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A man walks in front of the Remington Arms factory, America’s oldest gun maker, in Ilion, N.Y. After CNBC ran a story called “Remington Under Fire” in 2010, Remington has been fighting a class-action suit alleging that some of its triggers allow guns to go off even when no one has pulled the trigger. The case is now nearing possible settlement and the ramifications could be profound. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

CNBC knows one thing for sure. They don’t have to tell the whole story about issues related to guns. No, doing that would give them a bad name, among their peers in the mainstream media anyway. So when a group of trial attorneys handed them an allegation that some of Remington Arm’s bolt-action rifles have gone bang even when no one touched their triggers, along with victims’ testimony, an expert (wait until you hear about him) and filing cabinets filled with material to spin, they knew they had a story all right.

By working with plaintiffs’ attorneys, they knew they could damage, if not destroy, America’s oldest gun company, a household brand with millions upon millions of loyal customers. This was a story that could give CNBC recognition among the left-leaning news outlets. They went all-in.

A class-action lawsuit, propelled by CNBC’s “reporting,” was filed against Remington in 2013 and is now coming to a climax, if not a conclusion. Depending on the outcome, the fault lines beneath this case could send armies of trial attorneys, with mainstream media outlets doing their marketing campaigns, after U.S. gun companies for the next generation.

U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith in Kansas City has a hearing scheduled for February 14 to decide if a settlement agreement between Remington and the plaintiffs is a fair deal all around. The settlement would pay the plaintiff’s attorneys $12.5 million for the trouble of suiting Remington.

Remington negotiated this deal and is hoping the judge will approve it because, while the company vehemently denies the allegations that firearms containing a trigger connector component are defective or unsafe, it would rather avoid protracted litigation. Instead, basically Remington would pay to upgrade triggers in Model 700 rifles made from 1962-2006, as well as certain other rifles that use a trigger connector component.

That’s the basic legal situation, but what’s been misrepresented in the mainstream media with this case could impact not just Remington, but every U.S. gun manufacturer in the coming years.

After what CNBC called a “10-month investigation,” but was really a one-sided opinion piece based almost entirely on then coming plaintiff’s evidence, CNBC aired “Remington Under Fire” in 2010, an hour-long program claiming that Remington’s Model 700 rifle—the most popular bolt-action rifle sold in America for more than a half century and counting—sometimes went bang even when no one touched its trigger.