It's obvious that the people working for CNN consider supporters of gun control to be calm and rational while gun rights proponents are hostile and wild-eyed.
The cable news network provided proof of this viewpoint when it posted only half of weeknight host Piers Morgan's debate with Breitbart.com editor Ben Shapiro but provided the entire wild interview with Alex Jones, the Austin, Texas, man who started an online petition to deport Morgan back to his native England because of his attacks on the Second Amendment.
While the original discussion between Morgan and Shapiro lasted a total of just over 14 minutes, the two segments were edited down to 3:03 and 3:57, respectively, leaving out many important points the conservative guest made.
One of the exchanges the network removed was when Shapiro pressed Morgan regarding why he isn't seeking a ban on all guns since more than half of the firearm-related murders that take place each year in this country are committed with handguns and not assault rifles.
Instead of answering his guest's question, the host said he'd come back to that topic later, though he never did.
Shapiro also asked Morgan to state which specific steps he would take to deal with the problem of “deranged people” obtaining guns. The liberal host did not reply, and that clash also ended up on the cutting room floor.
In addition, Shapiro pointed out that Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old man who murdered 20 young children and six adult staff members on December 14 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., carried two pistols along with his assault rifle.
Morgan responded: “He didn't use them, you know.”
“And if he hadn't have had the assault rifle, he wouldn't have used them?” the editor responded.
Not surprisingly, that exchange was also removed from the posted video.
The Breitbart editor also stated that if the government can't stop the 12 million people who illegally immigrate to the United States, “how are you going to stop illegally obtained guns?”
Shapiro also exposed the liberal hypocrisy of attacking the National Rifle Association for broadly interpreting the Second Amendment but remaining silent about the American Civil Liberties Union broadly interpreting the First Amendment to allow people to buy and play violent video games.
Also, the conservative guest said that if Morgan wanted to pass legislation on the subject, he should “talk to the legislators” instead of the NRA, which receives no money from the government and is just “representing its membership” while lobbying Congress.
Other items that were sliced from the posting included the points made by Shapiro in noting that he refused to be “lumped in” with angry gun rights activist Alex Jones and accused Morgan of “passing the buck” by attributing the increase of firearm sales to fear instilled by conservatives.
Morgan also attempted to force the Shapiro to change his position by pointing out that former president Ronald Reagan supported gun-control legislation.
Shapiro responded by stating that Reagan was not a god and asked:
Okay, so? I mean, I can disagree with Ronald Reagan.
The conservative guest also described the Second Amendment as “a bulwark against tyranny,” even if he didn't believe that the government would attempt to take away firearms during his lifetime.
While discussing the confrontation between Morgan and Shapiro, Washington Post columnist Erik Wemple referred to the conservative guest as “a foe of extraordinary polemical agility.”
“In the long run, CNN isn’t fooling anyone,” Breitbart reporter William Bigelow stated in an article on CNN's selective editing. More than 25 videos of the interview are available on the YouTube site, he stated, one of which has been watched more than 500,000 times.
“By this time, everyone interested in the issue knows where to see the whole interview, and watch how one 'foe of extraordinary agility' took on a bully of the left and demolished him,” Bigelow noted.
As NewsBusters previously reported, CNN isn't the first news organization to be found guilty of “shoddy editing.” Back in April, NBC had to apologize for airing a “misleading” cut of the 911 call George Zimmerman made during his confrontation with Trayvon Martin.
