CNN, which bills itself as "the most trusted name in news," was caught
lying during its "reporting" on so-called "assault weapons." On May 15,
CNN aired two pieces which deliberately misled its viewers into believing
that the semi-automatic firearms banned under the 1994 Clinton gun ban are
more powerful than other guns that weren`t banned.
CNN`s John Zarella arranged a live-fire demonstration with Sheriff Ken
Jenne of the Broward County (Fla.) Sheriff`s Department. The exercise
began with a deputy firing a Chinese AK-47 Zarella claimed was targeted by
the Clinton gun ban. Down range, viewers saw the rounds punching holes in
cinder blocks and penetrating body armor. Next, the sheriff fired what was
referenced as a different civilian AK-47 model that was not covered by the
`94 ban. Incredibly, viewers saw no bullet holes, dust, or smoke on the
cinder blocks during this demon-stration, as no rounds hit the cinder
blocks! In fact, CNN later acknowledged, the deputy was actually firing
into the ground. Obviously, the biased point the report was promoting was
that the firearms banned by the Clinton gun ban were somehow more powerful
than those that were not banned-a notion, of course, that is without any
factual merit.
In a later segment that same day, a deputy was aided by CNN in
promulgating the most blatant distortion of the truth. This time the gun
used was a fully-automatic firearm, and it obliterated the cinder blocks.
Of course, not one of the guns banned in `94 is fully-automatic. All of
the firearms covered by Clinton`s ban are semi-automatics. Fully-automatic
firearms have been strictly regulated since 1934.
This demonstration attempted to bolster the justification for Sheriff
Jenne and the Sheriff`s Department supporting the gun ban. This should
come as no surprise, though, since Jenne, who was a former Democratic
state lawmaker in Florida, supported a state bill banning semi-automatic
firearms which was defeated.
