Local TV news gets pushback for anti-gun report from Gun Appreciation Day

Gun Appreciation Day was a big success nationwide.   There have been lots of stories on the event, including this one:

Rallies across U.S. assail Obama’s proposed gun curbs

(Reuters) – Pro-gun activists held “high noon” rallies across the United States on Saturday to defend the right to own firearms that they say is being threatened by President Barack Obama’s gun-control proposals.

The U.S. debate over gun control erupted in mid-December after a man armed with an assault rifle killed 20 first-graders and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut – the deadliest of a string of U.S. shooting sprees last year.

“We are law-abiding citizens, business owners, military, and we are not going to be responsible for other people’s criminal actions,” former Marine Damon Locke said to applause at a Florida rally he had helped organize.

Some in the crowd of about 1,000 in Brooksville, about an hour north of Tampa, hoisted signs that said: “Stop the Gun Grabbers” and “Gun control isn’t about guns, it’s about control.”

Champaign, IL station WCIA Channel 3 was there at Springfield, Illinois’ Gun Appreciation Day rally on Saturday, January 19th.

At the event, there were hundreds of supporters of the Constitution.  A half-dozen speakers told their stories and energized the audience.

CNN was present and showed a live shot of the rally in their report.

Local news outlets were there reporting as well.

Hundreds of pro-civil rights supporters of the Constitution and a half-dozen opponents.

Guess who Channel 3 interviews for their report?

It wasn’t this guy:

It wasn’t any of these people:

No, it was one of those seeking restrictions upon our civil rights.

The functional equivalent of a big civil rights rally from the 1960s, and a local news station chooses to interview a segregationist instead of one of the civil rights supporters.

GSL’s Marsha Mohr slaps the Executive Producer Nancy Foreman (email address:  nforeman@wcia.com ) after their blatantly anti-gun report.

Ms. Foreman,

Over the years I have watched as Channel 3 news has become less journalism and more opinion stories, but Saturday, January 19, 2013 the news really hit a low.  At a 2^nd Amendment Rally with “hundreds of supporters”, your  “journalists” could only find a gun control advocate to interview.  I find this to be improbable as the story clearly said there were “hundreds” there, and I am sure there would have been many of them who would have been willing and articulate enough for you to interview.

In the past, one of your primary anchors has made sure any pro-gun story has been followed with an anti-gun segue, most notably the disproved “fact” that you are 30 times more likely to have your own gun used against you.  A journalist’s personal beliefs should never come out in the stories they do, and one should always wonder where that journalist actually stands personally.  This is not the case with your news readers. Their personal beliefs are very clear and bias every story they do on this topic. This calls all of their reporting into question, on any topic.

I am asking you as a news producer to please try to rein in your news readers and present a balanced view for the public. If you are truly professional journalists, you should be able to remove self from the story, and allow the story to stand alone.

Thank you,

Marsha Mohr

If you would like to send WCIA Executive Producer Nancy Foreman your own thoughts, you may do so at nforeman@wcia.com .