The New York Times generations ago was a respected media operation, in part because of conscientious leadership.

That leadership has long since left the paper, as have a big part of its readership.

Today, it’s struggling to retain its relevancy and it’s bottom line by publishing agenda-driven drivel.

In Quiet Woods, a Clamorous Gun Debate

(New York Times) …America’s cultural divide over guns has gone into the woods. As growing numbers of hikers and backpackers flood national forests and backcountry trails searching for solitude, they are increasingly clashing with recreational target shooters, out for the weekend to plug rounds into trees, targets and mountainsides.

Hiking groups and conservationists say policies that broadly allow shooting and a scarcity of enforcement officers have turned many national forests and millions of Western acres run by the Bureau of Land Management into free-fire zones. People complain about finding shot-up couches and cars deep in forests, or of being pinned down by gunfire where a hiking or biking trail crosses a makeshift target range.

And how is a recreational shooter’s right to enjoy those national lands any less relevant or legitimate than a bird watcher, hiker or a flower sniffer’s?

Oh, it’s time to bring out the heart-strings and dance in some blood.

Over the Fourth of July weekend in Pike National Forest in Colorado, a 60-year-old camper preparing to make s’mores with his grandchildren was killed when a stray bullet arced into his campsite. The camper, Glenn Martin, said “ow,” his daughter said, and when his family ran to help him, there was a hole in his shirt and blood pouring from his mouth.

“A war zone,” said Paul Magnuson, who owns a cycle shop in Woodland Park, Colo., and rides mountain bikes in the same forest where Mr. Martin died. His customers have complained about bullets whistling overhead, and Mr. Magnuson said he had gotten used to yelling out to alert target shooters that he was coming.

“Every time in the woods, you feared for your life,” he said. “It was absolutely, completely out of hand.”

A fluke accident leads to a death.

If we are to ban any recreational endeavor that results in an accident death now and then, America wouldn’t have baseball, football, soccer, canoeing, swimming, fishing, hiking, snowmobiling, rafting, skydiving, roller skating, jogging, or drinking.

The story goes on to blame shooters for everything from trash, to wildfires to global warming.

If stories like this were relevant and struck a cord with Americans, then MSNBC and Air America would be media empires.