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Though I agree that the majority of MSM folks are embarrassingly uninformed about the world of firearms, I don't think it's usually intentional, but rather the product of lazy reporting, resistance to educate themselves, and a desire to rely on a few gun-related buzzwords that they think make the story sound more knowledgeable than it is.
I worked for several years as a host of Morning Edition at a small local NPR affiliate station. The people I worked with certainly didn't like guns and certainly went out of their way to demonize gun ownership, but they weren't intentionally making mistakes about the technicalities of firearms. They just didn't care enough to seek out deeper knowledge of the subject matter. Every pistol was a Glock, every rifle an AR. You know the drill. They were banking on the fact, no doubt largely true, that the majority of their listeners were/are just as clueless about guns as they were themselves, so why bother to learn more? My frequent corrections to the story compilers were universally met with rolled eyes and shrugged shoulders. No change to the copy. It didn't take long to see the futility in trying to inject some learning into their world.
I did get a kick out of it when the occasional reporter would try to stick a few knowledgable sounding buzzwords into his/her copy, thereby revealing even deeper ignorance. One story talked about a "high caliber" rifle used in a shooting. Ah, yes. The high caliber rifle, not to be confused with the low caliber rifle, the soft caliber rifle, the hard caliber rifle, the cold caliber rifle, and the warm caliber rifle.
I worked for several years as a host of Morning Edition at a small local NPR affiliate station. The people I worked with certainly didn't like guns and certainly went out of their way to demonize gun ownership, but they weren't intentionally making mistakes about the technicalities of firearms. They just didn't care enough to seek out deeper knowledge of the subject matter. Every pistol was a Glock, every rifle an AR. You know the drill. They were banking on the fact, no doubt largely true, that the majority of their listeners were/are just as clueless about guns as they were themselves, so why bother to learn more? My frequent corrections to the story compilers were universally met with rolled eyes and shrugged shoulders. No change to the copy. It didn't take long to see the futility in trying to inject some learning into their world.
I did get a kick out of it when the occasional reporter would try to stick a few knowledgable sounding buzzwords into his/her copy, thereby revealing even deeper ignorance. One story talked about a "high caliber" rifle used in a shooting. Ah, yes. The high caliber rifle, not to be confused with the low caliber rifle, the soft caliber rifle, the hard caliber rifle, the cold caliber rifle, and the warm caliber rifle.
