Hanging together
Jim Scoutten, host of ShootingUSA, on Joe Huffman’s Boomershoot:
I’ve always thought there are some events that shouldn’t get National TV coverage.
When we’d like the public to think of competitive shooting to be like other mainstream sports.
From a post here. That last part isn’t even a sentence. Seems to imply that the Knob Creek machine gun should not be covered. I guess he thinks these events scare the white people. I don’t think so. Such events, namely Knob Creek, are popular now because of coverage. Knobb creek had a record attendance after R. Lee Ermey covered the event on The History Channel’s Mail Call.
Granted, Jim’s job is to portray the shooting sports in a manner that doesn’t freak people out. But that is easily done since, as History Channel shows us, people like to blow stuff up.
Via Kevin, who notes his disappointment.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:54 am
After reading the whole thread, I actually agree with Jim on this one – I’m not saying that Boomershot/shoot is a bad event that shouldn’t receive coverage, but when you look at the editorial criteria that Jim laid out, it makes sense purely from a marketing standpoint. If his job is to convince suzy soccermommy that the shooting sports are awesome and fun and safe for little Austin-Hunter, then showing a bunch of guys with precision rifles blowing stuff up isn’t necessarily his target demo.
While it’s disappointing, it’s also certainly not a snub. ShootingUSA has their target demo, and there are other shows, like Shooting Gallery with Bane which are a better editorial fit for machine guns and explosions.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I understand and am sympathetic to his reasoning. But think it’s a bit misplaced.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:50 am
I also read the entire thread and agree with Jim. I loved the coverage of Knob Creek on shooting gallery, so if Jim wants to cover only certain events then I’m OK with that…let other shows produce what they want to broadcast.
If I had a friend who was interested in getting into shooting I would steer them towards Jim’s shows long before I would show them a knob creek type show. Trying to show that it’s not all high dollar guns and ammo but a lot of ordinary people enjoying a day at the range is portrayed better by Jim than other shows.
I for one went to my local range after watching Jim’s show three years ago, the range folks (shooting IDPA that day) never greeted me or gave me the time of day, but at least my interest was there because of Jim’s shows. I still shoot, but haven’t had the “courage” to go back and befriend the local club.
March 11th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Markie Marxist sez: “Jim Scoutten is right. Events like Knob Creek should never get national TV coverage because they show machine guns in the hands of private gun owners. It’s hard enough trying to get a ban on semi-autos passed without televising the private ownership of machine guns as if it was normal. How are we supposed to scare people with the thought of machine guns if they’re watching people on TV enjoying them? Machine guns are the most dangerous guns to our gun ban agenda because they’re the most fun to shoot! People see that and they’re going to want to own them, or at least semi-auto copies of them. We can’t have that! It’s not consistent with our Marxist gun ban agenda that seeks to completely eliminate private gun ownership!”
March 11th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Robb Allen put it best: “I have a problem with his blanket assertion that things like Boomershoot have no place on ANY national TV show.”
Bullseye.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Except that he never said that – he said specifically that he doesn’t think Knobb Creek should be on National TV, and you guys are inferring Boomershoot from that.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Err, no. Read the thread again. I asked specifically about Boomershoot. He responded:
I don’t know about you, but that says to me “I don’t think ANYBODY should cover this event on National TV.” His words.
March 11th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
The days prior to Boomershoot feature an on-location civilian “sniper clinic” taught by military vets. If nothing else, that violates Scoutten’s self-imposed criteria.