Monday, July 21, 2014

Fox News Accidentally Exposes Recklessness Behind NRA's Defense Of A "Battlefield Weapon"


http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/07/21/fox-news-accidentally-exposes-recklessness-behi/200154



Following reports of a .50 caliber sniper rifle attack on U.S. Border Patrol agents, Fox News hosts immediately recognized the threat the high-powered "battlefield weapon" poses to law enforcement. Criticism of the gun on Fox, however, stands in sharp contrast to the National Rifle Association's longstanding campaign to prevent the regulation of .50 caliber weapons, which are manufactured by one of its board members.
On July 20, FoxNews.com reported that U.S. Border Patrol agents working near the Rio Grande River came under fire from a .50 caliber weapon during the evening of July 18. According to the report, "Border Patrol sources said the rounds were clearly identifiable because .50- caliber weapons make a distinctive noise when fired." No agents were wounded in the attack.
In most of the United States the .50 caliber sniper rifle is regulated no more strenuously than a typical hunting rifle, thanks to efforts by the gun lobby. But Fox News personalities covering the border incident were quick to recognize the rifle's extremely dangerous capabilities and the threat it poses to law enforcement.
Fox News host Heather Nauert opened the July 20 edition of Fox & Friends Sunday by citing the .50 caliber rifle incident as evidence that "there is an all-out war on at our southern border." Throughout the show, Nauert's co-hosts repeatedly returned to the capabilities of the .50 caliber rifle. Fox's Jon Scott described the rifle as "a weapon of war," noted that, "The slugs a .50 caliber weapon fires are so big that body armor really won't do you much good," and called it a "battlefield weapon."
The weapon's capabilities continued to be a topic of conversation of the July 21 edition of Fox & Friends, with co-host Steve Doocy pointing out the gun is "powerful enough to kill somebody from more than a mile away." Co-host and Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. described it as "multiple times the power of an M-16," a reference to the standard issue military assault rifle.
All of the claims made by Fox figures about the rifle's capabilities are accurate -- the gun has been characterized by a retired high-ranking federal law enforcement agent as "a devastatingly powerful weapon against which most troops, most law enforcement, no civilians, have any means of defense." But while .50 caliber rifles have previously fallen into the hands of terrorists, anti-government extremists, and Mexican drug cartels, the class of weapon is generally not subject to heightened regulation in the United States.

hard to believe that Fox finally reports news accurately and it's against one of it's major partners in the proliferation of WMD and the constant put down of the NRA's pride and joy just goes to show they really don't research before they broadcast this one might bite them.  don't know about you but I'm loving it, can't wait to see if they are forced to back peddle on the one story we can say they got it right, what could they possibly say to spin that story enough to appease the NRA?