As someone who has worked in broadcast media and in the printed news related industry in the past, I can assure you that it's not some conspiracy against firearms. Take off the tin foil hat.
In broadcast news, this is how it works. The producer comes in the morning (around 6 am) and hands out the assignments. The reporter then goes out with a camera crew and has maybe a couple of hours to interview, shoot the news, then either has to write the rest of the script to edit the news footage or go on to the next story. All reporters are hands on with editing, some may not do all of it but more often than not, in local news they are doing a lot of their own editing.
Unless it's a feature story or investigation, they don't have days to investigate or fact check. Most often, they will have 2-3 of these cases in one day and have to have all of this prepared and edited for either that day's 6pm news or 10 pm news or both. So basically they have about a 6-8 hour turn-around time to interview, write the script, and edit the footage before it goes live on air.
These people get paid barely over minimum wage. Broadcast news doesn't pay **** and most people can make more as a gas station clerk for $8-10/hr or waiting tables. I'm not exaggerating this. The only people who get paid decent are the primetime news anchors and one or two of the "star" reporters. People are in it because they really are passionate about delivering news to the people and love their job, not due to pay.
Oklahoma City is known to be the premier training ground for news talent, due to the fierce competition of all the news channels and the amount we have for such a small population. The majority of the "lesser" reporters are only here as part of an internship or as a launching ground to move into bigger markets like Chicago, LA, NY, ect. where they can actually make a decent wage. Otherwise, most of these people struggle to make any money.
Printed news is the same. Unless it's a feature story or investigative piece, writers must interview, research, write and proofread, collect photos and edit the story before 2-6pm (depending on what section of the paper it's in) so the layout editors can lay it out on a page and shoot it off to the printing press.
These papers have to be fully layed out, printed, rolled, have inserts added, packaged, loaded onto trucks, and into the hands of the delivery people by 4 am the next morning so you can get your paper.
Seriously, just sit and think about the sheer magnitude of it all and the short timeframes these reporters have to report the news. These guys may have several stories in the day that are due and in the case of The Oklahoman, also write up blogs, answer emails, and shoot video segments.
Needless to say, for television reporters and newsprint reporters, knowing the exact name/model/ of firearms being reported is way low on the priority.
Not everything is a conspiracy against firearms or a left/liberal or right/conservative agenda. Most is due to lack of time and having to use general assumptions about a topic to write a story to meet deadlines.
In broadcast news, this is how it works. The producer comes in the morning (around 6 am) and hands out the assignments. The reporter then goes out with a camera crew and has maybe a couple of hours to interview, shoot the news, then either has to write the rest of the script to edit the news footage or go on to the next story. All reporters are hands on with editing, some may not do all of it but more often than not, in local news they are doing a lot of their own editing.
Unless it's a feature story or investigation, they don't have days to investigate or fact check. Most often, they will have 2-3 of these cases in one day and have to have all of this prepared and edited for either that day's 6pm news or 10 pm news or both. So basically they have about a 6-8 hour turn-around time to interview, write the script, and edit the footage before it goes live on air.
These people get paid barely over minimum wage. Broadcast news doesn't pay **** and most people can make more as a gas station clerk for $8-10/hr or waiting tables. I'm not exaggerating this. The only people who get paid decent are the primetime news anchors and one or two of the "star" reporters. People are in it because they really are passionate about delivering news to the people and love their job, not due to pay.
Oklahoma City is known to be the premier training ground for news talent, due to the fierce competition of all the news channels and the amount we have for such a small population. The majority of the "lesser" reporters are only here as part of an internship or as a launching ground to move into bigger markets like Chicago, LA, NY, ect. where they can actually make a decent wage. Otherwise, most of these people struggle to make any money.
Printed news is the same. Unless it's a feature story or investigative piece, writers must interview, research, write and proofread, collect photos and edit the story before 2-6pm (depending on what section of the paper it's in) so the layout editors can lay it out on a page and shoot it off to the printing press.
These papers have to be fully layed out, printed, rolled, have inserts added, packaged, loaded onto trucks, and into the hands of the delivery people by 4 am the next morning so you can get your paper.
Seriously, just sit and think about the sheer magnitude of it all and the short timeframes these reporters have to report the news. These guys may have several stories in the day that are due and in the case of The Oklahoman, also write up blogs, answer emails, and shoot video segments.
Needless to say, for television reporters and newsprint reporters, knowing the exact name/model/ of firearms being reported is way low on the priority.
Not everything is a conspiracy against firearms or a left/liberal or right/conservative agenda. Most is due to lack of time and having to use general assumptions about a topic to write a story to meet deadlines.
