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People Magazine Pushes for Action Against “Gun Violence.”
The next edition of People magazine comes with a call for action against gun violence and contact information for every member of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.
So, the little people get to beg their overlords to please protect us from bad people. Oh, boy! Here we go.
The highly unusual step by People, one of the best-known magazines in America, is the product of severe frustration among the editors.
In a video for People.com, editorial director Jess Cagle said that as the staff geared up to cover the shooting spree at a college in Oregon last week, it occurred to him, “We’re doing the same thing that we always do.”
“One thing is very, very clear,” Cagle said, “and that is, as a country, we are not doing enough about gun violence.”
The coverage of the Umpqua Community College massacre is accompanied by stories about victims of other mass shootings and the directory of congressional contact information.
On People.com, the House and Senate phone numbers are listed along with email addresses and Twitter handles. The nonprofit Sunlight Foundation helped with the data.
“We need to know that our representatives in Washington, D.C., are looking for solutions and not giving up, and they need to know if we agree or disagree with their strategies,” Cagle wrote in a letter from the editor.
He added, “Let’s make sure they know that from now on, ‘routine’ responses just won’t cut it.”
His letter was published online on Wednesday afternoon; the full issue will come out on newsstands across the country on Friday.
On Wednesday night a spokeswoman for the magazine said no traffic data for the story was immediately available but said there would be “great interest” in it.
Some of the interest was decidedly positive — the famed ABC producer Shonda Rhimes tweeted out the contact information and said “love this.”
But the magazine also anticipated accusations of advocacy journalism. Cagle said in an interview with the Associated Press that People was not trying to insert itself into politics.
“All we’re saying is, ‘Hold your representatives’ feet to the fire,’” he told the news outlet. “‘Let them know what you’re thinking.’ That’s all. But everyone sort of projects their own baggage onto [the issue.]“
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
People magazine attracts millions of readers every week with a mix of human interest and celebrity stories. This week’s issue contains one feature that injects a strong political note. It’s a story of the mass shooting at a college in Oregon. And at the end of the piece, the magazine includes contact information for all 535 members of Congress. It does not tell its readers what position to take. It just says write. Jess Cagle is editorial director of People, and he joins us now. Good morning.
JESS CAGLE: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: What is it about the Oregon shooting that made the magazine take this step, considering, sadly, you have covered other shootings before?
CAGLE: Well, I think that’s the point. We’ve covered other shootings before so many times, and, you know, we were – when this happened, we were obviously – we were covering it beat by beat on people.com. We started planning out how we were going to cover it in this week’s issue. And it was – it felt frustrating, and it felt infuriating that here we were again. And when President Obama spoke about the Oregon incident and he said, my response has become routine, the media’s response has become routine, it really hit home with me. And I thought, well, what can we do this time that is different? We cover these things the same way all the time. And I, you know…
MONTAGNE: Right.
CAGLE: …I think we generally…
MONTAGNE: Yeah.
CAGLE: …In the media cover these things well. I think at People we cover it well. But what else could you do? And I think with this one, it’s a service to the readers. You get to the end of a story like that, and you’re seeing the faces of these dead people because we pay tribute to the victims; that’s what we do. And you’re left with nothing to do about it. So I think…
MONTAGNE: Well, let me ask…
CAGLE: …That this time, we gave them something to do about it.
MONTAGNE: Let me ask you then – you didn’t tell anybody what to do. Presumably, your readers are – as is the country – divided, and maybe even bitterly, over the question of gun control. What has been the response so far?
CAGLE: The response has been generally positive. I have seen some anger, you know, in comments online and things like that because – and I didn’t realize this – I think the minute you mention gun violence, there is a – there are a lot of people who think that means you want to take their guns away or that you don’t believe in our right to bear arms. And that’s not true at all. By the way, if your position was to take everybody’s guns away, well, that’s a – that doesn’t even make sense. It’s impossible. So I have been a little surprised at how angry even trying to have the discussion makes some people.
MONTAGNE: We only just have a couple of seconds. But if you have the 10-second version of why you didn’t tell people what to do – is it sort of a yes or no – the magazine does not see itself as political?
CAGLE: Well, no, I think it’s too divisive. Also, what to do – I don’t have the answer.
MONTAGNE: Well, we’ll have to leave it at that. Thank you very much.
CAGLE: Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Jess Cagle is editorial director of People magazine.
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I love how the gun grabbers WILLFULLY ignore the SSRI mind altering pharmaceutical doctor prescribed drugs ALL the shooters were on before their rampages!
MAYBE these Gun Nuts should look at the FACT that if you remove the GUN RELATED INCIDENTS that occurs in the Cities with the TOUGHEST unconstitutional Gun Laws like CHICAGO, NEW YORK, DETROIT, then the USA drops to 3rd from the Bottom on the List in Gun Violence.
The FACT is that what these TREASONOUS GUN NUTS want to do is Subvert the Constitution and they are in FACT engaging in Seditious Activity to Committ Treason.