CNN announced Wednesday that they had hired Stephen Gutowski, founder of The Reload and winner of the MRC Bulldog Award, as an analyst. Many see this as a sign that Chris Licht, new CNN boss, is committed to a moderate journalist product. While the hire was praised by the right and those who admire Gutowski’s work it was also celebrated by liberal media. However, some parts of the liberal media couldn’t handle the alternative viewpoint and lashed out, giving vent to their hatred.
CNN released a press release highlighting Gutowski’s experience as well as how he has been featured in a variety of publications, both left and right. (Click “expand”)
Stephen Gutowski, founder of Reload, has been writing about politics and guns since 2009 when he started his first publication. He spent nearly seven years as a staff journalist at The Washington Free Beacon before that. His work has been published in The Atlantic, The Dispatch and National Review, Ammoland, as well as The Washington Examiner Magazine. His reporting has been featured by publications such as CNBC, Fox News and The New York Times. Gutowski was the only journalist to appear on the cover Time Magazine’s “Guns in America”. Gutowski has received multiple awards over the years for his reporting. His work on Range Time with Stephen Gutowski won two Telly Awards, as well as offers from publications such as CBS News and The Wall Street Journal. In 2016, he was named Journalist of the year by the Second Amendment Foundation. He also received the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms’ 2020 Bill of Rights Award.
Gutowski is one the three new hires for CNN’s “Guns in America” Beat and Team.
This triggered Shannon Watts, of the radical anti gun group Everytown for Gun Safety, and Fred Guttenberg, the radical anti gun Parkland father Fred Guttenberg.
“THIS is the person CNN hired to comment on guns… Someone who was a frequent guest on the NRA extremists [sic] NRATV outlet and a friend of Dana Loesch Watts, shrieked in a tweet.
Watts responded that Guttenberg claimed that the hire had shaken his faith and that he will question any future appearances on CNN, even though he made an appearance on Wednesday following the announcement of the hire.
After an interview with @ErinBurnett, I just left @CNN. This would have been a great interview! I will reconsider future requests for interviews. This is really upsetting. https://t.co/CcYpuUBvij
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) October 20, 2022
“He is a gun industry shill who was hired by @CNN to be a paid correspondent about guns. CNN, my biases are saving lives. You can hire me to be your gun correspondent. He mumbled in another tweet, “I will do it for free or a donation to charity.”
The Wrap, a left-leaning outlet, used Watts’s tweets to backbone their reporting on Gutowski’s hiring. “CNN announced their latest hire Wednesday, and it’s getting met with its share of criticism from the left,” Loree Seitz wrote in a poorly researched article titled “CNN Slammed For Hiring NRA Approved “Gun Nut” Stephen Gutowski as Firearms reporter: “Paychecks for The Price of Innocent Lives.”
Instead of researching Gutowski’s work, Seitz was lazy and relied only on reciting tweets from nobodies on Twitter.
Many others echoed this sentiment, with one user saying that the hire was like receiving “paychecks to the price of innocent life,” given his approval rating from NRA. Another user tweeted, “CNN hires gun nuts for gun analysis.” Others argued Gutowski’s hiring would end their CNN viewership. One user wrote, “No thanks @CNN.” “I will not watch ANY of your programs. NONE.”
Gutowski is not an NRA-approved reporter, according to simple research. He has reported on The Reload’s embarrassing internal turmoil, including the New York State lawsuit against them and their struggle for control of their finances, their decline in revenue, their plummeting attendance and the internal pressure on Wayne LaPierre to resign.
These are all stories that the NRA would rather not see the light.
The Wrap was busy accusing Gutowski, falsely accusing him of taking money from the NRA. They also forgot to mention that CNN’s latest hires included Jennifer Mascia. CNN’s announcement noted that “Mascia was a senior news writer and founder staffer at The Trace,” a non-profit outlet that focuses exclusively on gun violence, which launched in 2015.
Ironically, The Trace, and Mascia, receive funds from Everytown for Gun Safety, Watts’s organization. Influence Watch claims that Everytown was instrumental to getting The Trace off its feet, giving them the seed money they needed to open a shop. The Trace’s “Donor and Financial Transparency” page reveals that Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund was a donor.
The Wrap wanted to portray Gutowski as the one paid for and bought by special interest activists. However, it was actually the anti-gun reporter.
“I’m going be a subject matter expert, and not a commentator.” Gutowski wrote to The Reload that he doesn’t expect to be involved in heated debates or going up against the most popular or least-favorite opinion voice. “Do not expect me to accurately and fairly describe gun policy and politics debates. Please hold me to that expectation.”
