How Long Did It Take MSNBC To Politicize?
Jonathon M. Seidl, TheBlaze — In the immediate aftermath of the Connecticut elementary school shooting in Newtown, MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell was quick to bring up gun control, lamenting that there doesn’t seem to be enough of it.Before any facts of the shooting were known (such as what type of gun was used or even the mental state of the shooter), Mitchell rattled off gun control issues championed by the left:
“When we talk about gun violence in this country, we’re not talking about Second Amendment rights. We’re talking about…reasonable background checks, reasonable controls, automatic weaponry and ammo, the multiple rounds that cause the greatest amount of violence. … Gun violence has been epidemic in this country going back decades. And we go through temporary periods…where we have an assault weapon ban, and then it is permitted to expire, David.”
But in what might shock some, colleague David Gregory threw some cold water on her hot comments, cautioning her to wait until more information was available.
“We know the contours of this debate, and it will get heated after an appropriate period of mourning and absorbing this tragedy. But it is worth adding all sides of the debate,” he cautioned. “We don’t know what the motive is here. We don’t know more about the shooter. We don’t know about the weapon involved. What we know is this is another horrible case of gun violence.”
After Mitchell cut to an interview with one of the children in the school at the time, he continued: “There’s so many facts that we just don’t know, so we shouldn’t speculate about.”
Another contributor later piped up: “And of course gun control not an issue at all in the presidential campaign.”
And even though Gregory did somewhat entertain that thought, he cautioned again that “even if the starting point is we have an epidemic of gun violence…how do we address this that doesn’t just automatically go to the place of gun control. Again, in this situation we have no idea, what the access to weapons here, what any of those factors were, and we won’t speculate on that.”
Watch it unfold, below:
Later on in her show, Mitchell brought on Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic. Goldberg was quick to criticize gun laws and even said the gun lobby doesn’t want “any background checking whatsoever” (a dubious claim), but then added that it’s still wrong for the left to “demonize” legal gun owners:
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About the Author
Jonathon M. Seidl is the front page editor of The Blaze. He joined the website as an assistant editor in 2010 as one of its original hires. His writing has appeared in WORLD magazine and online with The American Spectator. Although a Green Bay Packers fanatic, he and his wife live in Dallas, TX, with their dog, Gus. Seidl graduated from The King's College-New York City with a degree in politics, philosophy, and economics.