the kicker

Kostric On "Irresponsible Reporting," "Hoplophobia"

August 18, 2009

From Part 1 of The Faster Times’s Q&A with William Kostric, a.k.a, The Man Who Brought The Loaded Gun to that Health Care Town Hall in Portsmouth, NH thereby causing, per TFT, “an explosion…of media coverage” (including that talking-to from Chris Matthews):

TFT: But… c’mon. You know what this reminds me of? And maybe this is a terrible metaphor, and if it is, I apologize. But this reminds me of, say, when Britney Spears was a 16 year-old virgin, but she would appear almost naked on magazine covers. Or Miley Cyrus. Same deal. Virgin. Naked. Magazine. And then people predictably freak out about that. …And then Britney/Miley says, “What? I just don’t see what the big deal is!”

C’mon. Weren’t people obviously going to get upset? It’s the President. People are afraid he’s gonna get shot. And people did get freaked out. People at the event freaked out. People watching on TV freaked out. I freaked out.

KOSTRIC: Look, I don’t want to be condescending or dismissive but… gimme a break. Assassins don’t open carry. It’s just common sense. They don’t announce that they are armed. Further, 9mm’s don’t go through armored cars. And no, I don’t see what the big deal is. The assertion that people at the event freaked out is flat out wrong. I was there. A few people watching on TV may have but most of that leads back to irresponsible reporting on the part of MSNBC along with rampant hoplophobia…

Part II of the interview, TFT’s Oliver Miller teases, will be posted “at the end of the week” and include Kostric on “what it’s like to be on Fox News.”

Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.