The Times Square Machine Pistol

Reporter Colleen Long probably got at least two things wrong, and at least one editor let her get away with it.

1. The Mac 10 may or may not have been the "machine pistol" she called it, but the odds are extremely high that it was just the semiautomatic version of the gun. Coleen, "machine pistol" is a term reserved for fully automatic weapons, and they are not available to anyone who walks into a gun store in Virginia. If this one happened to be a true machine pistol, it was sold to the woman only after a special background check, registration, and a hefty excise tax.

2. Coleen tells us New York crooks go to southern gun shows "where there are no required background checks for people buying secondhand weapons."

This is, of course, flatly wrong. A licensed dealer requires the legal paper work and background checks for all firearms, new or used. Colleen is confused because transfers among private citizens do not require the federal records and background checks, and this is true whether the transactions happen in a gun show, a living room, or a a target range. The lesson here, and I am going to shout, is:

"THERE IS NO GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE!"

I know I'm preaching to the armed choir here, mostly in hope that these journalisticly inconvenient truths might catch the eye of a stray news person here and there.

And Coleen, a small hint from a veteran ink-stained wretch: When you're unsure about things -- like whether a firearm is or is not a "machine pistol" -- and the deadline pressure doesn't give you time to check, quote a cop or other "authority" on the matter. He may be just as wrong as you are, but the embarrassment for error is on his shoulders, not yours, and our once-honorable profession looks the better.

An idle aside: I wonder if j-schools have decided it's no longer necessary to mention the concept of attribution.

EDIT: It was the semi-auto version. Ain't no machine pistols 'round here, Boss.

Editor and Publisher

We used it to fish for jobs. It told us who got promoted. A dab hand at reading between the lines could use it to figure out who was about to be fired. It kept us up to date on which media baron was foraging for a fresh Goss. But most of all it demanded that we think about what we were doing as we went about the mundane business of telling the world what it was like.

Dirk Smilly of Forbes writes part of the obit:

With a stodgy layout and, until recently, retro typeface, the monthly journal was one of the most respected sources of news about the newspaper business. Over the years it covered the triumphs of Pulitzer Prize winners, the trials of kidnapped journalists in the Middle East, efforts to crack down on checkbook journalism and the ethical problems posed by tabloid values seeping into news.

The world will be a poorer place when the last E&P rolls off the presses. It may be even more saddening that so few understand exactly what was lost.

Our 'Bama Which Art

I suppose most of you have heard that President Obama was to be awarded a Nobel Peace prize. And now It has happened, moving an AP man to write this lead:

OSLO – President Barack Obama entered the pantheon of Nobel Peace Prize winners Thursday with humble words, acknowledging his own few accomplishments while delivering a robust defense of war and promising to use the prestigious award to "reach for the world that ought to be."

Pantheon?

Yes, we're all aware of the figurative use of language, but I wonder if it's really a good idea for our media to reinforce His cosmic image of Himself.

With windy paeans like this routinely disgracing the pen of honest journalism, His Obamaness can certainly afford to keep his own words humble.

Sunrise

Windburst, saving the trouble of sweeping snow from the van.

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Cheery enough inside at first light. Beyond the window pane is the blizzard which still has about eight hours to run.

December 9, 2009