fox files

by Mark Chesnut

Honoring Newtown Victims With Silence

If there’s one lesson that can be immediately learned from the tragic shooting at the Connecticut elementary school, it’s that the national media—and especially cable tv news—cannot be counted on to get things right.

While the National Rifle Association wisely kept silent on the events in Newtown while waiting for all the facts to be sorted out, cable news and its so-called 24-hour news cycle did a great disservice to those wanting to know what happened there.

Initial news reports said the killer’s mother was a teacher at the grade school, and then they reported she wasn’t. Early reports said there were two assailants involved, and reported a camo-clad person being detained by police near a woodlot adjacent to the school. These “facts” soon disappeared from reports, never to be explained. Initial news reports said the killer’s father had also been killed, but those statements soon disappeared as well. One “fact” after another was revised, replaced or removed.

“Let’s be first/’ the news directors seemed to say. “If it’s wrong, we’ll just let it fade away and it will disappear.”

The news reports that terrible day were actually little more than sheer speculation and, in some cases, pure invention. The same held true for the so-called “news” programs over the following weekend and into the next week. “Let’s be first,” the news directors seemed to say. “If it’s wrong, we’ll just let it fade away and it will disappear.”

Placing speed over accuracy is no way to run a news organization, yet that’s what we are told “news” is these days. The rush to be first has become the rush to be worse.

To add insult to injury, anti-gun groups and politicians attacked nra for not joining in the fray. Funerals for the victims had not even started yet and our association was mocked and derided for not being involved in the uninformed political ramblings as gun-banners ran to tv studios throughout the country in an attempt to score points from the tragedy.

I say hooray for the National Rifle Association for knowing when to speak up and knowing when to keep quiet. As the biased national media tried to create controversy concerning guns, the nra chose not to be dragged into any argument at such an inappropriate time without knowing the facts of the matter.

nra members—like non-members—are moms and dads, sons and daughters, grandpas and grandmas. We weep for those children just like everyone does, and we wonder what has happened to our country when such a horrible event can occur here.. But we won’t be forced to argue politics in the immediate wake of such an unthinkable tragedy. It’s just not right.

I’m more proud to be an NRA member now than ever before. And I’m proud to have you as an Americas 1st Freedom reader.