Turn in the reporting tide.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Veteran broadcast journalist Rebecca Aguilar was indefinitely suspended in October from Fox affiliate KDFW in Dallas for her questioning of 70-year-old James Walton in connection with a pair of shootings.

On September 22, Walton, who owns Able Walton Machine and Welding, shot a man whom he found climbing through a window of his business, killing him.

On October 15, at about 9 a.m. on a Sunday, Walton was alerted to another intruder when a motion detector went off. According to the Dallas Morning News, "Mr. Walton, who also lives at his business, went downstairs with a shotgun and fired at a man who had broken in. The intruder was later identified by police as Jimmy Gannon of Ferris." Walton saw a second intruder and fired at him too. Gannon died; police apprehended the other man. Gannon had a criminal record for theft.

Before either shooting incident took place, police had "responded to at least 42 calls for burglaries and thefts at Walton's place," reported Fox 4. Walton, who by his own admission hadn't even fired a gun in 45 years, was a victim who was fighting back against incessant thieves. This is, in fact, the position taken by police about the shootings. Dallas police sergeant Gene Reyes spoke out: "He's got a right to defend his property. What gives a stranger the right to go in and vandalize or burglarize his business? He's within every legal right [in Texas] to do this."

Though police were defending Walton, Rebecca Aguilar decided to titillate the anti-gun crowd. After Walton told her that he didn't have time to talk to her because he had errands, including buying a new shotgun because police had taken his while they investigated the shootings, ...