Dudes, Bass Pro Shops is part of the solution, not the problem! The Connecticut Post has taken a lot of heat the last few days for demonizing Bass Pro Shops, a leading outdoor retailer slated as the anchoring tenant for the Steel Point redevelopment area, in light of the wave of gun violence in the city. Columnist Keila Torres Ocasio and scribe Brian Lockhart have led the bewildering fishing expedition. The paper’s Editorial Board that includes publisher John DeAugustine has published an editorial that lands on the side of sanity: “Oh, it’s a tempting, symbolic target to ask the store to refrain from selling guns. Given the sadness and frustration of the last few weeks, it’s understandable. But beyond the symbolism, it doesn’t really make much sense.”
The editorial added, “The legal sale of hunting weapons, including handguns, is not the problem. Their migration into the hands of homicidal thugs is the problem.”
It’s not uncommon for editorial boards to create distance from the positions of reporters. Keila and Lockhart are generally dependable journalists who do solid work. Bias comes out in journalistic work. Nothing wrong with that. The larger picture is fairness. Are Keila and Lockhart being fair? No. Part of the problem is how the news desk played up the stories. They’re way overplayed. Writing about the sick gun violence in the city is legit and deserve high-profile coverage. Connecting Bass Pro to the violence with persistent screaming headlines is not legit.
The Editorial Board was compelled to write this response because of the overzealous actions of its scribes and the editors that overplayed the stories. This is a classic case of a misplaced issue manufactured by scribes. Can you imagine someone going to the Post and saying look, we want you to publish in our city but you can no longer use ink because scientific evidence shows it’s killing people. And oh, we believe you also shouldn’t have a webpage because we believe looking at a computer screen is the leading cause of American blindness.
Duh!
Bass Pro Shops sells fishing, boating, camping, hunting equipment, as well as electronics and clothing. To see what else, www.basspro.com.
The Post editorial is here.
Only in Bridgeport.
I am confused. Does this first business expected to open up at Steel Point sell guns, among other things?
The bigger issue is our leaders have evicted a community of people of color from an entire peninsula and are now selling to a bunch of white southerners who have a gun culture. This is the same gun culture of rural areas where it has been part of the American lifestyle since this country’s inception but in recent years has been an inexplicable lobbying effort of Republicans from rural states who equate the sale of assault weapons to basic human rights. Not a good mix in BPT. I’m glad the Post is finally exercising its freedom of the press and not going along with this administration’s party line.
Bridgeport Now: Where the hell have you been? Yes, Bass Pro sells guns.
First off, the houses that were taken were for the most part 100-plus years old and were run-down dumps. It’s not like they came into a gentrified neighborhood and destroyed a vibrant community. This area was the scene of many crimes and many fires. If I am not mistaken the tenants were relocated.
The crime here is how long it has taken to get to the point that there is one store willing to open here. All of the past administrations including this one have dropped the ball.
No Andy, they were not all dumps, there were some very nice owner-occupied homes there; remember your dump is someone else’s castle, not everyone lives in your section of town. There were many well-kept homes there that families took pride in, your highness.
BS.
As a newspaper reporter who on more than one occasion felt the urge of taking a Winchester pump into an editorial page office, I’m forced to concede the editorial mentioned is balanced enough.
But they are idiots to think it is that easy for cops to track down straw purchasers of guns. They are fools of the National Rifle Association to promote the myth that violators will be prosecuted “to the full extent of the law.”
What part of the “full extent of a law” do I not understand that passes benignly on people being blasted on their porches or three-year-olds gunned down on the street?
Keila grew up in Bridgeport. She knows more than ‘most any person at The Post about the reality of Bridgeport she writes about in her opinion columns. Lockhart is reporting what is self-evident.
No foul reporters.
Spoken like a know-it-all crank. Bridgeport needs jobs. Fowl reporters. Quack … Quack … Quack.
People commit crimes in all parts of Bridgeport, even in your neighborhood, sometimes by close friends or family.
‘… Bias comes out in journalistic work …”
Are you speaking for yourself, Lennie? The members of the Editorial Board are much older than K. Torres and B. Lockhart. The members of the Editorial Board are more likely to be gun owners, hunters and living in the woods–just like Lennie. Who’s more likely to be ‘biased?’
I hope Walmart uses the position of Bass Pro and their supporters to exercise their right to sell guns again. It’s bad enough they will have increased competition in the sales of fishing and camping equipment. Why not level the playing field at the force of a gun? Heck, the State and the City just unleveled the playing field on them at the stroke of a pen.
Fardy, your white BFD fire buddies didn’t mind owning those “run-down dumps” properties as slumlords. The more you open your trap, the bigger a pompous ass you become.
Don Tito the make-believe firefighter back when those homes were taken for steel point they were not owned by any firefighters that I knew and I knew them all.
Leave it to a dumb ass like you to bring up race whoever you are (and we don’t know because you don’t have the balls to use your racist name). You brand someone a pompous ass, well you’re mistaken; when you know what you’re talking about it’s usually a racist dumb ass like you who thinks it’s pompous because he can’t fathom simple facts.
I think anna and Joel appear to be on the same medication cycle.
Hey Joel, who do you have in this horse race, Linda or Shays?
Keila Torres Ocasio is the best thing going at the Connecticut Post (along with Hail Brown).
Mackey is another crank who prefers a vacant lot just so he can hear himself complain. Another with no solutions.
I guess what anna is saying is it is OK to leave 140,000 people out there as sitting ducks.
What do you know about what people want? Callahan is an expert on sitting ducks. He’d rather have an empty lot on the East Side and quack up to clueless Post reporters.
I see Lennie has a countdown on the site now. Let’s put it this way, Gomes’ district will have a better turnout than Musto’s district in this primary.
anna: Do you favor the Glock 19 or Glock 27 for shooting bluefish?
anna, anna, anna; you are out there on an island by yourself; don’t worry, Finch won’t lay you off, just keep drinking the Kool-Aid.
I think Torres opened up an important discussion. I am not a Finch fan but I think the Bass Pro Shops is a win for Bridgeport. They sell sporting goods and that includes guns. Bridgeport has a serious crime issue including violence by guns. If somebody is going to use a gun, they’ll do it with or without Bass. Hopefully, Keila Torres’ article informs Bass and gives them a heightened sensitivity to these terrible issues we’re facing. Perhaps there will be additional safeguards by Bass in place that will provide scrutiny and accountability. If so, we’ll thank Torres.
What they (she, CT Post) did to Ernie Newton was nothing more than pure yellow journalism; in short, is biased opinion masquerading as objective fact.
Please, OIB. Keila and Lockhart are generally dependable journalists who do solid work. Bias comes out in journalistic work. Nothing wrong with that?
Fluck, every scribe who ever lived has bias. The larger question, are they fair?
What is a fair bias?
When you’re allowed to respond when you think I’m full of it.
No further comment, sir.
Houses that were taken by eminent domain along Ann Street … were one-family homes. They were not dumps. An elderly resident’s home was also taken. Yes, they were relocated but their heart ached–they fought city hall and they lost … their councilmembers did not listen. The councilmembers went along with a dream that has taken so many years to develop and still counting.
Some of those who lived in that area have passed away, but their sons and daughters still remember those painful days and those sons and daughters remember their parents suffering from depression due to the takeover.
*** About time the CT Post was biased about political projections, guns and crime, minority jobs, pipe-dream economic developments, etc. *** WHAT IF? ***
*** Hey Lennie, do you have the numbers on how many actual voters turned out for “every election” in Bpt for the last 10 years? I wonder if there are numbers for the independent voters too! I might be on the midnight train to Georgia on Aug. 14 so I may have to vote by AB for the primary. Who you voting for, Linda or Chris? I don’t have a clue yet, Lennie! *** donj ***