by Michael Massing

About the author: Journalist Michael Massing is a contributing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review and the author of The Fix: Solving the Nation’s Drug Problem.

At a recent dinner at a friend’s house, there was much groaning about Congress’s failure to pass a serious gun-control measure. New York liberals all, we bemoaned the gun lobby’s ability to triumph once again, even in the wake of the bloodletting in Littleton.

And wasn’t it depressing, I added, that, once again, the issue of the media’s role as purveyors of violence was probably not going to be addressed in any meaningful way"

Liberal Denials

There was a moment of awkward silence. “You don’t...