complicit in arming them.

Walt Taylor said...

You're being particularly slippery here, Bob. The topic was whether the cartel people would have been at that place at the time if they hadn't had F&F-supplied weapons, the larger question being just how responsible the govt was for the agent's death. As you say, there are degrees of culpability. Breitbart The Website doesn't seem to make that distinction. Being armed with more facts than me, I had hoped you would shed some light on the specifics. At one point you imply that the F&F guns were responsible for the cartel people being there, then you back off and say you were merely stating that we shouldn't have sold them the guns. Are you a Romney supporter, by any chance?

Bob said...

@Walt Taylor: I'm not trying to be slippery about this, Walt. More information about the possible motives of the people involved in the killing of Terry can be found here. Discussion of the possible third gun and the speculation about a DEA/FBI informant on the ground at the murder scene are discussed. Yet another example of the MSM not covering an important story.