NPR Blames Pro-Gun Lobby for Things they Didn’t Do
- Republican comes out for gun control and then drops out, blames hypothetical millions spent against him for his reasoning
- AP/NPR repeats this opinion as fact, never challenging whether it is accurate
- The big money on guns comes from billionaire gun control interests, that context is left out of the story
OUR RATING: Sloppy and Error-Filled. Your typical Friday night at Fox News, sloppy work.
Indicted Outlet: Associated Press | National Public Radio | Link | Archive | 6/3/22
Moderate New York Republican Congressman Chris Jacobs came out for gun control.
Shortly thereafter it became clear to him that winning a Republican primary for his safe seat would be difficult.
“The last thing we need is an incredibly negative, half-truth-filled media attack funded by millions of dollars of special interest money coming into our community around this issue of guns and gun violence and gun control,” he said, according to footage of his announcement.
Major Violations:
- Lying Headline
- No Evidence to Support
- Opinion as Fact
- Misrepresentation
- Missing Context
- Imaginary Monsters
So the NPR headline says he ‘faced backlash’ but that was apparently, what, all in his head?
Buffalo-area GOP Rep. Jacobs won’t run again after backlash for gun control support
He’s claiming gun control martyr status because of what, exactly?
Apparently one person who is a potential competitor said he might file against him?
Here’s the only thing the article states in support of its claim of ‘backlash’:
Jacobs had been considered an easy favorite to win the seat before his comments, which sparked a flurry of interest from rival Republicans including Buffalo developer Carl Paladino…
What is a ‘flurry of interest’? Left undefined.
Is it related to a McFlurry?
I know what a McFlurry is: freaking delicious. I don’t know what a vague “flurry of interest” is when NPR writes the phrase.
There is likely more of a flurry of interest at the moment in a McFlurry than there was in a ‘flurry of interest’ in a primary challenge to Rep. Jacobs.
This is what stating opinion as fact looks like.
It is also a misrepresentation about whether there was a ‘backlash’ as alleged in the headline and in the article.
Clearly Rep. Jacobs got scared out of a primary, but was that because of this decision, or was this decision an afterthought after he decided for other reasons not to run again? Meaning that, is this a moderate representing a conservative region who on his way out decided to speak his mind? This article doesn’t bother to tell us because it’s only reporting in superficialities.
It also creates imaginary monsters by claiming ‘millions’ in out of state money was going to come and harass Rep. Jacobs in the primary. Ostensibly he means that this is pro-gun campaign donation money.
In 2020 the average NRA spend in a Congressional race was $100,000. [1] That seems like a lot, but the average successful 2020 Congressional race costs $2.35 million. [2]
And besides that, the gun control lobby is better financed by elite billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, [3] and willing to outspend the NRA in most election cycles. [4]
There’s little evidence of ‘backlash’ and there’s even less evidence that ‘special interests’ were about to flood the area with divisive campaigning and electioneering.
The story allows Rep. Jacobs to blame the imaginary monsters for things they didn’t even do yet, his opinion and speculation is presented as fact and that’s it.
There’s nothing to this story other than a Representative who invented monsters to justify him dropping out of a primary. It’d be nice if NPR could muster up some journalism so we could figure out if that is accurate or not, but they leave out all the context necessary to determine that.
OUR RATING: Sloppy and Error-Filled. Your typical Friday night at Fox News, sloppy work.
Bibliography:
1 ] https://www.thetrace.org/2020/08/nra-2020-election-spending-trump/
2 ] https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/election-trends
3 ] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michael-bloombergs-gun-safety-group-announces-60-million-spending-plan-for-2020-elections/2020/01/27/fcedb218-412c-11ea-aa6a-083d01b3ed18_story.html
4 ] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/mike-bloombergs-gun-control-outspends-nra-helps-democrats-win-virginia.html
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