Exploiting tragedies

In recent weeks, The Spokesman- Review and other media have reported something akin to the following:

“In the aftermath of the Newtown school shooting, President Obama held a news conference to launch a national discussion on gun violence.” What he really meant was launch an effort to ban certain guns, magazines and private sales.

Why did the lead sentence not begin: “In the aftermath of the Aurora, Colo. theater shooting … ?”

Or: “In the aftermath of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting near Tucson … ?”

It appears that much of mainstream media routinely chooses not to question the motives or even obvious blunders of the Obama administration. For example, there seems to be a dearth of anyone asking questions about what role Nov. 6 played in presidential decision-making about when to jump on the gun control bandwagon.

Is it not conceivable that had Obama held that news conference immediately following the Aurora theater shooting, we would have inaugurated a President Mitt Romney? I’d bet Obama thought about that, too.

Are we really so naive as to believe that a politician, particularly Obama, would not carefully weigh the political ramifications of what tragedy to exploit, and when?

Jim Parman

Newman Lake