Yellow journalism at its finest

Dallas, Texas television reporter Rebecca Aguilar of station KDFW has been suspended after "ambush reporting" James Walton, the 70-year-old owner of a small business at which he also resides, after Mr. Walton was forced to use deadly force to protect himself, his home and his place of business twice in three weeks. Walton killed the intruder in both incidents, and has not been charged with a crime, as the incidents have both been ruled self-defense, and the police say that he has broken no laws.

In a sickening piece of biased, advocacy reporting, Ms. Aguilar intercepts Mr. Walton as he is getting into his car after buying a new shotgun to replace the ones confiscated as evidence, and she proceeds to browbeat him mercilessly with such stupid questions as "Are you a trigger-happy kind of a person?" and "Is that what you wanted to do? Shoot to kill?" Walton, clearly upset and reduced to tears by the relentless badgering and second-guessing of his life-and-death situations by Ms. Aguilar, finally manages to drive away, but not before she hits him with this one:

"Are those tears of what? Remorse?"

This is reporting at its most noble, folks. Next, they'll be intercepting rape victims and asking them, "Do you feel guilty for going to that bar on Saturday?"

Ironically, Ms. Aguilar had just been named a "Broadcast Journalist of the Year" by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists for "bringing awareness to issues affecting Latinos." As I said above, Ms. Aguilar seems to be more interested in advocacy journalism and advancing her own personal causes than reporting the news without color or bias.

The article also reports that in the past, Mr. Walton has had to call the police more than 40 times regarding break-ins at his property, with no apparent effect, so he is plainly not some vigilante, and he did in fact attempt to "let the police handle things" as public safety "experts" always admonish us. That course of action didn't seem to get Walton anywhere.

I'll wager there'll be no more burglaries at his place now, though.