• We are now running on a new, and hopefully much-improved, server. In addition we are also on new forum software. Any move entails a lot of technical details and I suspect we will encounter a few issues as the new server goes live. Please be patient with us. It will be worth it! :) Please help by posting all issues here.
  • The forum will be down for about an hour this weekend for maintenance. I apologize for the inconvenience.
  • If you are having trouble seeing the forum then you may need to clear your browser's DNS cache. Click here for instructions on how to do that
  • Please review the Forum Rules frequently as we are constantly trying to improve the forum for our members and visitors.

Clear Example Of Media Bias -- We Should DEMAND Better Reporting

Idlechater

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2009
Messages
35
Location
Snohomish, Washington, ,
imported post

Although from 2002, this is a great example of anti-gun media bias being proven. Dr. Lott defends his assessment of the media's anti-gun bias HERE, and Bernard Goldberg confirmed Dr. Lott's findings of media anti-gun bias HERE.

Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Saturday, Jan. 26, 2002

Two of the three Virginia law students who overpowered a gunman in a fatal school shooting were armed and used their weapons to disarm the shooter. Yet of the 280 stories written about the shooting, a mere four mentioned the fact that the heroic students were armed and used their guns to halt the rampage.

That's according to Dr. John Lott, a resident scholar at American Enterprise Institute and the author of the widely acclaimed book "More Guns, Less Crime."

Writing in Friday's edition of the New York Post, Lott reported on last week's shooting at Appalachian School of Law. Nigerian student Peter Odighizuwa is accused of killing the dean, L. Anthony Sutin, 42 - a former acting assistant U.S. attorney general and campaign worker for Bill Clinton - professor Thomas Blackwell, 41, and student Angela Denise Dales, 33.

Noting that the rampage was widely covered in the world's media, Lott wrote: "As usual, there were calls for more gun control.

"Yet in this age of 'gun-free school zones,' the vast majority of news reports ignored the fact that the attack was stopped by two students who had guns in their cars. The quick response by two of the students, Mikael Gross, 34, and Tracy Bridges, 25, undoubtedly saved multiple lives," Lott reported.

According to Lott: Having just returned from lunch, Gross was outside the law school building when Odighizuwa began shooting. Bridges was inside, waiting for class to start.

When the sound of shooting erupted, panic ensued. "People were running everywhere. They were jumping behind cars, running out in front of traffic, trying to get away," Gross said.

Instead of joining in the chaos, Gross and Bridges ran to their cars and got their guns. Joined by an unarmed Ted Besen, an ex-Marine and police officer, the three men approached the shooter from different sides.

"I aimed my gun at him, and Peter tossed his gun down," Bridges recalled. "Ted approached Peter, and Peter hit Ted in the jaw. Ted pushed him back, and we all jumped on."

Wrote Lott: "What is so remarkable is that out of 280 separate news stories (from a computerized Nexis-Lexis search) in the week after the event, just four stories mentioned that the students who stopped the attack had guns.

"Only two local newspapers (the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Charlotte Observer) mentioned that the students actually pointed their guns at the attacker."

Lott cited the liberal, anti-gun Washington Post, which reported that the heroes had simply "helped subdue" the killer. The leftist, anti-gun New York Times, not surprisingly, noted only that the attacker was "tackled by fellow students."

"Most in the media who discussed how the attack was stopped said: 'students overpowered a gunman,' 'students ended the rampage by tackling him,' 'the gunman was tackled by four male students before being arrested,' or 'Students ended the rampage by confronting and then tackling the gunman, who dropped his weapon.'"

Such selective reporting is not unusual, Lott noted. "In the other public school shootings where citizens with guns have stopped attacks, rarely do more than 1 percent of the news stories mention that citizens with guns stopped the attacks."

Wall of Silence

Lott cited research showing there are 2 million defensive gun uses each year. "After all, if these events were really happening, wouldn't we hear about them on the news? But when was the last time you saw a story on the national evening news (or even the local news) about a citizen using his gun to stop a crime?"

Such "misreporting actually endangers people's lives," Lott concluded. "By selectively reporting the news and turning a defensive gun use story into one where students merely 'overpowered a gunman' the media gives misleading impressions of what works when people are confronted by violence.

"Research consistently shows that having a gun is the safest way to respond to any type of criminal attack, especially these multiple victim shootings."
[align=center][/align]
 

Gordie

Regular Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2008
Messages
716
Location
, Nevada, USA
imported post

I would be real careful about taking wiki's word on anything. I could go in there and write that he was subdued by a mind-control ray from the mother ship.

I would trust the police reports and witness testimony. Beson did not mention the details of his account which have brought doubt on the others' accounts until 2 months after the shootings.
 

Task Force 16

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
2,615
Location
Lobelville, Tennessee, USA
imported post

Gordie wrote:
I would be real careful about taking wiki's word on anything. I could go in there and write that he was subdued by a mind-control ray from the mother ship.

I would trust the police reports and witness testimony. Beson did not mention the details of his account which have brought doubt on the others' accounts until 2 months after the shootings.

Gordie's right, Wiki is user written and is monitor by biased liberals. I've seen many examples of bias at Wiki on other subjects like "man made global warming" in which a monitor deletes any contributions that do not conform to the AGW theory.

Wiki is not a good source of information, in my book.
 

PrayingForWar

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
1,701
Location
The Real World.
imported post

Task Force 16 wrote:
Gordie wrote:
I would be real careful about taking wiki's word on anything. I could go in there and write that he was subdued by a mind-control ray from the mother ship.

I would trust the police reports and witness testimony. Beson did not mention the details of his account which have brought doubt on the others' accounts until 2 months after the shootings.

Gordie's right, Wiki is user written and is monitor by biased liberals. I've seen many examples of bias at Wiki on other subjects like "man made global warming" in which a monitor deletes any contributions that do not conform to the AGW theory.

Wiki is not a good source of information, in my book.
I'd like to add that one of the students who helped end it was interviewed by katie (puke) couric, who attempted to downplay their use of personal weapons, and exaggerate the role of the "law enforcement training" that one of the men had.
 

Dutch Uncle

Campaign Veteran
Joined
May 11, 2006
Messages
1,715
Location
Virginia, USA
imported post

When Tracy Bridges recounted his use of a pistol, Katie immediately interjected that Bridges was a law enforcement officer. Bridges indeed had been one, but at the time of the event, he was not, and was just a non-uniformed student like anyone else. The pistol in his trunk wasn't a service pistol, just his privately owned firearm. It sure was interesting to see how the liberals tried desperately to downplay the role of citizens using a (gasp) gun to stop a crime.

I recall when Reagan was shot. As soon as the media was allowed to question him in the hospital, one of the ghouls asked if he'd changed his mind about private ownership and the 2nd amendment. He said he still supported the right of citizen gun ownership, and they couldn't turn their cameras off quickly enough. If we'd had an internet then, their obvious BIAS would have been the news story of the day.

What repulsive steaming piles of anti-American values these creatures are !!!!
 
Top