The Medford Mail Tribune, a newspaper which has repeatedly editorialized against self defense for public employees, has won a court case .pdf to get the names, addresses and occupations of all concealed handgun license holders in Jackson County.
Yeah, you can email the ironically-named editor Bob Hunter, but fascists like him probably get off on knowing how mad they make us.
I believe the most effective way to handle this is by making it their advertisers' problem, as they are the ones who finance and enable these subversives.
The first step would be to determine who their big regulars are--maybe come up with the top 5, and then send their CEOs a letter. It ought to be nice, that is, let them know you know they don't set editorial policy, but since the paper depends on them for their lifeblood they have been inadvertently drawn into this thanks to a newspaper management that places its subversive crusading above the interests of its customers. And who knows, maybe some of them will be gun owners.
I think if a business like a car dealership knew they could expect about a dozen protestors on the sidewalk outside their business on a busy weekend with signs highlighting how they are enabling undermining of rights, most would not want the controversy. If they knew their businesses were going to be regularly randomly selected for this, it would give them incentive to bring requisite pressure to bear.
This, of course, all depends on whether or not Oregon gun owners are interested in personally pursuing this and have the manpower to make good on it.
Being in Ohio, there is only so much I can do, but I will report on it via the War on Guns if anyone there wishes to pursue it. I'll also do what I can to recruit support from others.
Newspapers are fighting for survival right now, with circulation and revenues way down. Case in point, The New York Times will undergo a major bloodletting from among their reporting staff in the coming days. I just don't see the Medford local having the kind of against-the-trend prosperity to be able to sustain this, especially if their advertising guys are getting angry calls from big revenue sources demanding to know what the hell they've dragged them into.
[Via Jeffersonian]
Admittedly this is a quibble, but a major bloodletting at the NYT will not harm any reporters. They do not have any reporters, they only have propagandists and advocates.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. I am passing this along to a friend in Oregon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this. I am a resident of Medford, and I am willing to follow up on it. I'm not a subscriber and I'm not aware that I've been patronizing their major advertisers, so I'm going to start by getting in touch with gunowners I know who may have a subscription.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you were aware of this, but something like this has happened before, in Roanoke, VA. I've summarized it on my blog (http://curses-foiled-again.blogspot.com/), and linked back to your post here.
Basically, the Roanoke Times posted the entire statewide database of CHP holders on their website, complete with addresses. It was taken down the next day because of the outcry, and because it had recent addresses of people who had gotten CHPs because of abusive ex's.
Yes, I followed The Adventures of Christian Trejbal on WoG, as well as brought up the advertiser tactic before.
ReplyDeleteThe same damn judge who ruled against Shirley Katz (school teacher who sued to be able to carry concealed), the Hon. G. Phillip Arnold, is the one who ruled in favor of the newspaper. Before he became a Judge, he ran the local Legal Services and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal. One or the other is enough to tell me his political leanings.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Phil is related to Benedict...?
ReplyDeleteContacting the advertisers is a good idea, if rather late (IIRC L. Neil Smith suggested this a decades ago.)
ReplyDeleteI might buy one issue for the NYT if I can get a receipt and snail mail them a letter saying "good
for you for inviting David Codrea on the blog" ... am not entirely sure anyone will listen.
Sometimes I suspect the MSM liberal media would rather die than change ... although I'm sure they hope to take the new media with them somehow. cycjec
Forgot to say: Publicizing names of licence holders is reason for not requiring licenses. Although the Roanoke Times did remove the item from its site, criminals looking for burglary targets, those trying to find their ex-wives etc with hostile intent to them have the names now. Once is enough. cycjec
ReplyDelete