Topic: NewsBusters
Matthew Sheffield ludicrously starts his Jan. 11 NewsBusters post on NBC's David Gregory not being charged for violating District of Columbia law by possessing a high-capacity gun magazine that he displayed on "Meet the Press" this way: "It's now official: David Gregory is above the law."
Now, the normal, non-crazy definition of "above the law" typically involves the idea of sovereigns not being bound by the same law as those who rule, or who otherwise have the money and power to avoid legal troubles. That's not what happened here.
Still, Sheffield is offended because Gregory used the magazine to show his viewers what a high-capacity magazine looks like. And he's even more offended that the D.C. attorney general's decided not to prosecute Gregory in part because "the intent of the temporary possession and short display of the magazine was to promote the First Amendment purpose of informing an ongoing public debate about firearms policy in the United States."
Sheffield doesn't want that kind of debate. He wants to shut that whole thing down (to coin a phrase):
The decision is interesting and disturbing for two reasons: 1) the prosecutors believe that Gregory (and his producers) were guilty of the crime, and 2) they seem to think that it is ok to use the rights granted by the First Amendment to attack the rights granted by the Second.
[...]
In other words, it is ok for someone to violate our anti-Second Amendment law because he is within his rights provided by the First Amendment.
Statist "logic" at its finest.
In other words, Sheffield wants to persecute Gregory for allegedly expressing opinions contrary to his own, though he doesn't explain how merely displaying a high-capacity magazine on TV equals an attack on the Second Amendment.
Sheffield also failed to mention that even the president of the National Rifle Association said Gregory shouldn't be prosecuted. That seems to prove even more that Sheffield wants authorities to engage in a malicious prosecution of Gregory.
Sheffield is not the only NewsBuster that endorses persecuting their political opposition. Noel Sheppard enthusiastically touted a petition to deport CNN host Piers Morgan for criticizing the Second Amendment. As with Sheffield, Sheppard complains that Morgan commits the offense of being "arrogant," even though "his opinion is protected under the First Amendment."
We weren't aware that arrogance was a deportable offense. Does that mean we can ship Brent Bozell off to somewhere as well?
