12. Confronting the Media

	``THE BRAVE MAN INATTENTIVE TO HIS DUTY, IS WORTH LITTLE MORE TO
HIS COUNTRY, THAN THE COWARD WHO DESERTS HER IN THE HOUR OF DANGER.''
General Andrew Jackson, speech to troops before the Battle of New
Orleans, January 8, 1815.

	In rare cases, the media may impose a black-out on the pro-gun
viewpoint. This doesn't mean the kind of coverage typical of the New
York Times, where the news articles are usually slanted against guns,
and the in-house editorials are always anti-gun, but pro-gun op-eds
pieces and letters-to-the-editor do appear from time to time. Instead,
we're talking about newspapers like the San Jose Mercury-News or the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which have from time to time shut the
pro-rights viewpoint out entirely.

	In cases of pervasive or systemic bias, ask for a meeting with
the relevant person at the newspaper or broadcast station (the news
editor, or the editorial page editor, or the person in charge of
letters to the editor). Bring two or three well-informed people to the
meeting, and bring extensive clips from the paper documenting the
problem. (Or for broadcast media, written notes of particular problems
with particular shows.) Also bring pro-gun articles and books to give
to the newspaper as background information. (If you can, avoid books
published by gun groups.)

	While the meeting will certainly not turn an anti-gun
newspaper into a pro-gun one, it might convince the paper to let some
opposing viewpoints trickle into print once in a while.

	If your efforts at reasonable dialogue hit a stone wall, hold
a rally in front of the media outlet, decrying its bias. Make sure to
invite all the other media outlets in town to attend. And make sure to
have detailed documentation of the picketed outlet's bias available.

PART II

INFLUENCING GOVERNMENT

	The battle in the arena of public opinion is a warm-up for the
battle in the halls of government. Here's how you can stop the passage
of laws restricting freedom, and promote reform of existing laws that
infringe our rights.