Getting Smaller Cartoon

'Covering Guns': Columbia University's 'workshop' for journalists far from objective

Columbia University

(Go Figure?)

Columbia University would never sponsor an event funded by the National Rifle Association. What’s more, the idea would seem especially outlandish if most of the speakers at the event were NRA supporters.
Yet, gun control advocate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his gun control group Everytown are now funding a two-day workshop in Phoenix on Friday and Saturday sponsored by Columbia University’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. The event will bring together journalists from around the country to learn about “covering guns and gun violence.”
Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center, claims that there is “no party line” and calls the workshop “very balanced.”
But gun control advocates make up 15 of the panel’s 17 experts.  Aren’t journalism schools supposed to teach journalists to present both sides of a story? Why doesn't Columbia feature other speakers who argue that people should be able to defend themselves with guns?

Columbia’s Dart Center treats Bloomberg and his various anti-gun groups as simply providing objective news.

Only two law enforcement officers will be making presentations: Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik of Pima County, Arizona, and Tucson police chief Roberto A. Villaseñor.  Both are proponents of stricter gun control.  Dupnik, a liberal Democrat, has long attacked Arizona’s concealed handgun laws for being too lax and let people carry in too many places. Villaseñor has been a strong outspoken supporter of President Obama’s gun control proposals.
These law enforcement officers represent a minority view.  A 2013 nationwide survey of PoliceOne’s 450,000 members found that 91% of law enforcement support concealed carry laws.  Eighty percent believe that a concealed carry permit holder could have reduced casualties from such recent tragedies as Newtown and Aurora.  Ninety-two percent think that Obama’s proposed assault weapon ban would either increase or have no effect on violent crime.
Columbia University could easily have found law enforcement officials with an alternative viewpoint.
All five academic researchers also happen to be proponents of more gun control.  Roseanna Ander argues that Obama’s proposals are “really important and promising.”  Philip Cook maintains that the previous assault weapons ban just didn’t go far enough.  Jim MacMillan claims the solution is simple: “Fewer guns would equal fewer deaths.”  Garen Wintemute considers Obama’s proposed assault weapons ban to be a “great idea” and states that “Gun policy in the US . . . reflects the priorities of a radical fringe of gun owners.”  And Jill Messing advocates stricter gun control as a means of reducing domestic violence.
But the academic research points in exactly the opposite direction.  Published academic research by criminologists and economists consistently finds that assault weapons bans have not reduced crime.
Last fall, the Crime Prevention Research Center, where I serve as president, conducted a survey of economists who have published refereed empirical journal articles on firearms, with 88% of those from North America saying that guns are used more often in self-defense than in crime and 91% saying that gun-free zones attract criminals.  But Columbia managed not to enlist a single researcher who is skeptical of gun control.
Just two speakers actually support gun ownership, but conservative commentator S.E. Cupp has no particular expertise on the issue.  And conservative lawyer David Kopel will speak only about the history of the Second Amendment.
Unfortunately, Columbia’s Dart center treats Bloomberg and his various anti-gun groups as simply providing objective news.  Their posts announcing the workshop uncritically repeat claims made by Bloomberg.  Among these falsehoods is a gross exaggeration of the number of people who are murdered with guns. “Nearly 12,000 murdered with guns each year,” parrots Columbia. In fact, the FBI reports that the number of murder victims has stayed below 9,000 since 2010.
Similarly, the claim that the U.S. has a firearm murder “rate 20 times higher than other developed countries” is absurd with several developed countries having much higher firearm murder rates that the U.S. (Brazil, Mexico, and Russia).
Columbia also relies on Bloomberg for the claim that “nearly 100 school shootings have occurred since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary only two years ago.”  Even liberal-leaning PolitiFact described this claim as “mostly false,” as Bloomberg’s number is five times larger than the actual number.  CNN and Fox have also disputed the Bloomberg claim.
Michael Bloomberg is spending over $50 million a year on his anti-gun message and it is overwhelming the gun debate.  On television ads alone in 2013, he outspent the NRA and all other self-defense groups combined by 6.3 times. And, he’s just announced a new news agency which will start up in June that will focus on anti-gun stories.
For a man worth $36 billion, Bloomberg can afford to cover all the bases to get his message out. But you would think that Columbia would have the gumption to at least use basic journalistic practices of fact checking and teaching journalists to see both sides of an issue when they offer a workshop.

As nuke deal deadline draws near, US and Iran hold 'intense' talks

As a deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran nears, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Saturday in what officials described as "at times intense" talks as part of the effort to flesh out a framework agreed in April.
The talks between the two countries focused on how to narrow differences over how to ease economic penalties on Iran and to what extent Tehran must open up military facilities to inspections.
The talks between Kerry and Zarif lasted six hours, in what officials described as the most substantive negotiating round since world powers and Iran clinched a framework pact in April. It was unclear what progress, if any, was made by Kerry and Zarif before the Iranian delegation began leaving for Iran.
People involved in the talks told The Wall Street Journal that political pressures could still delay or derail a deal as the two sides scramble to flesh out the agreement. While much of the focus has been on the Obama administration's struggles to prevent Congress from blocking a deal, diplomats told The Journal that growing political pressure in Iran now poses the more significant risk.
Last month's agreement left big questions unanswered, which weeks of subsequent technical discussions have done little to resolve.
Asked about completing the full accord by June 30, Zarif said, "We will try."
His deputy, Abbas Aragchi, said lower-level officials would meet again in Vienna next week.
U.S. officials provided hints of what must have been a difficult dialogue, but told The Associated Press that the encounter ultimately proved fruitful.
World powers believe they have secured Iran's acquiescence to a combination of nuclear restrictions that would fulfill their biggest goal: keeping Iran at least a year away from bomb-making capability for at least a decade. But they are less clear about how they will ensure Iran fully adheres to any agreement.
Various Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, have pledged to limit access to or even block monitors from sensitive military sites and nuclear scientists suspected of previous involvement in covert nuclear weapons efforts.
“This permission will not be granted in any way. Both our enemies and those who are waiting for the decision of the Islamic Republic should know this,” Khamenei said in a recent speech.
“I think there are a number of challenges right now,” Robert Einhorn, a senior member of the U.S. negotiating team until 2013, told The Wall Street Journal. “I think especially in the light of what the [supreme] leader has been saying, there will be a temptation by the Iranians to revisit things which they have already agreed.”
The U.S. says access to military sites must be guaranteed or there will be no final deal. A report Friday by the U.N. nuclear agency declared work essentially stalled on its multiyear probe of Iran's past activities.
The Iranians are not fully satisfied, either.
The unresolved issues include the pace at which the United States and other countries will provide Iran relief from international sanctions -- Tehran's biggest demand --  and how to "snap back" punitive measures into place if the Iranians are caught cheating.
President Barack Obama has used the "snapback" mechanism as a main defense of the proposed pact from sharp criticism from Congress and some American allies.
Exactly how rapidly the sanctions on Iran's financial, oil and commercial sectors would come off in the first place lingers as a sore point between Washington and Tehran.
Speaking ahead of Kerry's talks with Zarif, senior State Department officials described Iranian transparency and access, and questions about sanctions, as the toughest matters remaining, and cited "difficult weeks" since the April 2 framework reached in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Iran insists it is solely interested in peaceful energy, medical and research purposes, though many governments around the world suspect it of harboring nuclear weapons ambitions. The U.S. estimates the Iranians are currently less than three months away from assembling enough nuclear material for a bomb if they chose to covertly develop one.

Kerry breaks leg in Geneva bike crash, flying back to US

IDIOT

Secretary of State John Kerry broke his leg in a bike crash outside Geneva Sunday, where he had been holding nuclear talks with Iran’s foreign minister.
Kerry called off the rest of his four-nation trip and will fly back to Boston.
State Department Spokesman John  Kirby said Kerry is stable and never lost consciousness.
Kerry should make a full recovery and is in good spirits, he said.
The accident occurred near Scionzier, France, outside the Swiss border. Paramedics and a physician were on the scene with his motorcade at the time.
Kerry was transported to Geneva’s main hospital HUG, where he was being evaluated, Kirby said. A paramedic traveling with his motorcade immediately examined Kerry after his bike apparently his a curb, causing the fall, Kirby said.
X-rays at the Swiss hospital confirmed that Kerry fractured his right femur.
Ending the trip means Kerry is skipping meetings with Spanish leaders and a conference in Paris on fighting the Islamic State group.
Kerry's cycling rides have become a theme of his diplomatic journeys, often taking his bike with him on the plane. 
During discussions in late March and early April between world powers and Iran, he took several bike trips during breaks in the negotiations. Those talks were held in Lausanne, Switzerland, and led to a framework agreement. 
Kerry met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for six hours in a Geneva hotel Saturday as the sides now work to seal a comprehensive accord by June 30.

Maryland removes parallel parking from driving test, sparking safety concerns

Maryland has become the most recent state to drop the parallel-parking requirement from its road test, sparking debate about whether the next generation of motorists will be adequately prepared to safely navigate streets.
Buel Young, a Maryland Motor Vehicles Administration spokesman, said the requirement was officially removed May 19 after state officials had determined the maneuvers and skills required to parallel park -- which include backing up, using mirrors and depth perception -- were already being evaluated in other parts of the test.
However, the decision, which follows similar ones reportedly in California, Florida, Virginia and the District of Columbia, is raising concerns among such groups as AAA Mid-Atlantic.
“If you’re driving in a major city, you have to know how to parallel park,” group spokesman John Townsend said Saturday, pointing out that the District has 17,000 metered, curb-side parking spots. “We don’t all go to the shopping mall.”
Townsend also said the parking part of the tryout most "terrified” him and countless other teens, which made everybody practice intensely. And it was a great test of eye-hand coordination, he argued.
Private driving coaches and others have speculated that Maryland ended the parking requirement because too many teens were flunking that part, which resulted in long waits to take the test because so many applicants were reapplying.
The MVA has been trying to shorten the wait. However, Young told The Baltimore Sun that he was unaware of a connection between that effort and ending the parking requirement. And he declined to speculate on whether the change will reduce the time required to take the test.
"We don't have any data right now because we just instituted” the change, he told the newspaper.
USA Today reports at least a dozen other states -- including Illinois, North Carolina and Oregon -- don't test parallel parking.
Officials say the parking requirement in D.C. test has not been permanently removed, despite a failure to test the skill set for several years.
Young says parallel parking will continue to be a teaching requirement in state-controlled driver's education courses in Maryland.

Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, dies of brain cancer

Beau Biden – son of Vice President Joe Biden – died of brain cancer at 46, the White House confirmed in a statement Saturday.
"It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life," the statement from Vice President Biden's office said.
"The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau's spirit will live on in all of us-especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter," the statement said.
President Obama said he and the first lady were grieving alongside the Biden family.
"Michelle and I humbly pray for the good Lord to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth," Obama said in a statement released late Saturday.
Beau Biden was a lawyer and member of the Delaware National Guard and former Delaware attorney general. However, he never would follow in his father’s footsteps as a U.S. senator and perhaps even become governor.
Biden, although was planning to run for governor of Delaware in 2016, was plagued with health troubles throughout his political career.
In 2010, Biden suffered a mild stroke at only 41 years old. Three years later, he found himself in a Texas hospital for cancer treatment.
In August 2013, he would undergo surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston to remove a lesion. That was followed by radiation treatment and chemotherapy. Three months after the procedure, doctors gave him a clean bill of health.
However, Biden suffered a recurrence and was admitted to Walter Reed Hospital in May, officials said. At that time though, it was unaware why he was being treated.
Support for the Biden family poured in from both sides of the aisle Saturday night into Sunday morning.
Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley both expressed their sympathies to the Bidens.
“My heart is broken for the family of Beau Biden—a wonderful man who served his country with devotion and lived his life with courage,” Hillary tweeted.
“Katie and I are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Beau Biden. He served his country and the people of Delaware with great honor,” O’Malley said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Biden family in this moment of great loss.”
Senator James Langford (R-OK) also released a statement expressing his remorse.
"I'm incredibly saddened to hear of the death of Vice President Joe Biden's son, Beau Biden,” the statement said. “Our entire nation mourns with the Biden family and the White House during this difficult time. Vice President Biden has endured incredible tragedies during his lifetime. Cindy and I pray for the Biden family, Beau's widow, Natalie, and their two children."
The news of Beau Biden’s death also caught the Delaware political establishment off guard and also renewed questions about his health. Beau Biden kept a low profile and declined any interviews abou his health.
"I think he would have run. I think he would have won," said Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, a fellow Democrat. Markell said he last spoke to Biden in February, when he invited him to a meeting of Democratic governors in Washington, D.C.
"He was serious" about running for governor, added New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon, a longtime friend and political ally of Joe Biden who described Beau Biden as the most popular politician in Delaware. "He thought he was going to win this battle."
Gordon said he last spoke to Beau several weeks ago, when Biden participated in a conference call on crime issues in Wilmington.
"He was a rock star," Gordon said. "He had a great image, great character."
Beau Biden left office earlier this year and joined a Delaware law firm run by Stuart Grant, a prominent Democratic campaign donor and plaintiffs lawyer specializing in corporate litigation. The first announced in late April that Biden was expanding his work on behalf of whistleblower clients, but was not available to clients.
Biden, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, earned a law degree from Syracuse University in 1994. He served as a law clerk for a federal judge in New Hampshire before working for the U.S. Department of Justice from 1995 until 2002, including five years as a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia. In 2001, he volunteered for an interim assignment helping to train judges and prosecutors in postwar Kosovo.
With his father, then Delaware's senior U.S. senator, at his side in 2006, Biden launched his campaign for attorney general. He promised to reorganize the state Department of Justice to better combat identity theft, Internet stalking by pedophiles, street crime and abuse of the elderly.
Biden won with 52.6 percent of the vote.
"He's supped at this table since he's been 3 years old," a beaming Joe Biden said after the victory. Beau Biden was a toddler when his father was first elected to the Senate.
"I'm just proud of him," the elder Biden added. "I think he will make the state proud."
The young Biden sidestepped questions about his own political ambitions during the campaign.
"Sometimes, it's not good to look too far down the road," said Biden, who remained similarly cautious about discussing his long-range plans in an interview with The Associated Press after suffering the stroke in 2010.
"Having long-term dreams is a good thing ... but having a plan has never worked for me, because life always intervenes," Biden told the AP at the time. For Biden, his initial health scare was also a reminder to balance his job with family time — advice he encouraged others to follow.
"It's kind of reinforced how I've operated my life," he said.
As attorney general, Biden established a child predator unit, joined other attorneys general in taking on mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses, proposed tougher bail restrictions for criminal defendants, putting him at odds with some fellow Dems.
But a spate of shootings in Biden's hometown of Wilmington went largely unabated during his tenure, and his office stumbled in some high-profile murder prosecutions, including two cases in which murder charges were dropped. Biden also faced scrutiny over how his office handled the case of Earl Bradley, a pediatrician who sexually assaulted scores of young patients over more than a decade before being arrested in December 2009.
Biden cited his focus on the Bradley case in announcing in January 2010 that he would not run for the Senate seat that his father vacated in 2008 when he was elected vice president.
The younger Biden's decision stunned political observers, including many fellow Democrats who thought Joe Biden's former chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, had been appointed to the Senate on an interim basis to keep the seat warm for the son. A fellow Democrat, New Castle County Executive Chris Coons, won the seat after Castle, who had been considered the odds-on favorite, was upset by tea party-backed Christine O'Donnell in the GOP primary.
"I have no regrets," Biden said after O'Donnell's stunning primary victory scrambled the political calculus surrounding the Senate seat.
Biden coasted to re-election as attorney general in 2010 after Republicans declined to field a candidate against him.
In addition to his work as a lawyer and attorney general, Biden was a major in an Army National Guard unit that deployed to Iraq in 2008.
He was married and the father of two children.
Markell ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in Delaware in honor of Biden.
Funeral arrangements are pending.