Gun control: Is David Gregory’s on-air stunt proof of media bias?

The incident is also fueling allegations of media bias.

“There's no reason journalists can't stay in the middle,” writes columnist Byron York of the Washington Examiner in a piece that pointed to a Twitter conversation in which a reporter noted that journalists are “smarter and better” than the NRA.

“Contrary to some assumptions, neither the NRA nor other Second Amendment advocates are pure evil,” Mr. York continued. “They even have some entirely reasonable points to make. And so do the advocates of greater controls on guns. If journalists could somehow control their emotions and their biases, there might be a far more reasoned debate in the press.”

In the on-air interview Sunday, Gregory, holding up the clip, asked Mr. LaPierre, “Now, isn't it possible that if we got rid of these, isn't it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?"

"I don't believe that's going to make one difference," LaPierre responded. "There are so many different ways to evade" a ban.

With police expecting to make some kind of announcement about the Gregory investigation by the end of the week, fellow reporters have largely rallied to his defense.

"Was it a stunt? Yep, and an eye-catching one," writes media critic Howard Kurtz, of Newsweek. "Was Gregory being aggressive with the NRA chief, or seeming to push gun control in a confrontational interview? All that is up for debate. But a police probe over what I assume was an empty ammo clip is a total waste of time."

There is of course inherent danger in big-name representatives of the news media being perceived as taking sides on a fundamental constitutional debate. “Don’t be surprised, journalists, if many Americans view you as the enemy as a result,” writes University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds. “Don’t blame them. You’ve taken sides. When you act as agents for the apparat, don’t be shocked when people think of you as apparatchiks.”

To others, the investigation into Gregory’s decision to hold up the disputed magazine clip on national TV points out how a byzantine web of local, state, and national gun laws can catch gun owners unaware.

“One of the problems with the ever expanding gun laws advocated by Gregory and others is that otherwise law-abiding citizens get caught up inadvertently violating the law,” writes William Jacobson, a Cornell University law professor who blogs at Legal Insurrection.

“What [reporters defending Gregory don’t] understand is that David Gregory isn’t being investigated because he’s David Gregory; if he were anyone else, he’d already be in jail.”

Possessing a high-capacity clip in the District is a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

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