-By Warner Todd Huston
With the recent announcement by CBS that they have made ex-Clinton friend Rick Kaplan the new Executive Producer of the CBS Evening News, it was eyebrow raising that another fawning pal has suddenly been ensconced in a “new” position at an American news service.
The AP has announced that long time Clinton friend,Ron Fournier, is joining the newswire service to act as the watchdog for “accountability and governing”.
“His primary responsibilities will be developing new approaches to political and election coverage online, working with AP’s news, multimedia and revenue groups,” Kathleen Carroll, the executive editor, said in a statement on Thursday.
Ron also will contribute to that coverage, bringing his sharp eye and multimedia experience to analysis and some new storytelling on this important topic. There, he will work closely with AP’s Political Editor, Donna Cassata, under the direction of Washington Bureau Chief Sandy Johnson.
Longer range, Ron will drive a new coverage focus on accountability and governing.
Fournier left AP last Summer to work for an internet site called hotsoup,com, but got his start “…as a political reporter at the statehouse in Little Ark., covering then-Gov. Bill Clinton.” AP helpfully reminds us that Fournier, “…covered Clinton’s presidential campaign, moved to Washington in 1993 after Clinton was elected and spent 13 years covering the White House and national politics.”
(See Fournier’s farewell to HOTSOUP.com HERE)
Do you think this guy will be “fair and balanced”?
How about the loving joshing good ‘ol Bill offered to Mr. Fournier at the 1998 White House Correspondent’s Association Dinner:
And to Ron Fournier – you know, I honestly believe Ron Fournier is the only person who came to Washington with me from Arkansas who hasn’t been subpoenaed. But the night is still young.
So, with Fournier and Kaplan, both close Clinton apologists, taking new positions in the MSM, is this the start of old Clintonistas coming back to the media to give Hillary some insider help with her emerging campaign?
Let’s keep our eyes open for any other Clinton pals who just might “coincidentally” end up in new MSM jobs.
Interesting developments, just the same.
-By Warner Todd Huston
On Friday, Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the city of Washington D.C. could not ban its citizens from owning firearms because such a ban violates the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In light of this ruling so damaging to gun grabbers everywhere, I was curious to see how the wires were handling the news. Turns out, they don’t seem too happy.
In two reports on Friday the AP gave far more time in their “balanced” report to opponents to Second Amendment rights than they did to proponents. Worse, it never seemed to occur to them to report that gun violence in Washington D.C. has consistently ranked as among the highest in the country despite being one of the strictest anti-gun cities therein.
In their short report on the ruling, the AP even casts the quote of an unnamed N.R.A. official and Second Amendment supporter in negative terms.
An official of the National Rifle Association says the decision gives D-C “a crack in the door to join the rest of the country” in what he calls “full constitutional freedom.”
You can just hear the venom in their “in what he calls” line. Of course, D.C. Mayor Fenty’s critical comments were reported straight with no qualifying terms applied.
The APs longer report on the ruling was even more interesting.
They quoted the dissenting judge, Karen Henderson, as saying the Second Amendment doesn’t apply in D.C. because “it is not a state”. Here they make no comment on what this could men if taken to its fullest extent: that the Constitution is entirely null and void in D.C. because it “is not a state”. But, they do go out of their way to explain the “reasonable restrictions” on gun ownership.
Such restrictions might include gun registration, firearms testing to promote public safety or restrictions on gun ownership for criminals or those deemed mentally ill.
So, it’s “reasonable” to help explain the gun grabber’s “reasonable restrictions”, but NOT reasonable to give Second Amendment supporters even one line in the larger story to air their points.
Reuters also got into the anti-gun game with their report.
In a fairly long report that reveals the “outrage” and “disappointment” and “criticism” of the ruling, Reuters only had room for one line devoted to supporters of this ruling.
Additionally, Reuters seemed to want to intimate that Judge Silberman was but a puppet of the Bush administration.
Silberman embraced the position that the Bush administration has advocated — that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms.
Guess it couldn’t just be judge Silberman’s honest opinion, huh? I have never seen an AP or Reuters report that claimed that a ruling from the left was a result of the “Clinton Administration” embracing an idea. No, when the decision comes from the left it is merely reported as a decision and is never linked with any left leaning power structure.
As I briefly mentioned above, it is interesting that not one of the reports I’ve come across mentions that Washington D.C. has consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in America despite its draconian gun banning laws.
In 2005, for instance, Washington DC was among the top five most dangerous US cities with a population of 500,000 or more.
Interesting how no mention is made of this fact. Interesting how the high crime rate is never contrasted with the gun ban laws. Of course, we know why. If these facts were ever brought together it would make a joke out of the very idea of gun bans. After all, if D.C. has the most strict gun laws in the country, why are they still so dangerous a place to be?
Shhhh. Let’s just keep that inconvenient little fact to ourselves, eh? We’ll have to, anyway. Because neither Reuters nor the AP will help spread the truth it seems.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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