Bloomberg bankrolling anti-firearm news rag

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Don’t be surprised if you notice an increase in the number of anti-firearm headlines making the media rounds in the near future. Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety is about to launch a news organization dedicated solely to reporting incidents of gun violence.

Via Capital New York:

James Burnett, who resigned from The New Republic in January as part of a larger staff exodus, has signed on as editorial director of the project. Burnett served as story editor for T.N.R., and also spent several years as news editor for New York magazine.

Another journalist attached prominently to the Everytown news project is Jennifer Mascia. Mascia spent eight years as a news and editorial assistant at The New York Times before leaving in August 2014. Her relevance to the mission of Everytown is clear: she spent a year writing the Times’ Gun Report feature, in which she compiled instances of gun violence around the country.

The Gun Report was launched in response to the Newtown school shootings in December 2012. It ended in June 2014, when columnist Joe Nocera — whose blog hosted the feature — wrote that he “began to feel that we had made the point already.” Mascia wrote about the germination, and end, of the feature in a lengthy piece for Raw Story in July 2014.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera America earlier this year, Mascia said that the new organization will serve to keep persistent pressure on gun rights advocates by inundating the public with stories of tragedies involving firearms.

“We’re going to focus on victim stories, especially because putting a face to these crimes really helps drive it home for readers,” Mascia said.

She added, “This is going to be everything I imagined for the Gun Report that I wanted to do … This will hopefully keep the conversation going. It will be a steady drumbeat. We’re not going to let this fall out of the media.”

Personal Liberty

Sam Rolley

After covering news and politics for traditional media outlets, Sam Rolley took a position at Personal Liberty Media Group where he focuses on his true passions: national politics and liberty issues. In his daily columns and reports, Rolley works to help readers recognize lies perpetuated by the mainstream media and develop a better understanding of issues ignored by more conventional outlets. Follow him on Twitter @SamRolley