CNN's Don Lemon said in annoyed fashion Thursday night that the media was not focusing on guns in the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack.
This was one of the most inaccurate things Lemon has ever said, and he has had some doozies.
Reporters have not even attempted to appear objective after a man who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State slaughtered 49 people at a gay Orlando night club. Rather than discussing the threat of terrorism and ISIS-inspired attacks, mainstream reporters have badgered politicians on both sides to support gun control measures and unabashedly advocated for such measures themselves.
MSNBC's Thomas Roberts scolded a Democratic congressman that history would judge how politicians voted on the issue. Colleague Brian Williams promised gun control advocate Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) her remarks about the terror watch list would play repeatedly on his network. CNN's Ashleigh Banfield whined that she couldn't believe that she had to say terror watch list members could buy weapons.
MSNBC's Craig Melvin delivered a full gun control editorial at the end of one broadcast.
CBS This Morning host Gayle King asked Obama official Jeh Johnson "what will it take" to get gun control passed.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough proclaimed there to be an "opportunity" for something like an assault weapon ban to happen again due to favorable polling.
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell practically used square quotes to ask Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) about the NRA's "due process" arguments against stopping people on the terror watch list from buying guns.
And who can forget the New York Daily News writer who shot an AR-15 and was so traumatized by the experience that he had a "temporary form of PTSD" and claimed it was like firing a "bazooka." He even initially called it a "tactical machine gun" instead of the semi-automatic rifle that it is, before stealth-editing out that particular bit of inaccuracy.
The column was widely and deservedly panned. This writer shot an AR-15 earlier this year for the first time and comparing it to a bazooka is so insane on multiple levels, it defies all bounds of logic.
Yet viewed in the context of a week where the mainstream press made it loud and clear where it stands on guns in America, it made a lot more sense.