MediaWatch: May 3, 1999
Table of Contents:
MSNBC's Contrarian Take
In contrast to the calls for greater gun control cited above, on the night of the shooting MSNBC’s Brian Williams broke from conventional media wisdom in an interview with Bobby Mitchell, the husband of a Jonesboro victim, and his attorney.
Instead of taking the obligatory swipe at the NRA, Williams tried to understand how public policy could have averted the massacre by two deranged gunmen hell-bent on destruction and contemptuous of the law: "Counselor...you represented the victims there in Jonesboro, Arkansas and that led to positive change...There is great anger, of course, and there is great sadness in Littleton, Colorado tonight. Should they try to do something right away, try to harness that, put it into positive change and would this have happened with the strictest gun laws in the country anyway?"
