Who Ya Gonna Call When The Gestapo's At The Door??

Jeff Jarvis is rightfully pissed off at the continuing erosion of the 1st Amendment and media freedom.

What I'd like to know though, is when the American media has been front and center in the plot to disarm America and sell the 2nd Amendment down the river through lies, distortions, and manipulated reporting where do they (as in Jeff Jarvis and the Journalism generally as an industry) come off complaining that the 1st Amendment is now going down that same path.

Think about the reaction of big media when the NRA - which has been publishing numerous magazines, books, radio and television shows since the 1870s - took the leading role in challenging the disgusting Campaign Finance Law by claiming to be a media organization.

The USA Today headlined with Special interests corrupt what is and isn't news on April 26, 2004. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette titled its April 19, 2004 editorial MUST SHOOT TV?.

Then, there were the bigots at the New York Times who ran this sham of an editorial on July 1, 2004

Locked and Loaded the Latest

After thriving handsomely off the Second Amendment for decades, the National Rifle Association has decided to invoke the First Amendment and attempt a metamorphosis into a news media organization. It has begun a three-hour daily show on satellite radio to broadcast its anti-gun-control polemics in the name of legitimate news.

This is a transparent device designed to circumvent the federal campaign law's strictures on unlimited advocacy at election time.

Still, it's an intriguing idea. One story suggestion for the N.R.A. assignment editor: the landmark million-dollar court settlement won by two New Jersey police officers who were gravely wounded by a robber who got his handgun through one of the shabby weapon shops that deal with ''straw'' buyers. These shoppers exploit the right to bear arms by buying them en masse and peddling them to the underworld. We urge a solid investigative series by the N.R.A.'s shame-on-you team to delve into the lethal history of these ostensibly licit dealers -- almost three out of five guns recovered in crimes are traced to such dealers. But so far, the N.R.A. has been content to run hard-hitting reports dismissing Senator John Kerry as two-faced, and sympathizing with a college student who resented getting only a C on a pro-gun essay in a philosophy class.

As distasteful as this exercise in propaganda disguised as journalism is, it may simply be that the N.R.A. has come up with another candidate for the fantasy channel. Remember the Times Square theme restaurant the organization promised to open four years ago? We're live in Times Square, and it's still nowhere in sight.

I like Jeff Jarvis, read his blog daily, and fully support his efforts to protect the 1st Amendmet. However, until America's journalists start waking up, I'm gonna find it awfully hard to sympathize with them as the out of control regulatory beast THEY CREATED now turns inwards and seeks new targets.

Remember, without the 2nd we have no other rights.

I agree wholeheartedly ... a free press is vital to a free society. But I wonder: How many of you will agree with me that the right to keep and bear arms is not just equally vital, but the most vital to protect all the other rights we enjoy?

I say that the Second Amendment is, in order of importance, the first amendment. It is America's First Freedom, the one right that protects all the others. Among freedom of speech, of the press, of religion, of assembly, of redress of grievances, it is the first among equals. It alone offers the absolute capacity to live without fear. The right to keep and bear arms is the one right that allows "rights" to exist at all.