Opinion as News.

Remember my piece on the VPC's report on "declining gun ownership"? Well, Reuters published a "news" story on that topic a short while ago. I meant to dissect it, but that's not necessary now - others in the blogosphere have pulverized it.

Yesterday, Say Uncle noted that the story appeared to be just another VPC press release reprint, and proceeded to demonstrate that fact. Today, he notes, as I did in my piece, that the source material for both the Reuters article and the VPC paper comes from the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago. What I didn't know at that time (but suspected), however, is that the NORC is funded by the Joyce Foundation - a group that only gives money to people who help advocate for more gun control. That bit of information was part of a truly outstanding post at Free Constitution that I urge you to read. Take a careful look at the difference between opinion polling, and push polling.

Now, if we could only reach as many eyeballs as Reuters manages to...

UPDATE: Via SayUncle, Reuters pulled the piece from its original location and reposted it with this caveat:

Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Hey! Even they recognized it as an opinion piece! Perhaps we're reaching the media after all.