On Thursday night, the major broadcast networks saw no point in informing their viewers of Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy’s party affiliation (Democrat) as ABC, CBS, and NBC all reported that Malloy had issued an executive order banning those on government watchlists from possessing guns in his state. Along with being arguably the strictest governor in the country when it comes to gun control, Malloy was also recently selected as the chair of the Democratic Governor’s Association (who’s term will run through the 2016 election).
Dannel Malloy
By Ken Shepherd | December 10, 2015 | 5:04 PM EST
Today liberal Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) announced he is issuing an executive order to forbid gun sales in the Nutmeg State to any individual who happens to ping the federal no-fly list. Time magazine's John Samburn dutifully reported the development but without giving any consideration to the reaction from critics who charge it infringes on the Second Amendment rights of innocent Americans by a deprivation of their due process rights.
By Tom Blumer | June 14, 2015 | 9:56 PM EDT
On Friday, the Washington Post's Jeff Guo hyped a study published in the American Journal of Public Health by four people with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study contends that "Connecticut’s handgun permit-to-purchase law (passed in 1994) was associated with a subsequent reduction in homicide rates" involving firearms.
Readers wondering if there is a connection to that Bloomberg, i.e., Michael, and his fierce anti-Second Amendment agenda need not wonder. There is. Two of the four authors are with the school's Center for Gun Policy and Research — very weak research which left the Post's Guo incomprehensively claiming that the state's "permit to purchase" law regulating private firearms transactions seems to have saved "a lot" of lives.
By Tom Blumer | February 20, 2014 | 12:58 AM EST
The national press devoted a great deal of attention to gun registration in Connecticut at the end of 2013. The Associated Press's Susan Haigh had a December 29 story which was picked up by, among many others, PBS, CBS's New York City affiliate, the Huffington Post, and the UK Guardian. Time.com was also on the story.
That attention makes the press's virtual inattention outside of the Nutmeg State itself to what has since been learned all the more difficult to justify. It turns out that there are now three types of so-called "assault weapon" owners in Connecticut: those who registered by the deadline, those whose registrations came in after the deadline, and those who defied the state's registration demand. As J.D. Tuccille at Reason.com reported on Tuesday, the second group is on track to having their guns confiscated, and the number of people in the third group dwarfs those in the first two — a situation which has greatly upset the political establishment, particularly the editorial board at the state's largest newspaper (HT Instapundit; bolds are mine):
Not News at AP: Connecticut Legislative District Goes GOP For First Time in 40 Years to a Second Amendment Defender
By Tom Blumer | June 15, 2013 | 9:45 PM EDT A GOP candidate for the Connecticut State Legislature's 53rd District about 70 miles northeast of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown won election on Tuesday, marking the first time the seat has gone to a Republican since Richard Nixon was president.
Republican Samuel Belsito defeated Democrat Anthony J. Horn by a 58.5%-41.5% margin, largely because his stances in support of citizens' Second Amendment rights and fiscal restraint were more convincing. Based on a review of Newsday's Associated Press Connecticut feed carrying stories from throughout the Nutmeg State (most June 11 and June 12 stories as of the time of this post are here and here), it appears that the AP did not run any stories on the result, and almost certainly made no attempt to discern its meaning.
Civility Succumbs on NPR: Connecticut Gov Slams Gun Makers and NRA 'Monster,' Imagines Mass Shooting in Iowa
By Tim Graham | April 20, 2013 | 4:52 PM EDT National Public Radio’s brand is soothing and civil news and interviews. That certainly didn’t fit when Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy was interviewed Thursday on All Things Considered after the gun-control measures were rejected in the Senate.
Anchor Melissa Block read back to Malloy his comments that gun makers don’t care if mentally deranged people buy their guns. He not only doubled down on that, calling the NRA a “monster,” but when asked what it will take to pass gun control, he suggested Sen. Chuck Grassley might need a mass-shooting in Iowa, or one in Alabama or Mississippi. Civility went out the window on the evening commute.
By Tom Blumer | July 8, 2011 | 4:04 PM EDT
Looking for updates on the Connecticut state budget mess earlier this afternoon, I searched the Associated Press's national site on the last name of Democratic Nutmeg State Governor Dannel Malloy, and found nothing recent (graphic saved here for future reference).
But there were two stories originating from the state which the wire service, the nation's de facto news gatekeeper, deemed worthy of national attention. Brace yourself.
By Tom Blumer | June 27, 2011 | 3:20 PM EDT
Susan Haigh's report Friday evening on the current status of budget negotiations between Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy and the state's public-sector unions contains two glaring errors which mar the entire enterprise.
Haigh conveniently withheld the fact that the Nutmeg State's legislature has already approved $2.6 billion in new taxes over two years until her report's final paragraph, while giving voice in a much earlier paragraph to an absurd union demand that "big businesses and wealthy taxpayers would be asked to pay more if they agreed to givebacks." Uh, the taxes have already happened, guys. She also dramatically understated the objections of state residents to the over 75(!) new taxes which have been imposed.
Here are excerpts from Haigh's hijinks (bolds are mine):
By Tom Blumer | June 24, 2011 | 5:32 PM EDT
I can't say that I'm up on what every state is doing, but it's hard not to notice contrasts between two trios of states singing decidedly different tunes:
- Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey, three states with recently elected conservative Republican governors, have either put their budgets to bed, or are on the verge of doing so, by cutting costs and not raising taxes.
- Connecticut, Minnesota, and California, three states with recently elected liberal governors who are Democrats, are on the verge of a shutdown, serious layoffs, or issuing IOUs. All three governors have enacted or want tax increases.
So how is the press covering these situations?
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NY Times: NJ GOP Gov. Christie 'Blustery and Bellicose', CT Dem Gov. Works Hard Sparing 'Most Vulnerable'
By Clay Waters | February 16, 2011 | 3:33 PM EST David Halbfinger’s Wednesday New York Times profile of Connecticut’s newly elected Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy favorably compared him to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is winning fans for his insistence on budget discipline and his outspoken challenges to unions: “In Tackling Connecticut’s Finances, New Governor Criticizes Peer’s Approach.”
Reporter Halbfinger let Malloy hypocritically pat himself on the back for civility while taking pot shots at Christie. Halbfinger played along, portraying Christie as “blustery and bellicose” compared to the “polite” Democrat Malloy, flatteringly portrayed as closing a deficit while spending “much of his energy finding ways to spare the most vulnerable" and considering tax increases.