Fox’s Chris Wallace: OK, I Won’t Use The Term “Assault Weapon” Because It Offends Gun Owners
One of my pet peeves about journalists is when they are talking to someone and they won’t defend something they know as truth. A lot of the time they just cave to their guest. What the hell are they afraid of, getting yelled at? Have they no spines? More likely, they are beholden to their employers or are just falling in line with the typical party line on things.
Just the other day Chris Wallace of Fox News was talking with Jamie Allman of KFTK’s Allman in the Morning and they got on to the subject of “assault weapons.” Allman complained like a true NRA paid shill that he believed the term “assault weapon” is nonsense and should be thrown away. To him and other gun owners there are no such things as “assault weapons,” apparently.
Admittedly, Wallace was smart and immediately looked up the definition on Google because he said he was unfamiliar with where it came from and what sort of guns it referred too. However, after he got his definition, he let Allman talk him into believing that the definition that Google uses, and everyone else in the world – other than the NRA and those who adhere to their logic – is wrong. Allman stated that media outlets like NBC and politicians made it up. Gun owners don’t call their AR-15’s “assault weapons”.
Of course, this has been thoroughly debunked at Media Matters because the name came about when gun manufacturers and gun owners started calling these guns that. So Mr. Allman can complain until he’s blue in the face that gun shop owners and no one else in the gun owning world will know what we’re talking about when you say “assault weapons,” but that would be a lie.
As far as Mr. Wallace, though, that is another matter. Anyone with a brain and his experience knows exactly what an “assault weapon” is. He isn’t new to the game. He has been a journalist for many years, and though I admire the fact that he was willing to look up a definition, he was foolish enough to let someone else decide that a definition everyone else uses that he doesn’t like is bad. Where is your journalistic integrity?
What’s worse though is that after agreeing that maybe the definition isn’t perfect, he said he wouldn’t use the term again on his Sunday program. He said, “You will not hear the word assault weapon out of my mouth on Sunday. I may fall back into it later, but on Sunday I will be more precise.” Exactly how much more precise does one need to be – weapon that sprays many large lead pellets that bore through human organs and cause death at the squeeze of a trigger? Would that suit you better Mr. Wallace?
