As a former reporter, I can tell you that nearly every journalist I used to work with is strongly in favor of every gun control law imaginable, whether it would be effective or not.

Rich Miller already noted that Eric Krol of the Daily Herald asked a rare tough question of a Democratic politician attacking a Republican on gun control.

Today, AP should have shown similar toughness when giving Rod Blagojevich a free ride on one of his talking points during this campaign — his position in favor of a ban on assault weapons. His attack on Judy Baar Topinka on this issue hardly is news compared to revelations at the Tribune editorial board that a sitting governor refuses to reveal whether he is using the services of a criminal defense attorney. Yet AP played assault weapons higher in the story.

It’s not particularly newsworthy because the Democrats control every lever of power in Illinois. If AP is going to do Rod’s bidding on this issue, it ought to have the journalistic toughness to ask Rod why, with a Democratic Governor and Democratic General Assembly, he couldn’t successfully pass an assault weapon ban in Springfield the last three years?

He’s either an ineffective leader or he really doesn’t care about the issue except as a phony political weapon. He can only get away with those realities if reporters continue to let him off the hook.

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