In its attempt to get Miller fired, CSGV pointed to a Jan. 19 speech she gave at an event held by the Virginia Citizens Defense League — which CSGV claims is “a radical pro-gun group that embraces the use of political violence.”
Miller also told the audience that she was “part of this fight that we’re all in.”
Citing the Society of Professional Journalists, CSGV asserts that Miller should be fired from her job on the grounds that journalists should “act independently” by avoiding “conflicts of interest, real or perceived.”
“By this standard, Emily Miller has no business being the Chief Investigative Reporter for WTTG, the Fox affiliate for Washington D.C.,” CSGV’s call to arms states.
CSGV also takes issue with Miller’s book, “Emily Gets Her Gun…But Obama Wants to Take Yours.”
CSGV describes it as “a book in which she rails against D.C.’s democratically-enacted licensing and registration laws, which have been deemed constitutional by a federal court on two separate occasions.”
In her reporting, which spans other issues besides guns, Miller has covered the Washington D.C. city government’s relatively strict gun policies. The city only recently began granting concealed carry permits after a court ordered it to do so.
It was reported on Tuesday that only eight applicants have been granted a concealed carry permit in the city. Eleven have been denied.
“This is the behavior of an activist and pundit, not a journalist,” CSGV asserts. “Given her record, D.C. residents can’t trust that Miller will provide objective coverage on matters of concern to their city. If WTTG is at all concerned with journalistic integrity, it is time for them part ways with her.”
The group then encourages followers to email Miller’s boss, WTTG general manager Patrick Paolini, demanding that he “fire her immediately.”
Reached by The Daily Caller, a spokeswoman for WTTG said “no comment.”
CSGV’s claims of journalistic conflicts of interest are somewhat ironic.
During the 2012 tax year, CSGV received a $187,000 “general support” grant from the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
The group gave CSGV $210,000 in 2011, and $122,000 in 2010.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns was co-founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. It is also the predecessor to the pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.
Everytown for Gun Safety recently announced that it was partnering with the Columbia Journalism School’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma to host a two-day workshop “for journalists on covering guns and gun violence.”
Critics of the workshop have argued that it will be biased in favor of stronger gun control measures.
Conservative commentator S.E. Cupp wrote, “On what planet is it ethical to allow controversial activists — ones with a partisan point of view — to fund an educational forum meant to teach journalists ‘facts’ about guns and gun violence?”
Cupp denounced Everytown as “a group that purports to respect the Second Amendment, but actively works against it by endorsing political candidates who want gun bans and pressuring retailers to force law-abiding, licensed gun owners to check their rights at the door.”
The workshop’s announcement was also cited by pro-gun rights advocates as evidence that the event will have a pro-gun control bias.
“Nearly 100 school shootings have occurred since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary only two years ago,” the advertisement reads, citing a statistic first published by Everytown.
But critics of Everytown have argued that the school shootings referenced there were not similar in nature to the one that occurred at Sandy Hook, in which 26 elementary school students and teachers were murdered by a lone gunman.
Many of the shootings included in that statistic did not have schools as their targets. Most of the shootings involved gang violence, drug-related violence, or domestic issues.
CSGV did not immediately respond to TheDC’s request for comment.
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