By Mark Walters
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- What is “the news?” I ask that sincerely. What is “the news?” Think about it. When we tell someone, we read it in “the news” or saw it on “the news,” or heard it on “the news,” what are we reading or hearing or seeing? Here’s the actual definition of the word “news” from Merriam Webster’s dictionary:
Definition of news
1a : a report of recent events gave her the good news
b : previously unknown information I’ve got news for you
c : something having a specified influence or effect
-the rain was good news for lawns and gardens — Garrison Keillor
-the virus was bad news
2a : material reported in a newspaper or news periodical or on a newscast listened to the news on the radio
b : matter that is newsworthy The layoffs were big news in this part of the state.
3: newscast We saw it on the evening news.
For our purposes, see “2a” above in the Webster definition. In a nutshell, it’s a report of current events disseminated in a certain format, paper, web, radio, television, newspaper, etc. for our consumption. My question, though, goes a little deeper. Most of us have become so accustomed to watching a “news” channel, “newscast” or reading a “news” website, that somewhere along the line we began to think of “news” as being this stuff that floats out there as an actual entity unto itself. Hence the statement, “Oh I saw it on “the news.” When we hear something like that, we tend to take it with some authority because it was reported to us, it must be actual “news.”
“News,” no matter how it is defined, how it’s disseminated, who propagates it, no matter the reputation of its source, is nothing more than the opinion of the man or woman who wrote or told the story and the editors who agreed with them.
In other words, the “news” ain’t nothing more than an opinion, no matter the source. You didn’t “read “news” in the New York Times, you read an opinion piece, a story written by the guy or gal identifying as a “journalist” whose name accompanies the story and with whom the editors agreed with and put on the front page. For all intents and purposes, “news,” no matter the format, is nothing more than what some people decided it is after editing it to fit their interpretation and before delivering it to you as “the news.”
I say all of this because there is a story making “news” about Donald Trump cozying up to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) of “Universal Background Check” fame. The piece, Trump Vs. Congress, Now What? comes from the New York Times Magazine. The writer alludes to Manchin saying he felt optimistic about working with Trump on “Gun Safety” measures. We all know what that means. Here’s the part that has some gun rights folks worried:
“Later that month, Manchin went on “Morning Joe” — the one show on MSNBC that Trump has been known to watch — to discuss, on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the Newtown school massacre, the need to expand background checks on gun purchases. Within an hour after Manchin was offscreen, his cellphone rang. It was Trump. Manchin was not completely forthcoming about the conversation, but he did tell me that he envisioned “a complete opportunity” for new gun-safety legislation. Unlike with Obama, he said, “no one thinks President Trump would do anything that would take away your gun rights.”
Would Trump, after arguably running the most pro-gun campaign in history, actually cozy up to Manchin and entertain a background check proposal?
While there are many haters out there who will no doubt go the, “I told you so,” route, I ask you to keep in mind what’s news. I, for one, don’t believe one thing that comes from the New York Times in any format and won’t on this topic to be sure. Just because some guy named Robert Draper wrote about in a New York Times Magazine piece doesn’t cut it.
Consider the source. Robert Draper. Who the hell is Robert Draper, anyway? Some guy who wrote a piece some other NY Times folks liked and put in the NY Times Magazine. Who were those other folks?
Exactly.
About Mark Walters
Mark Walters is the host of two nationally syndicated radio broadcasts, Armed American Radio and Armed American Radio’s Daily Defense with Mark Walters. He is the Second Amendment Foundations 2015 Gun Rights Defender of the Year award recipient and co-author of two books, Lessons from Armed America with Kathy Jackson (Whitefeather Press) and Lessons from UnArmed America with Rob Pincus (Whitefeather Press)