 
|
| MAJOR ERRORS IN 60
MINUTES REPORTING
so much for CBS's vow of being "fair & balanced". Lasted what? A week?---The Webmistress |
| January 10, 2005 |
| "Investigative" Reporting
Show Shows Its Bias. . . Reporter Ed Bradley on Sunday's 60
Minutes television show at least twice avoided opportunities to
assure Americans that the mandatory FBI criminal background check required
before any retail purchase of a firearm is one of the ways to prevent
terrorists from buying guns in America. That's true whether a dealer is
selling guns at a gun show or in a store. In a
story prompted by California's outlawing future purchases of .50 BMG
rifles, Bradley broadcast hype and misinformation from gun
prohibitionist Tom Diaz of the Violence Policy Center to create a scare
about attacks on airplanes and chemical storage facilities that have never
occurred. Diaz is hoping to repeat in other states California's ban on .50
caliber rifles by promoting their image as a terrorist tool. Rifle
manufacturer Ronnie Barrett calls such hype an attempt to precipitate an
attack. Indeed, since shortly after terrorists struck with box cutters on
September 11, 2001, the VPC
Web site discussion of .50 calibers outlines ways to attack aircraft
and other vulnerable targets, discussing the kind of ammunition to be used
and even supplying maps indicating where tank farm storage of petroleum
and dangerous chemicals can be located by terrorists or other deranged
persons. Then, the 60 Minutes story concluded with a boldly false
assertion from Diaz when Bradley asked, "Aren't records kept when a
gun is sold?" "The answer is no!" Diaz falsely asserted in
the broadcast, despite the fact that law enforcement routinely tracks gun
ownership by using a permanent record-keeping system on retail gun sales
begun in 1968. Bradley and the CBS producers responsible for the segment
are being asked by NSSF to broadcast a correction to their story.
Flawed reporting on CBS neglected to inform the public about mandatory criminal background checks of FBI records required before all retail gun sales and erroneously denied the existence of permanent gun purchase records used by law enforcement to trace guns since 1968. |