The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza proved Friday afternoon just how easy it is to start a false media narrative using nothing more than a tweet and reporters eager to repeat a shocking claim.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was asked during a campaign stop in South Carolina to respond to President Obama’s call Thursday afternoon for increased gun restrictions. The president’s challenge came in response to a deadly shooting in Oregon.
The 2016 Republican presidential candidate explained that the appropriate response to crises and tragedies shouldn’t be to demand that the federal government and state intervene with more laws. He said Americans are called on to look at things on a more personal level.
“[W]hat we end up doing lots of times is we create rules on the 99.999 percent of human activity that have nothing to do with the tragedy that forced the conversation about doing something,” he said in response to a question about calls for tougher gun laws. “And it won’t solve the problem of this tragedy that is just heartbreaking to see. Maybe we ought to be more connected in our communities. Maybe we ought to have greater awareness of mental health challenges that exist all across the country.”
“[W]e’re in a time in our country and I don’t think more government is necessarily the answer to this,” he said, referring specifically to mass shootings. “I think we need to connect ourselves with everybody else. It’s just, it’s very sad to see. But I resist the notion – I had this challenge as governor because we had – look, stuff happens. There’s always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something, and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.”
His concluding remarks caught Lizza’s attention.
The New Yorker reporter, who was present at the campaign stop, quickly repackaged the entirety of Bush’s response into something far less nuanced, claiming on social media that the former governor had said of major shooting tragedies: “Stuff happens.”
“In Greenville, South Carolina, Jeb Bush, arguing against calls for gun control after major tragedy, says, ‘stuff happens,'” he said in a note that has now been retweeted more than 1,000 times.
The press pounced. Newsrooms everywhere mobilized immediately to “report” that the 2016 candidate had supposedly brushed off recent shooting sprees. They all cited the same tweet as proof of this claim.
“Jeb Bush on gun violence: ‘stuff happens,'” Politico reported.
The Chicago-Sun Times added, “Jeb Bush on Oregon shooting: ‘Stuff happens.'”
“Jeb Bush says ‘stuff happens’ in response to gun violence,” ABC News reported.
At around the same time that these reports were being published, Lizza declared of his creation, “Lots of drama at Bush press avail in South Carolina over ‘stuff happens’ quote.” The reporter later confronted the governor at the campaign event, demanding that he clarify his remarks. A seemingly exasperated Bush refused to concede that he had shrugged off shooting massacres.
On social media, the press’ reaction was as angry and unforgiving as one would expect.
“This is pretty damn amazing. And sad,” said Mother Jones’ David Corn.
Yahoo News’ Amy Sullivan remarked, “‘Stuff happens’ is a chillingly candid summary of the pro-gun response to mass shootings.”
Fusion’s Danielle Wiener-Bronne added, “Maybe anyone who says ‘stuff happens’ in response to a [question] about mass shootings should be auto-disqualified from the presidency.”
Claims that Bush had downplayed the Oregon shooting zoomed around newsrooms at a blinding speed. The story travelled so quickly, in fact, that it ended up as a question for President Obama himself during a Friday White House press briefing.
The obvious problem with this storyline is that it relies entirely on Lizza’s characterization of the event. Had reporters actually sought out the full context of Bush’s response, the reaction would have likely been less frenzied.
When footage of the event finally surfaced, it showed clearly that Lizza had recounted only a fraction of what was really said in South Carolina.
The reporter found himself on the defensive.
Responding to growing questions over his initial claim, Lizza tweeted a longer snippet of Bush’s comments, declaring that he had not taken the 2016 candidate out of context. Later, as it became clearer that Bush’s response was grossly misrepresented, Lizza released a more complete version of the governor’s remarks, declaring one more time that he had not taken the man out of context.
By that time, however, a fair amount of reporters had decided already that his original “stuff happens” tweet failed entirely to capture the governor’s meaning.
“The context makes pretty clear that Jeb wasn’t shrugging about the Oregon shooting. He was making a point that crises arise in the country,” said the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza.
The Huffington Post’s Paul Blumenthal said, “Full Bush ‘stuff happens’ quote far less Rumsfeldian – almost entirely – than initial tweet indicated.”
Of the press’ frenzy to condemn Bush and his alleged disregard for tragedy, IJ Review’s Justin Greene said, “well that was dumb.”
But even after it had become clear that Bush’s remarks were far more nuanced than Lizza suggested, a few characters in media still clung to the storyline.
“Suppose it was a terrorist attack that killed 10 people in America and a politician said government can’t overreact cuz ‘stuff happens,'” said the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein.
Jeet Heer of Chris Hughes’ New Republic added, “Even in full context, it still comes across terribly.”
“‘Stuff happens’ is a gaffe only in the Michael Kinsley sense: it’s an accurate, indeed pithy encapsulation of Jeb’s response to gun violence,” Heer, who suggested last week that the Bushs are “retarded,” added.
Former MSNBC host Joy-Anne Reid said simply, “Jeb Bush on massacres via gun: ‘stuff happens.'”
The New York Times looked for a different route.
Rather than pay too much attention to Lizza’s erroneous reporting, the newspaper focused instead on the reaction to his tweet, writing, “Jeb Bush is criticized for saying ‘stuff happens’ in reaction to Oregon shooting.”
“Jeb Bush invited a firestorm on Friday by saying that ‘stuff happens’ in reference to renewed calls for legislative action after tragedies like the mass shooting in Oregon,” the newspaper incorrectly reported, suggesting that the entire thing was somehow the governor’s fault.
And all this in response to a single tweet from a reporter.
