Human Events
By: Teresa Mull
8/29/2013 12:25 PM

The AP reveals what its associations actually are

He paints Obama as a sort of valiant savior who steps up to the plate “where Congress would not.”


In a wonderfully effective example of modern-day propaganda, The Associated Press shows openly with what it is truly associated.
In a piece entitled, “Obama offers new gun control steps,” Josh Lederman reports:

Striving to take action where Congress would not, the Obama administration announced new steps Thursday on gun control, curbing the import of military surplus weapons and proposing to close a little-known loophole that lets felons and others circumvent background checks by registering guns to corporations.

Let’s stop here and examine Mr. Lederman’s crafty first paragraph:

- The author attempts to color his “unbiased” reporting by associating “gun control” right away with “felons.” He also puts criminals and corporations in the same boat, suggesting both benefit from less gun control.

- He paints Obama as a sort of valiant savior who steps up to the plate “where Congress would not.” (Not, “decided not to because it is a bad idea,” ?)

Are cunning felons really using corporations to “circumvent background checks,” or, as FELONS with no regard for the law, are they stealing other people’s guns? (Adam Lanza, anyone?)

Wait, hold up. The AP’s propaganda begins way before a word of the story even appears. The image which accompanied the article (it has since been replaced) was originally this one of former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot by psychotic weirdo Jared Loughner. (His weapon, by the way, was not registered to a corporation.)

The reader would see the words “Obama,” “gun control,” and then immediately a photograph of a concerned, compassionate president, comforting an innocent victim of gun violence. Genius work, AP.

In the second paragraph, readers are compelled to associate Obama’s “cause” with “20 first graders and six adults [who] were gunned down last year in an elementary school.”

The article is good to the end. When opposition to Obama’s bill is mentioned, it’s the evil National Rifle Association which takes the spotlight before the Republican Party is ever brought up.

“The National Rifle Association dismissed the administration’s moves as misdirected,” Lederman writes, before mentioning “staunch opposition from the National Rifle Association and most Republican senators.”

Lederman’s work is of such mastery that it gains prominence on the hallowed Drudge Report page amidst more pressing concerns, such as impending war in Syria.

Teresa Mull is the managing editor of Human Events.

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/08/2...-actually-are/