Again, thanks to our dear “friends” from CSGV:
HELENA — Associated Press reporters in Montana have been subject to online threats after the news spread that Attorney General Tim Fox had denied AP’s request for the names and other information about Montanans with concealed-weapons permits.
On July 30, the AP filed a report with the Helena Police Department over the online threats, said Jim Clarke, AP chief of bureau for Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.
Clarke declined to elaborate, saying: “The AP refrains from ever publicly discussing security matters affecting staff, and that goes for war zones such as Kabul as well as locations in the United States.”
Some online commentators have published the names and addresses of AP reporters in Helena, while another ran a Google Street view photo showing the house owned by one AP newsman here.
One online threat on a blog said, “If only someone could release the names of the AP reporters, where they work, their home addresses, names of family members, where their children go to school and what kind of car they drive with the license plate number.”
via AP getting online threats after seeking names of concealed-weapon permit holders.
So basically, if a “reporter” ask for name-address-assorted info on somebody to publish, it is OK because..you know, the people have the right to know. However if the People do publish the name, address and other information about a journalist, then it becomes a terrorist threat and law enforcement must come to their rescue.
Sometimes I wonder if it is a requirement by News Organization that their reporters be purposely dumb. It is not like this is the first time some idiot with a press badge has tried to obtain the list of CWP holders and it always ends up backfiring big time. Still, no single news apparatus has sufficiently explained what is the “public interest” in releasing that information other than political gotcha and the person’s sense of “I am special, I can poke you whenever I want because I am a protected species.”
Let’s hope this is a reminder that Information is not the exclusive purview and distribution by those with a press badge. Or simply put: Stop poking the bear.
Personally, I could care less if people know I carry or keep firearms in my residence. I suppose these fellas out in MT also are scared to have ADT signs posted in their front yard or in their windows because burglars will then target their residence. Huh?
C’mon guys. Let’s stop being whiners and complainers and characterizing this movement of ours as a ferocious animal who mindlessly rips people apart. I’m sick of people associating me and my NRA membership as some kind of validation of Ted Nugent and others like him who like to go around beating their chests and threatening people.
No, we don’t threaten to kill people who want our CWP info and we don’t defend that behavior. Ever.
Next topic.
Speak for yourself. As I mentioned below, the AP request included information that had no legitimate “news” purpose. What they were doing was exposing people who lawfully exercise their rights to harassment, fraud, and abuse.
So they got it right back at them. And notice that the story doesn’t provide any details about the “threats” beyond the AP drones getting the treatment they wanted to hand out. They WANT you to think there were death threats, but there’s no evidence of them provided.
(And the AP “declining to comment” while pushing a slanted report onto the wires is too clever by half.)
That is a decision for you to make for yourself. It is not a decision for you to make for other people, who may have very good reasons to keep certain aspects of their lives secret.
Great analysis.
We call this “Because You’d Think So”
https://www.facebook.com/Because.Youd.Think.So
The AP drones include SSNs in their request — I can only conclude they intended to commit identity theft, because there’s no legitimate reason for asking for them.
No evidence of any actual threats — the threats seem to consist of people publishing the names, addresses, and other contact information of these reporters.
In other words, exposing them to the same risks of third-party targetting they are putting gun owners in.
Considering the flack I caught at work (I was honestly worried I would lose my job, and might have if the security chief not been close friends with my wife) when they published MY name and address when I renewed my CHP, I have no sympathy for these journalists. Considering that people who have moved, gotten unlisted numbers, and obtained a CCW SPECIFCIALLY because they are frightened of an abusive stalker or ex-spouse have been “outed” by these journalists in very well known incidents, I have ZERO sympathy.
Well, i can see CSGV’s point. To identify a person as an AP reporter is to identify him as lacking the means and will to defend him against even a glare.
Remember, kids. Journalists hate it whenever anyone commits journalism on them.