Drudge is (unfortunately) linking to the latest article from Tim Gaynor of Reuters about the MMP: "Border Militia Divides Arizona Residents". Here's the first paragraph:

A right-wing militia patrolling the Mexican border to catch illegal immigrants is pitting some residents in favor of old-style frontier justice against critics who say the militiamen are the real threat.

Of course, the fact that some or most of the leaders or volunteers of the MMP are "right-wing" or similar doesn't mean that the group itself is "right-wing." As far as I know, there was no check of voting records or party membership for MMP volunteers. And, as previously discussed, the word "militia" has negative connotations. Given the rest of the article it would be hard to believe that wasn't done intentionally.

And, based on the rest of the first paragraph, one might assume that the use of the word "catch" means that the MMP volunteers will physically detain any illegal aliens they spot. In fact, we know that their goal is simply to report illegal crossers, not detain them. And, of course, "old-style frontier justice" frequently involved a rope, something even a casual observer - but apparently not Reuters - knows isn't in the MMP's mission statement.

Continuing on, Reuters seems shocked to discover that some people who drive in the U.S. southwest have gun racks and that some people in Arizona consider it acceptable to see people openly carrying sidearms. The writer seems to want to draw an unfavorable connection between the MMP volunteers and "gunslingers" of days past. Discussing the bias inherent in the title of the article is left as an exercise.

In addition to being posted by Yahoo, the Reuters article is available on their website and at Wired News and ABC News.

You can leave comments about this article at the Yahoo link. Please also send an email to Reuters and suggest they do a better job: editor.reuters *at* reuters *dot* com. You can contact Wired here and ABC here. Suggest they consider taking a moment to review future Reuters reports for accuracy and bias.