If you want original news of a mass shooting event, rely on local journalism. National newsrooms will serve you only aggregated reporting and political advocacy.
A gunman opened fire Saturday in a crowded Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 20 and injuring dozens more. Hours later, another gunman opened fire at a popular bar in Dayton, Ohio, killing nine and injuring 16.
Both events are tragic. Both call for continued mourning and prayer. Both raise serious questions about homegrown terrorism and what motivates this continued bloodshed.
Not now, say some at the nation’s largest newsrooms. These gutless acts of violence are the perfect hook for political activism. Back-to-back shootings are the perfect excuse to hit the “correct” political targets.
The Washington Post, for example, assisted Democrats this weekend in attacking GOP lawmakers: “Politicians grieve for El Paso victims, with Democrats decrying GOP inaction on gun laws,” reads the headline.
The article begins:
The Democratic presidential hopeful and former congressman, who lives in the Texas border city, told the audience that he had just called his wife to make sure she was okay. He said the shooting shatters ‘any illusion that we have that progress is inevitable’ when it comes to tackling gun violence.
Republicans have only hollow “condolences” and “prayers” for shooting victims, the report claims. In contrast, Democrats are people of action and feeling, willing to do something.
“The Democratic presidential candidates are embracing gun control … with emotional appeals against firearms violence and pledges to stand up to the NRA,” the story claims. “In the face of more and more mass shootings, particularly in schools, the ground on the issue has shifted from an embrace of a gun culture in many areas of the country, including some that Democrats hope to wrest from the president.”
The story adds: “For Democrats, the shooting has the potential to raise the profile of gun control.”
This sort of gives the game away. It is obvious gun-control advocates see shootings as opportunities to advance their agenda. Does the Washington Post see this? Does it not occur to the newspaper that it is being used in that effort? For what it is worth, Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan is happy enough to comply. She wrote this weekend that it is time for newsrooms to choose a side in the gun violence debate.
The media’s by-the-numbers coverage of gun massacres must change. Yes, even if that means (gasp) choosing sides. My column https://t.co/3GwgejIAu3
— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) August 4, 2019
The takeaway here is not that the former New York Times public editor has called for media to choose sides. The takeaway is that Sullivan thinks it hasn’t already.
Then there is USA Today, which regurgitated bad data about the number of mass shootings in 2019. It published a report this weekend titled, “El Paso, Dayton make 251 mass shootings in the US in 216 days, more shootings than days in the year.” The story cites as its main source the Gun Violence Archive. As I have written before, the Gun Violence Archive is unreliable. Its “school shootings” database, for example, includes an incident involving a pellet gun. It also includes an accidental discharge during “public safety class.” Several others have noted the Gun Violence Archive’s questionable statistics and methods. Yet newsrooms go on citing this group’s “findings” after every mass shooting event.
There is also CNN’s hall monitor, Brian Stelter. He used the shootings this weekend to hit Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for offering prayers for the victims.
Six of the times @SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell offered prayers to the victims of mass shootings. pic.twitter.com/sUpX9KTWNV
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 4, 2019
Stelter (or a similar mind) searched the senator’s Twitter account for “prayer” and “prayers.” He then highlighted those keywords, saving them as cropped pictures. Stelter later posted those images online, trotting out an iteration of the “thoughts and prayer” cliche. It is exactly what the victims would have wanted.