Look Ma, I'm a Jourmanilist!

In Saudi Arabia, thieves have their hands cut off. Tony Lee's front-page spread in today's Metro is an argument for doing the same to journalists. Let's go to the videotape, starting with the headline:

Billboard calls for gun control as victims heal
Message hits home after night of multiple shootings in Boston

The only good thing I can say about this is that it makes clear that the article is a de-facto press release for Stop Handgun Violence rather than "news" of any kind. Reporting on a billboard is questionable under the best of circumstances but SHV has been running "edgy" anti-gun messages in that location for at least a decade or so. And to whom exactly did the message "hit home?" Bostonians and Cantabrigians are by and large strong opponents of 2nd Amendment rights, and need reinforcement of this message like members of Opus Dei need convincing of the doctrine of papal supremacy.

Less than 24 hours after a 4-year-old was struck by a stray bullet on the streets of Boston, a giant billboard was unveiled over the Mass. Pike, shedding light on the ease with which criminals can get their hands on guns in Massachusetts.

As if there is any correllation between the two events. Clearly the billboard was not designed, printed, and hung within 24 hours.

“Cities and towns across the nation work diligently to get illegal guns off the streets, but the gun show loophole makes it harder to guarantee that weapons don’t fall into the wrong hands,” said Mayor Thomas Menino.

That may have been the case Monday, when three separate incidents sent six victims to area hospitals, including the 4-year-old and an older cousin.

For that sentence alone, Mr. Lee deserves to spend the rest of his life reporting on dog shows and snow delays. I disagree with the whole premise here, but that doesn't mean there isn't a defensible way to go about it. 'Authorities have yet to discover the source of the gun used in Monday's shooting, but over X cases a year are suspected due to the gun-show loophole' would be one of many.

The problem is not the snarf-inducing issue-advocacy bias dripping from every graf, but the overpowering stench of intellectual slovenliness. As far as I'm concerned, there's no laws on the books against purple unicorns giving gats to kids, and while it's unlikely, that may have been the case Monday.