Roundup Of Mainstream Media Reports On Project Gunwalker

After Sharyl Attkisson’s first report for CBS News on Project Gunwalker, the mainstream media yawned. However, after last night’s report which featured Sr. Agent John Dodson on camera and on the record, the mainstream media has started to wake up. I should clarify that last statement – some of the mainstream media are starting to wake up.

It is still a non-story to the New York Times. At the Washington Post, despite their big investigation into “The Secret Life of Guns” earlier this year, all they saw fit to do was reprint a story from the LA Times.

The Los Angeles Times, however, is reporting on the story in conjunction with Center for Public Integrity.
As part of the story they interviewed Sen. Chuck Grassley who has this to say:

“We still don’t have the documents we’ve asked for. Maybe we will get the documents. But right now it’s stonewalling,” Grassley said in an interview Thursday.

“Too many government agencies always want the big case,” he said. “They keep these gun-running sales moving along, even when they have people within the agency that say something bad’s going to happen. They had plenty of warnings … and the prophets turned out to be right.”

The rest of the LA Times story covered ground that was previously tilled by bloggers and CBS News. Nonetheless, it is important that a major newspaper has come out with the story.

What makes the involvement of the Center for Public Integrity so interesting is that they are a recipient of funding from the Joyce Foundation to develop stories on the “gun industry lobby.” However, given the hard-hitting nature of their latest report here  along with their assistance to the LA Times, I don’t think the Joyce Foundation can be too happy.

The Dallas Morning News ran an editorial on it as the investigation on gun walking has expanded to stores in Texas. Even CNN has a story out on Project Gunwalker this afternoon with extensive reporting of the Grassley investigation.

Fox News is covering it as well. They brought in Judge Andrew Napolitano, their senior judicial analyst, for his thoughts on it. He makes a good point that to really get to the bottom of this the investigation must be done by Congress and it must be in the House. A multi-agency review conducted out of the Department of Justice most likely will result in a whitewash and a Senate investigation could be hindered by the Democratic majority. Whether the House Judiciary Committee will take it up – and has the cojones to see the investigation through – is anybody’s guess.