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With the Zimmerman trial over and the nation moving on from the aftermath, ratings at the major news networks are dropping faster than spent brass at Knob Creek. Some reports indicate that CNN has lost 30% of its already paltry share of viewers in recent weeks, and HLN is down as much as 50%. It’s no secret that 24-hour news channels lose popularity when there isn’t a breaking news story to push, and while Piers Morgan hasn’t been a raving success, there have been a few blips on the radar when he focuses his efforts on advocating for increased gun control. Apparently building on the notion that people want to see more shows demonizing guns, CNN has reportedly begun negotiations to produce a 100% fictional series about Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and the “gun show culture” . . .

Via TheInterrobang.com:

“I’m in kind of a negotiation with CNN to do a limited series. They’re thinking of moving over to fiction. And I proposed that we do something on Tim McVeigh and the gun show culture. Because that’s what happened – when Travis Bickle moved from the 70s to the 80s, he met the gun show culture. That’s where Tim McVeigh came from. (laughs) And now, when Travis Bickle meets the social media culture – I don’t know what comes out of that.”

The idea of a news channel producing a scripted, fictional show (on second thought, is that really new?) is somewhat disturbing on its own. But add in the subject matter and you can see the writing on the wall.

If it was a show solely focused strictly on gun culture there might — might — be some glimmer of hope of the show making an attempt at actually representing The People of the Gun in general and not focusing on the few bad actors. But add in McVeigh and you immediately know the editorial slant of the show. “McVeigh blew up a building because the evil ‘gun show culture’ brainwashed and corrupted him.” What could possibly go wrong?

This will not end well.

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45 COMMENTS

  1. CNN grasping at straws again(whats new?)…ever heard of a thing called “research”? It seems CNN doesnt like it very much.

  2. and Hillary Clinton. Oh, wait, the latter is not fiction. or is it?

    think tanks and lobby groups write so much of the news these days, i am honestly not sure whats news and whats fiction on the “news channels” anyway. at least they are admitting this is fiction.

  3. Wait, mainstream media is going to produce fiction? Considering their (NBC, ABC, etc.) abysmal record with distorting facts to create a fictional narrative in the guise of factual news, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised

  5. I want to be outraged by this, but the more I think about it the more I think this is an incredibly stupid idea.

    Yeah, go ahead and produce it. Millions of dollars for a guaranteed flop. Money well spent.

  6. McVeigh was an oddity even at gun shows. He has no defenders today. No one in the gun show circuit spoke up and said that McVeigh did the right thing to kill 168 people. He was overwhelmingly denounced. But there’s nothing quite like using the guilt by association fallacy on low information voters. I remember watching Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC documentary on McVeigh. The desperate smear mongering was palpable.

    • He’s their shining example. Every time some nut loses it and shoots up a mall, takes over a school bus, blows a bomb, etc, the media rush to conclude that it was the work of a “right-wing extremist.” And, to the extent the perp has any clear political leaning at all, the perp always ends up being a lefty. That doesn’t fit with the world view of lefties, so McVeigh is their boy.

      • I remember that during the first few hours after the Boston Marathon bombing, all the “experts” were pointing fingers at a right-wing extremist group.

    • I’ll out myself as someone who supports McVeigh to a certain point. Most of the things about government, corruption, taxation, gun control etc etc came true. I do not agree with his deplorable methods, but he was extremely intelligent, extremely patriotic, and knew just how badly this country’s future was going to be. If people had listened to what he had to say, maybe things would have been different.

      His primary motivations, RR and Waco, are always on my mind. Let’s just say I have a special place in my heart for Lon Horiuchi. It’s not the good place, either. Let’s just say that learning about RR, Waco, and OKC are some things that ultimately have defined who I am.

      If this is an unpopular sentiment, I can understand.

      168 innocents… Yeah, I know… But how many has our government killed since then? The police? Our military?

      Call me crazy, but I do believe in my lifetime (I’m in my 20s) there may come a time where McVeighs are needed.

      • Terrorism is never needed or wanted. It is better to suffer injustice than to commit injustice. No matter how just the cause, no matter the injuries suffered, to restort to evil acts is still evil, despicable and anyone unwilling to condemn such is joined under that condemnation as wicked.

        McVeigh, at least, repented of his wicked act.

      • You’re either insane or stupid or a troll. No one is seriously going to defend the murder of hundreds of innocent people.

  7. Makes me long for the days when William Randolf Hurst fomented strife with other nations to sell papers, as opposed to CNN turning Americans against one another to boost ratings.

  9. CNN has been producing fiction for a while now. This is nothing new.
    They can’t seem to produce facts and report them. If they did it would actually be newsworthy.
    Cable news is the bottom of the barrel and, unfortunately is the trough the general population feeds from the most.

  10. Let there rating continue to plummet they failed in April to get high ratings for all gun ban talk they fail with Zimmerman now let them fail with this and laugh when they go out of business.

    • At the moment living “Wag the Dog” with the “heightened terror threat in mideast’. The outrageous actions fo the NSA being widely criticiised and SHAZAM they find a plot behind every burka.

      • What you are seeing is the so-called “paradox of warning.” By issuing a warning you cannot differentiate between a false alarm and deterrence if nothing happens. It creates a lot credibility problems for intelligence community.

    • I just watched this over the weekend. It’s shocking how much the movie resembles modern broadcasting.

  12. CNN already has one foot in the fiction business (see Morgan, Piers). It would be a refreshing bout of honesty if they just take the leap and admit it.

  13. What I find disturbing is not that they venture into the realm of fiction, but that they seem to have a hard time separating fiction from reality. Observe:

    And I proposed that we do something on Tim McVeigh and the gun show culture. Because that’s what happened –

    Low listen carefully to “what happened:”

    when Travis Bickle moved from the 70s to the 80s, he met the gun show culture. That’s where Tim McVeigh came from.

    Travis Bickle was a fictional character in a 1976 movie. He did not move from the 70s to the 80s. He did not encounter “the gun show culture”.

    So apparently, a fictional character did something that never happened and that produced Timothy McVeigh. Strange, under those circumstances I would have expected him to look more like a Salvador Dali painting.

  14. More leftist/liberal lies coming…with creative editing, they can make just about anything look like the truth…look at what Michael Moore did with Fahrenheit 9/11…

  16. All they need to do is tell a lie three times, poof, viola, The Truth!
    At least that is how it will be perceived by the mass. Remember the movie JFK? I was shocked how many people I knew believed that to be all fact.

  17. oh no, a few hundred thousand already brainwashed people will see it!!

    WEDNESDAY JULY 17th

    Total Day

    FNC: 1,234,000 in P2+ (251,000 in 25-54)

    CNN: 430,000 in P2+ (162,000 in 25-54)

    MSNBC: 393,000 in P2+ (124,000 in 25-54)

    We weren’t exactly reaching that demographic any way….

    -Ben

    http://www.facebook.com/carryalerts

  19. Maybe somebody will come up with a Kermit Gosnell show next. It’ll be like “SAW” with babies.

  21. When I first heard about the Oklahoma City Bombing, they were looking for two Arab looking men. Then just by a miracle, they stop Timothy McVeigh because he didn’t have a license plate. What a coincidence. Never heard another word about two arab looking men. It just seems that the first word out is the most truthful. Same way with Flight 400 or 800 that was shot down off the coast of United States. Benghazi, first comment I heard was that Ambassador Stevens was beaten and sodomized, dieing from his injuries. It just seems that the first report is right, because they haven’t had a chance to sensor it, or put their spin on it. I don’t believe any one who was watching the demonstrators that were gathering for a peaceful demonstration in front of the compound in Benghazi, with AK-47 and RPG’s, would think that it was going to be any thing but peaceful.

  23. The folks at CNN (as well as NBC, CBS, and ABC) are experts on producing works of fiction. Just tune in any night and you’ll see.

  26. Don’t bust on my SyFy chan. I am always amazed that they produce pretty good series, and absolutely gawd awful movies. CNN isn’t a pimple on SyFy’s butt.

  28. “They’re thinking of moving over to fiction”

    I’d say that already happened quite a while ago. And one more thought – any news agency involved in fiction is really a propaganda agency, wouldn’t you say? Did they just out themselves, then?

  29. “The idea of a news channel producing a scripted, fictional show”… News channel, thats funny.

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