By Lee Williams of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project:
A large group of unsuspecting people was waiting at a bus stop in Brownsville, Texas around 8:30 a.m. Sunday, when a Land Rover suddenly blew through a red light and barreled straight into their midst at a high rate of speed. The bus stop was located outside of the Ozoman Center, which provides care for the city’s burgeoning migrant community.
Eighteen people where hit, six were killed instantly and two died later. Police said the driver, 34-year-old George Alvarez, has an extensive criminal record. A police spokesman described him as “uncooperative,” adding that he tried to flee the scene and gave investigators several fake names. Alvarez is facing eight counts of manslaughter and 10 counts of aggravated assault with a weapon. More charges are likely. The carnage he allegedly caused was the worst some officers had ever seen.
The story is already disappearing from legacy media newscasts and websites. There were no protests, marches or calls to ban Range Rovers or other SUVs. No one filed suit against Land Rover or organized a boycott. No one from the White House went blood-dancing at the scene. The 24-7 coverage that normally follows a mass killing involving a firearm never materialized, because as horrific as it was, the Brownsville killings did not fit the legacy media’s mass-murder narrative, for several reasons.
There are several factors the legacy media considers before deciding how to cover a mass murder. Here are the main considerations.
Race
Black lives do not matter to the legacy media, at least not as much. White victims always receive more media coverage than a killing spree where the victims are people of color. The race of the murderer matters, too. A white shooter will always generate more coverage than a Black, Asian or Hispanic shooter. Downplaying or ignoring killings in a minority community is racist, but this is the type of racism the media allows. No one gets cancelled for what they don’t cover. Unfortunately, this type of racism allows the killings to continue unabated, since without media pressure elected officials know they can simply ignore the problem and hope it somehow goes away.
Weapon
If an AR or AK is used in a mass murder, the legacy media has prewritten stories ready and waiting to add to their coverage. These stories usually involve interviews with biased “experts” as well as anti-gun advocates. The media wants you to believe that “assault weapons” are responsible for most firearm murders, even though the data proves otherwise.
According to the FBI’s UCR crime reports, there were 10,258 firearm homicides in 2019, but only 364 involved rifles – all types of rifles. The FBI neither defines nor maintains a specific data set for “assault rifles.” The majority of the firearm homicides, 6,368, involved handguns. Knives or other cutting instruments were responsible for 1,476 homicides that year.
Motive
Today’s cable TV news actors love to speculate about a mass-murderer’s motive, as if someone who walks into a classroom or a shopping mall and starts shooting innocent people has a legitimate reason for their killings. Their actual motive is simple: they’re crazy. They’re deranged. They are extremely mentally ill. It doesn’t matter if mommy and daddy didn’t give them enough love and attention, or if they were bullied as a child. There is no justification for shooting innocent people. Nothing in their background can excuse such horrific acts, but this doesn’t stop the legacy media from endlessly speculating about the “real reason” behind the deaths.
Politics
I worked in five newsrooms during my 20 years as an investigative reporter and editor and met scores of journalists from other organizations. I don’t need all the fingers on one hand to count the conservatives, and only two of these were gun owners. Today’s journalists may not be able to articulate the difference between a shotgun and a rifle, but they all have a firm grasp of politics – especially leftist politics. They would never violate the left’s unwritten rule: Guns are bad. They would never stray outside the accepted political narrative; much write a story that a shooting was justified. There are thousands of justifiable defensive gun usages every year. How many have you seen covered by the legacy media?
Gender
When a mass-murderer is male, the media usually tries and convicts them in the court of public opinion – justifiably so, most of the time. Nowadays, when a shooter is female or their gender identity is unclear, the coverage is much less accusatory. Sometimes it’s even sympathetic. After Audrey Hale killed six people in Nashville’s Covenant School and her gender identity became known, NBC News “pointed to an already combustible political environment in which transgender people have become a frequent target of right-wing lawmakers and pundits.” Keep in mind three of Hale’s victims were nine-year-olds.
Definition
CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and even the Washington Post now rely solely on mass-shooting data from the Gun Violence Archive – an anti-gun nonprofit we debunked years ago. The reason is simple. The GVA inflates body counts, so its overblown numbers have become the data set of choice for the legacy media, which is constantly seeking more sensational headlines and news stories.
How does the GVA get its inflated numbers? They created their own definition of a mass shooting, of course. When most Americans hear the term, they picture a madman stalking the halls of a school or a shopping mall, coldly murdering innocent victims. What does not come to mind are rival drug crews shooting it out in Chicago, a deranged husband murdering his entire family, or a law-abiding gun owner acting in self-defense.
Yet for the GVA, and by extension the legacy media, anytime four or more people are killed or even slightly wounded with a firearm, it’s labeled a mass shooting. For example, according to the FBI and its more conservative definition, there were 30 mass shootings in 2019. The GVA claims there were 417.
Proof
If you still don’t believe the legacy media’s coverage of mass murders is flawed and extremely biased, just look at the never-ending carnage in Chicago or any other large metro historically controlled by Democrats.
In Chicago this year, 852 people have been shot and 172 have been killed – and it’s only May. Just last week, 60 Chicagoans were shot and six died as a result. That’s more than the equivalent of one mass-shooting every week, but where is the news coverage? Where is the White House spokeswoman? Why isn’t she denouncing these killings? Where are the interviews with Giffords, Brady or Demanding Moms? Why aren’t they claiming that the guns locked in our safes are somehow responsible for the Chicago deaths? Where are the so-called gun experts at the ATF? Why aren’t they blaming Chicago’s killings on bumpstocks, pistol braces, after-market triggers or some other innocuous plastic accessory in common use? Where are the elected officials? Why aren’t they leading demonstrations, protests or marches to bring awareness to the killings?
Bottom line, today’s legacy journalists are nothing but hypocrites. If a mass-murder fits their narrative, they will cover it ad nauseum for weeks or even months. If it doesn’t meet their specific criteria, they might mention it occurred, maybe, but only if no one is likely to become offended.
The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.
there is no lie to big for leftists with a goal. in this case, the urgent goal is to disarm the american people. a socialist or fascist totalitarian government would have much to fear from an armed populace. hitler disarmed the german people as soon as he could. all i can say is hold onto your guns. the worst is yet to come.
nd if that worst never does come, wel, then, just think about the fun we’ll have making all that noise in celebration of our freedom being restored? And I’ll bet the price of both guns and ammo will fall through the floor. Then we can afford all the fine and fun toys we now only dream about.
“And I’ll bet the price of both guns and ammo will fall through the floor.”
They may rise before they fall. There are a *lot* of large orders out there for small arms ammo, thanks to Putin’s little ‘adventure’…
Well the Gun Control democRat marxist media is following in the footsteps of the Gun Control democRat Party kkk and the Gun Control nazi third reich.
Why aren’t they claiming that the guns locked in our safes are somehow responsible for the Chicago deaths
They ARE claiming that MY guns are responsible, ALL guns are responsible, you can’t blame the shooter, that would be racist, pay attention..
Weirdly similar to https://dev.thetruthaboutguns.com/when-not-all-mass-murders-are-equal-in-the-eyes-of-the-media/ from a few days ago.
Glitch in the matrix.
“These aren’t the cut’n’pastes you’re looking for.”
Both articles were written by Lee Williams of the 2nd Amendment Foundation.
If you look over this list, you’ll note that several have appeared here on TTAG:
https://www.saf.org/category/ijp/
I wasn’t referring to writing style; I meant identical theme and whole identical sentences (paragraphs?). It looks like two drafts of the same story made it out a week apart.
On second look, it’s the exact same article, with different header and photos.
By TTAG Contributor -May 9, 2023
By Lee Williams
By TTAG Contributor -May 17, 2023
By Lee Williams of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project
Insufficient number of eyes the first time around to meet the boat payment budget, so they ran another lap…
It seems to be working🙄
And in New Zealand 6 people died and about 20 injured in a fire in a hostel. Now suspected to be arson.
No one appears to care because it doesn’t fit the narrative. It will be yesterday’s news by the end of the week unless a suspect is arrested.
If 6 people were shot on the other hand, it would be front page news for weeks.
ut we ALL know that can never happen in EnnZed. Remember: Mr. and Mrs New Zealand turn them ALL in”. And so they did………… didn’t they?
Mr. and Mrs New Zealand turn them ALL in”. And so they did………… didn’t they?
Approximately 56,000 turned in, however, and this should only be surprising to those idealistic and gullible supporters of gun confiscation who really believe that criminals are going to abide by gun control laws even though they don’t seem to care much about any other laws on the books. A new report by Radio New Zealand shows that even after the government’s ban and compensated confiscation of tens of thousands of semi-automatic firearms, “gun crime hit a new peak” in the country last year. Of course, when one gun control law fails to make an impact, gun control advocates inevitably fall back on the argument that the law must not have gone far enough. Their answer, then, is to double down on a gun ban strategy…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/438377/rise-in-gun-crime-despite-government-clampdown-after-terror-attack (March 2021)
ACT MP Nicole McKee: “What we’re looking at is a piece of rushed legislation, or two pieces of rushed legislation, that went through so fast that the unintended consequences of doing that are starting to be realised, and of course the effects that we’re seeing are a less safer community.”
Prime Minister Momo made it very clear the firearm’s surrender would NOT be applied to criminals.
CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and even the Washington Post now rely solely on mass-shooting data from the Gun Violence Archive – an anti-gun nonprofit we debunked years ago.
Interesting article that’s linked: Special Report: The Gun Violence Archive And Its Scaring Of America — https://armedamericannews.org/special-report-the-gun-violence-archive-and-its-scaring-of-america/
According to their new report titled: “Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2020,” the FBI defines active shootings as:
Shootings in public places
Shootings occurring at more than one location
Shootings where the shooter’s actions were not the result of another criminal act
Shootings resulting in a mass killing
Shootings indicating apparent spontaneity by the shooter
Shootings where the shooter appeared to methodically search for potential victims
Shootings that appeared focused on injury to people, not buildings or objects
Shootings were excluded from the FBI’s list if they were the result of:
Self-defense
Gang violence
Drug violence
Contained residential or domestic disputes
Controlled barricade/hostage situations
Crossfire as a byproduct of another ongoing criminal act
An action that appeared not to have put other people in peril
By comparison, the Gun Violence Archive excludes nothing, even if the shooting is gang or drug related – the two main causes of most violence in the country today. Asked if he believed that the average news consumer even considers domestic violence or gang warfare when they hear the term mass shooting, Bryant said, “I don’t know. I know what we want to do is provide numbers and let the journalists, advocates and ‘congress critters’ look at the data, glean details and drill down on it.”
“Bryant acknowledged that there have been reliability issues with media stories, especially after a mass shooting. A shooting in Cincinnati, he said, produced several different versions of events. “When we looked at five media sources, they were all over the map, even about when it occurred. We know that some media reports are erroneous.”
How is the charge against this murderer only manslaughter?
I question if this was an intentional act. It appeared that the drunk driver lost control of his car and it rolled into the crowd of bystanders.
Perhaps charging the driver with manslaughter is a “place holder” to either upgrade the charge if corroborating evidence is uncovered — or the charge could be dismissed if the police can’t prove it was intentional.
I may be shy of the mark, but I do beleive manslaughter can be the result of a wilful action.. in this case the decision to get drunk then slide behind the wheel of a motor vehiccle. THAT choice was his. He mayn’t havve wilfully run the red light, eing to blotto, but his will is definitely the sole driving force behind being snockered AND behind the wheel. You are correct, the coppers WOULD have to prove direct intent to hit and injure/kill those folks to bring the charges up from manslaughter.
Bottom line: FedGov are responsible for this incident as THEY have repeatedly and wilfully REFUSED to uphold the laws and Constitution of this nation which would have kept such a dirtbag OUT of our not-so-sovereign territory. The Brown Stuff runs downhill from Dopey Jpey. When will HE be held to account?
Their POV makes perfect sense.
A demographic of repeat violent offenders which prosecutors refuse to put away are murdering each other and innocent bystanders and it’s quite obviously my fault and I should be punished.
What’s to argue? Perfect logic.
The media lies ? I’m shocked !!!!!!!!!!!
83 injured or killed when a person with a stolen Ford pickup ran them over in France a few years ago, America media played the video of the carnage for 15 seconds on the morning news and then it disappeared. If 3 people had been killed with an AR-15, it would still be in the news cycle.
I think the event in France was done with a stolen semi with a trailer. By the aloha snack bar crowd.
the stolen Ford pickup was from the Home Depot and ran down about eight pedestrians and cyclists on a bike/walk path in New York City. I do believe it was a big rig killed all those folks in France. Having driven them, they ARE a very formidable even with a seasoned and skilled operator. Up until maybe twenty years ago they could weigh in as high as 80.000 pounds, then it got bumped to 105,000 I believe the limits in Europe are higher than that. That’s a MIGHTY BIG hammer.
“83 injured or killed when a person with a stolen Ford pickup ran them over in France a few years ago“
See how easy it is to publicly post fake news.
“I think the event in France was done with a stolen semi with a trailer”
“the stolen Ford pickup was from the Home Depot and ran down about eight pedestrians and cyclists“
Liar49er, you would know all about “fake news.”
France stunned after truck attacker kills 84 on Bastille Day in Nice
France has been stunned and sickened by a third massacre in 18 months in which a truck driver mowed down night-time crowds celebrating Bastille Day on the seafront in Nice. He killed at least 84 people and injured scores more, many of them small children.
The armed man, believed to be a 31-year-old French Tunisian who lived locally, zigzagged the vehicle at high speeds for more than a mile along a beachfront esplanade, instantly turning a festival atmosphere of fireworks and families into carnage. Police shot him dead inside the truck’s cabin.
Good guy with gun stops bad guy with truck.
In all, 202 people were injured in the attack, with 25 still on life support and 52 in critical condition. … Video footage showed the 19-tonne white truck speeding up as it drove into the screaming crowds while several people tried to chase it on foot.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/15/nice-attack-leaves-84-dead-and-france-in-shock July 2016
Pull your head in before it has to be pulled out.
Oops, to late. It’s jammed so tight a winch will be needed to undo your cranial rectal inversion.
I forgot the pry bar to be used in conjunction with the winch.
Once again, MajorLiar proves himself a lying liar who lies. Well done, MajorLiar, well done!
Now spend a little effort proving you are possessed of a functioning brain.
What a COMPLETE lying @$$clown you are!!!
“Black lives do not matter to the legacy media, at least not as much.”
The most prolific serial killer in American history is a black man in the state of California. And his victims were all black women. There have been many serial killers who were black males. Who racked up an impressive of number of murder victims. But they were exclusively black victims. And since they were black victims the white liberals didn’t care about them.
They only care if the victim is black but was murdered by a white person. Only then will they care about that dead black person.
And they will use this particular black murder victim as a reason to ban and confiscate all guns.
The white liberals will continuously support gun control at every turn, especially if the victim is black and the accused perpetrator is white.
White Liberals are terrified of blacks getting guns and use them themselves for self-defense. They can bash the cops all they want. But white liberals will never support disarming the police. They will always support disarming law-abiding black people.
The overwhelming majority of news sources commonly available in the US are heavily biased against any kind of self defense or ownership of firearms. Even when a local news program covers a legitimate defensive shooting, the bias is quite obvious. Usually covering the shooting as a crime or murder story with a final comment to the effect of” The DA or Sherrif declined to file charges, or no charges have been filed.”
The current political left desires power and single party control. Disarming the populace would allow them to cement their hold on power because Government and the police and military they control would have the only weapons available. Criminal weapons would be a small glitch and possibly a useful tool for further control.
they are delusional if they actually believe they can take up ALL the guns in the hands of law abiding Americans. Mice can fly and bats can swim underwater. And my pet chicken can fly to the moon and back in less than two weeks, all by herself.
I’m not that old and I remember when I was a kid I could, at any time, purchased a rifle, shotgun handgun from a hardware store (Western Auto, for certain) I remember 1911 pistols and M1 Garand rifles, less than fifty bucks, tie it to my bicycle and ride home. Of course I knew I’d never be able to sneak it into my bedroom past my Mom who hated guns. In my current state some fifteen years ago I could buy privae party or online or at a gun show, no check no papers other than the folding pictures of guys like Jackson, Franklin, Abe….. two days later I could not even remember what the seller even looked like. Nor, likely, he me. I’d bet there are at least an hundred million firearms in private hands that got there this way. No one knows. And they think they can find them all? Uhm.. oh, that pet chicken of mine? She’s for sale, cheap. Make me an offer……..
I remember 1911 pistols and M1 Garand rifles, less than fifty bucks,
Oswald bought his 6.5 Carcano w/scope by mail for less than $30.00… Might be interested in that chicken, never seen one fly more than about 30 feet let alone hold its breath for two weeks… Or do you have a “special” chicken space suit?
“Oswald bought his 6.5 Carcano w/scope by mail for less than $30.00…”
$27.50, wasn’t it?
$27.50?
Yeah, including tax and shipping…
A mass homicide (manslaughter and murder) of almost 100,000 people took place in 2022 without any firearms at all. Indirectly, yes, but mass homicide (manslaughter and murder) it was none the less. And those were due to drug deaths and overdose from illegal drugs (prescription types and others), supplied illegally from criminal sources with the knowledge of their danger of being in dosages that were too great or were mixed with other dangerous/lethal substances or were flat out lethal by their selves and over 95% of those drugs came across the border at Mexico from Mexico to get into the United States. Sure, the people buying/procuring and using these drugs took them their selves but they didn’t supply them knowing they had a good chance of killing them.
Perpetrators of this mass homicide (manslaughter and murder): Drug cartels, and the United States Government (for not having a secure border – and the buck stops with Joe Biden).
Unless you where there it’s all hear say.
The News is propaganda.
News spelled backwards is swen.
Like, Swen these people going to quit believing this shit?
North Korea invaded its man made island. Tensions rise as satellite surveillance revealed tooth paste on tooth brushes.
Biden vowes he will protect his turn in the shower.
“What does not come to mind are rival drug crews shooting it out in Chicago, a deranged husband murdering his entire family, or a law-abiding gun owner acting in self-defense.”
This is about the most intellectually dishonest thing I have read from a gun owner in a while…you wouldn’t define a mass shooting as a shooting of 4 or more people at a time? Does it matter if it is white kids in a shopping mall or black kids in Chicago? You all are always talking about black on black crimes and yet you don’t want the definition to include mass shootings…hmmmmm…oh and I can’t remember the last time a lawful gun owner used his weapon to shoot more than 4 people in self defense. You’re zealots so you’re incapable of being objective here, by the way.
“This is about the most intellectually dishonest thing I have read from a gun owner in a while.”
Context — it’s what’s for breakfast. You should request a second helping.
How does the GVA get its inflated numbers? They created their own definition of a mass shooting, of course. When most Americans hear the term, they picture a madman stalking the halls of a school or a shopping mall, coldly murdering innocent victims.
The point being that the media doesn’t equally report on the nature of most mass shootings, instead concentrating on the mall shooter or the school shooter.
“…you wouldn’t define a mass shooting as a shooting of 4 or more people at a time?”
The point being that different organizations use different definitions. I quoted the FBI’s definition of mass shooter, what it includes and what it does not include. GVA’s definition, as explained, is much looser and includes more incidents — on purpose.
“I can’t remember the last time a lawful gun owner used his weapon to shoot more than 4 people in self defense.”
The survey found that in the majority of cases of defensive gun use, the gun owner reported facing multiple assailants: 51.2% of incidents included 2 or more attackers.
And 8.5% of incidents involve four or more attackers. — https://americangunfacts.com/guns-used-in-self-defense-stats/
“This is about the most intellectually dishonest thing I have read from a gun owner in a while.”
Context — it’s what’s for breakfast. You should ask for a second helping.
How does the GVA get its inflated numbers? They created their own definition of a mass shooting, of course. When most Americans hear the term, they picture a madman stalking the halls of a school or a shopping mall, coldly murdering innocent victims.
The point being that the media doesn’t equally report on the nature of most mass shootings, instead concentrating on the mall shooter or the school shooter.
“…you wouldn’t define a mass shooting as a shooting of 4 or more people at a time?”
The point being that different organizations use different definitions. I quoted the FBI’s definition of mass shooter, what it includes and what it does not include. GVA’s definition, as explained, is much looser and includes more incidents — on purpose.
I knew that was going to happen — wrote a long post that went into moderation hours ago. No sign of it being released. I posted a shorter article which made it past the modbot. Now the original shows up. I hate this system.
Learn what context means Thomas.
Thomas,
Definitions matter, child. IF there were one, accepted definition of a “mass shooting”, then we could actually compare statistics. But the survey cited uses a MUCH different definition than does, for example, the FBI (which uses its definition when compiling its “Uniform Crime Statistics” – kind of an important comparative statistic, no??
Oh, and while you’re at it – adjust your panties. They’re all in a know, and obviously climbing up your crack.
Great article, with one mistake:
“They would never stray outside the accepted political narrative; much write a story that a shooting was justified.”
It should say “much less write a story,” not “much write a story.”
I don’t buy the legacy media still paying more attention to white victims. Kaylin Gillis received much less airtime than Ralph Yarl.
Even ‘everything is white supremacy’ doesn’t account for that.
Ozanam, not “Ozonam”
What is truly ridiculous about the whole subject of “mass murder” is that there is no sure definite definition of what “mass murder” is. The current one espoused by some of the radical anti-gun radicals claim that if three people are killed it is a “mass murder”.
Actually, the current one espoused by some of the radical anti-gun radicals claim that if four people are shot and at least one is killed it’s a “mass shooting”. Freedom-hating GVA leverages people’s tendency to skim through the news, lack of acuity, to imply “mass murder” when they say “mass shooting”.
Fact is they keep lowering the bar to try to demonize all firearms.
Comments are closed.