Time Warner Cable is trying to be in the news business, and is currently engaging in such efforts in 22 locations in five states.
Unless it wants to be yet another unreliable, hopelessly biased news source, it needs to try harder. Take this November 14 report from north-central North Carolina's Triad area on the city of Greensboro's effort to get residents to turn in unwanted guns. Keep in mind, the reference is to multiple "firearms" (HT Hot Air; presented in full because of its brevity, and for fair use and discussion purposes):
Nearly 1000 Take Pledge of Non-Violence in Greensboro
The trouble is that the video accompanying the story seems to indicate that only one "gun owner" turned in a single "unwanted firearm" at the event — and it was a BB gun. The "ammunition" consisted of bags of pellets. Additionally, a deadly dangerous, uh, knife was surrendered:
The NRA's legislative arm engaged in a well-deserved pile-on:
... Voluntary gun buybacks are a classic case of gun control symbolism. Their advocates claim they are “taking guns off our streets,” although in many cases the guns collected are so ancient or decrepit as to be completely nonfunctional or nearly so. In other cases, the guns are not coming off “the street” but from law-abiding owners where such firearms pose no risk to public safety whatsoever.
... Police-community partnerships are a positive measure to increase public safety, but good intentions aren’t the same thing as a good (or effective) plan. A report by Time-Warner Cable News tried to put a positive spin on things by noting that “almost 1,000 people” responded to take the pledge, leading one to believe that 1,000 firearms had been turned in, but this was hardly the case.
I suppose it's possible that other weapons were turned in, given that "the department also offered to pick up firearms from owners’ homes." But one would think that if the haul had been significant, the Greensboro PD would have put them on display as a demonstration of their "success."
To be fair to the GPD, its announced neighborhood oriented policing initiative appears to have the potential to have positive impact in reducing crime. Of course, it's the kind of initiative the criminal element and its coddling supporters often decry.
TWC News may have thought that it was doing the right thing by presenting a politically correct and supposedly "positive" effort as a success when it wasn't. They're wrong — and TWC should get out of the news business if it intends to "cover" stories in this manner.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
