"Meet the Press" host David Gregory found a seemingly unlikely defender this morning in the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which slammed the investigation into whether Gregory broke the law by possessing a 30-round magazine and showing it on television.
On Sunday's "Meet the Press," Gregory held up a magazine while interviewing National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre. Police have since said that it was not legal for Gregory to show the magazine on television. Critics have popped up urging his arrest, and a petition to arrest Gregory has nearly 10,000 signatures as of Thursday morning.
But The Wall Street Journal's edit board sarcastically called it an "illuminating debate."
Moving right along in America's gun control, er, "conversation," we now have the illuminating debate over the alleged criminality of "Meet the Press" host David Gregory. Somehow this seems appropriate to the quality of the rest of the gun debate. [...]
How perfect can you get? Mr. Gregory interrogates Mr. LaPierre on the subject of whether to ban a magazine that it is illegal for Mr. Gregory to display but apparently easy enough to acquire in time for a Sunday morning broadcast. So here we have a possible indictment that would be entirely nonsensical of a journalist who was trying to embarrass an NRA official over an ammunition ban whose impact would be entirely symbolic.
Various media are also reporting that an online petition is underway on the White House website calling for Mr. Gregory's indictment. It isn't clear that Mr. Gregory is guilty of anything other than perhaps overzealousness in pursuit of the conventional gun-control wisdom, which is not a crime unless we want to empty newsrooms and fill up jails from coast to coast.
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