Monday, July 18, 2011

The Gunwalker Scandal and the Birmingham News. The letter they printed and the letter they didn't.


Carol Robinson, Birmingham Snooze reporter.

My sincere thanks to Jack Hart for writing our local paper, the Birmingham Snooze, this LTE. It was printed in yesterday's paper:

The July 11 column in The Birmingham News by Mary Sanchez of the Kansas City Star ("Cops, robbers and ... politics," Other Views) is just another example of the bias of journalists.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, an arm of the U.S. Justice Department, allowed multiple illegal gun transactions from legitimate gun stores in Arizona even though the store owners reported them to ATF. ATF told the owners it would take care of it. In reality, the ATF allowed these purchases and didn't pursue the criminals because it had a program operating that was supposed to track the illegal firearms purchased to Mexico.

Yet, ATF didn't notify the single agent in Mexico or the Mexican government. So it's obvious to me ATF was just waiting for the illegal guns to come back across the border and be used to commit a crime. The crime was committed; a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed.

This program by ATF was obviously illegal and in total disregard to human life. If the bureau had followed the law, these people who made these "straw" purchases would be locked up and facing a minimum of 10-year consecutive sentences in federal prisons, and lives would have been saved.

Jack Hart

Alabaster


That was the letter they printed. Here is a letter they didn't print:

-----Original Message-----
From: georgemason1776
To: epage
Cc: crobinson ; rfine
Sent: Mon, Jul 11, 2011 11:39 am
Subject: Birmingham Snooze coverage of Gunwalker Scandal abysmal -- as usual.

To the Editor
re: "Cops, Robbers and . . . politics." by Mary Sanchezs (BN, 11 July 2011)

It is typical of what the Birmingham News has descended to that you should print an op-ed blaming the motives on the Congressional investigators of what has become known as the "Gunwalker Scandal" on "politics." This has become the pitiful excuse of Obama administration minions in Congress and the press while attempting to defend the indefensible.

The News, to my knowledge, has taken no editorial position of its own on the bloody federal misadventure which has to date claimed the lives of at least two federal law enforcement officers and hundreds of Mexican citizens. Neither has the News done any original reporting of its own on this issue, although there are local and Alabama tie-ins. Your editors and your crime reporter, Carol Robinson, have ignored the story, despite repeated tips.

It is, in all, a pretty pitiful performance of non-reportage, but it represents everything we have come to expect from the Birmingham Snooze.

Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126


It should be noted that Ms. Robinson used to be married to a federal agent and her reportage is in some ways dependent upon friendly relations with the local Feds.

2 comments:

Mickey Collins said...

"Authorized journalists" don't like to publish statements denouncing themselves, and that goes double (triple?) for statements that are backed up by provable facts.

ReasonableHeck said...

Well one thing we know - this is just a lie: "The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, an arm of the U.S. Justice Department, allowed multiple illegal gun transactions from legitimate gun stores in Arizona even though the store owners reported them to ATF."

The sales were legal under Arizona law. The transfer of those guns to someone else is legal UNDER ARIZONA LAW. Those gun sales have been going on for years without or without the ATF watching. The gun stores who "reporter" the sales to ATF have nothing to fear except not reporting - which is required.

The stupid stuff people say can be amazing.