Two articles in the new rags about Militia resurgence. One in a Kentucky paper, and one in Maine. I don’t think there’s any “resurgence” but it’s odd that two papers report on this in a short period of time. I’m not sure they have it right about the Maine militia. Judging from the looks of that dude, I’m not sure he ever got the word that the Governor stood down the militia after we whopped those uppity rebs.
6 thoughts on “Militia Resurgence?”
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Hey, who you callin’ an “uppity reb”?
I resemble that remark!
:) Truth is, these guys have more to worry about from all the Massachusetts people invading their state.
Actually, a bandoleer with pencil tipped rounds sounds like a good Oleg Volk composition.
“VOTE: Arm Yourself With Knowledge”
Well, obviously there are militias again: a Democrat is in the White House. You may have also noticed that homelessness and opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are also things of the past. Hopefully when people start burning churches again they’ll leave my parish and local cathedral alone (well, I’d settle for the cathedral; the parish could stand a good charring).
I have to wonder if someone with “media relations” in their job title is not suggesting writing articles about the militia movement (in other words, wacko gun nuts) — all as a way of trying to change the direction of coverage after all the gun-rights victories lately.
How would Bitter evaluate that as a media strategy?
Depends on what group has said person on staff as to whether or not it makes a good strategy, a great strategy, or a worthless waste of time.
For a group like the Brady Campaign – largely the most politically relevant gun control group – I don’t think they would have much of an interest in these kinds of stories. If they do, it’s probably a general waste of time. They’ve already been successful at getting most of their talking points in the more influential (in the political class anyway) editorial rooms and in general news coverage. They would be best served by keeping focused on those talking points and building those relationships for better coverage during the days of the McDonald hearing & decision.
For a group like the VPC, it might qualify as good, but only for the purposes of another media hit should their get staff quoted. It’s not great because it doesn’t really hit at their bottom line mission, and it seems like a stretch to pull off any more. The fact is that enough of us are known as gun owners that the argument that the next Tim McVeigh is hiding inside every Average Joe at the gun show just doesn’t fly. I don’t even think editors of anything other than the most left-wing papers would even give the time of day, much less column inches, to someone who was seriously pushing general gun control legislation with these kinds of arguments.
For groups that are trying to push general right-wing activity extremism arguments (MoveOn, CAP, SPLC, etc.), it’s a great strategy. By hyping this kind of story alongside complaints of events like tea parties and other examples of mobilized right-of-center activism, they are trying to undermine every grassroots activity by the right. Will it work? I would tend to think not, but I think it can mobilize their own people. Since that is actually their end goal, it should be considered a success.