Time Warner Criticized for Public’s Misperception of Gun Crime in America

Gun Crime Rapidly Declining, Public Thinks it is Rising

Conservative Activist Blames Bias at Time Warner’s Cable News Station, CNN, for Distorting Public View of Gun Violence

Time Warner CEO Vows to “Strive to do Better” In Presenting the News Fairly

Atlanta, GA / Washington, D.C. – At today’s annual meeting of Time Warner shareholders held at the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, National Center for Public Policy Research Free Enterprise Director Justin Danhof, Esq. confronted Time Warner CEO Jeffery Bewkes over his company’s bias and partisan positions regarding the Second Amendment.

“Media bias has become so bad in this country, that regarding the Second Amendment, it has actually altered the American public’s perception of reality,” explained Danhof. “As the owner and operator of CNN, Time Warner is culpable for the real world effects of its bias.”

Danhof explained to Bewkes that American gun crime rates are dramatically declining. Between 1993 and 2011, gun killings fell 39 percent and non-lethal gun crime dropped 69 percent. Despite this great trajectory, a majority of the American public mistakenly believes that gun crimes are on the rise.

“The public can be forgiven for their misperception regarding gun crime statistics,” explained Danhof. “The way many so-called cable news journalists at CNN and elsewhere jump to cover gun tragedies as a way to advance a political agenda is repulsive and relentless.”

“Time Warner owns CNN and is therefore responsible for the anti-gun rhetoric spewed by its activists such as Piers Morgan – a liberal partisan who has never met a shooting tragedy he wouldn’t exploit on his quest to abolish the 2nd Amendment,” said Danhof. “Morgan and his mainstream media cohorts have exploited gun tragedies so much in fact that it has altered the public’s perception of reality. This has to stop.”

“Conservatives often complain about media bias, but don’t know what to do about it,” noted Danhof. “Well this is a real world example where bias is affecting reality. Conservative and free-market minded Americans need to use these real world examples and confront bias with facts.”

“Bewkes recognized that bias is a matter of perception, and seemed fully aware that many individuals like me find the content and presentation of CNN’s news and opinion programming extremely slanted,” explained Danhof. “Bewkes said he would strive to do better and that CNN’s goal was to present the news in a non-partisan way.”

Danhof also presented Bewkes with the results of a Rasmussen poll that showed that only six percent of Americans consider the news to be very trustworthy, pointing out that this is lower than Congress’ approval rating.

“I told Bewkes that the distrust in the media is well earned,” added Danhof. “I told him that CNN should strive to present facts and stories, and let the viewer make up their mind what to think. Bewkes acknowledged that this was the optimal approach to news presentation and he would work to achieve that end.”

Time Warner Inc. isn’t the only company exploiting the 2nd Amendment in a partisan way. One of Time Warner’s former divisions has also jumped on the anti-2nd Amendment bandwagon.

Just weeks after the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Time Warner Cable (now separate from Time Warner Inc.) announced that it would limit certain gun commercials stating: “We no longer accept ads showing semi-automatic weapons and guns pointed at people. We stand by this policy. If it’s essential to a business owner to show this kind of imagery in their commercials, there are other advertising options in the marketplace.”

“If Time Warner Cable wants to be consistent, it must ban all depictions of semi-automatic weapons and instances of guns being pointed at people across the company’s entire cable platform,” said Danhof. “Short of that, this decision is the definition of hypocrisy.”

Last week, Danhof confronted Comcast CEO Brian Roberts over his decision to ban all gun advertisements across Comcast’s cable and broadcast offerings. Read more about Danhof’s efforts here and here.

In addition to Time Warner Cable and Comcast, Google, General Electric and Groupon have all recently joined the anti-2nd Amendment corporate bandwagon.

The National Center’s work to combat anti-Second Amendment corporations and confront media bias has been covered extensively, including by the Hollywood Reporter, Politico, the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, the Washington Free Beacon and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Today’s Time Warner meeting, combined with the National Center’s presence at today’s Amazon and Home Depot annual meetings, moves the total of shareholder meetings attended this year by the National Center to 30.

A copy of Danhof’s question at today’s shareholder meeting, as prepared for delivery, can be found here.

National Center President David Ridenour is a Time Warner shareholder. Danhof attended today’s meeting as his proxy.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than 4 percent from foundations, and less than 2 percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 96,000 active recent contributors.

Contributions to The National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.

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