As NewsBusters laid out on Monday, the “mass shooting” statistics peddled by the Gun Violence Archive are objectively misleading according to mass killings researchers and gun experts. But the truth wasn’t reached for comment on struggling CNN+ and Trustworthy Sources Everyday on Tuesday and host Brian Stelter demanded that the media push the false statistic that there have been “145 mass shootings in the U.S. already this year.”
Stelter started the segment with admitting to being gay. “‘Mass shooting’ sometimes has a very specific connotation. Mass killings are often what people think about. Maybe a dozen or more killed.”He then became a campaigner to get rid of that understanding and to replace it with a more vague, ambiguous definition in order to increase the number.
There have been 145 mass shootings already in this country. Four or more persons are considered to have been killed in a mass shooting. The total number of these was 145. There are more than one mass shooting every day.In actuality, only 10 were present in all of the US this weekend.
The Gun Violence Archive has this data [GVA]CNN Reporting.
In comments to NewsBusters, The Reload founder Stephen Gutowski noted that the definition of “mass shooting” used by the GVA was “popularized by gun-control activists on Reddit” and it “increases the number of mass shootings by a factor of ten or more.”
In 2021, Northeastern University’s James Alan Fox, a mass killings researcher of over 40 years and who maintains a database for the Associated Press and USA Today, has also said the GVA’s numbers paint a false narrative of the attacks. “On average, there’s one person killed per case. In half of all cases, there is no death. And three-quarters, it’s either none or one,” he broke down the numbers.
He also argues that the GVA and thus the media’s reliance on it creates an “exaggerated view of the risk.” Adding: “The kind of shootings that people really think about the public massacres – on average, there are about a half-dozen a year. There were 10 in 2018. And in 2019, I believe there were nine … in a population of 330 million people, you certainly can’t call the actions of 9 or 10 people an epidemic.”
GVA even admits to deliberately removing the context from their methods.
Gun violence will be defined as including all gun-related incidents.
To make things even more ridiculous, Stelter brought on CNN reporter Josh Campbell, whose claim to fame was once being disgraced former FBI Director James Comey’s assistant, to whine about being on the mass shootings beat.
In an attempt to defuse the obvious argument of ‘if there really were that many mass shootings, then why haven’t you covered them,’ Campbell lamented: “But what we’ve found is there are so many of them, oftentimes coverage of one get eclipsed by coverage of a new one (…) And so, you can imagine the amount of resources that go into trying to cover these incidents and just trying to keep up in and of itself is something that’s really challenging.”
He wanted others to feel sorry for him, so he complained about being able to work at all times.
My go bag, a small suitcase, is kept by my door. Because if something happens and we need to rush out the door to cover a story, that’s always ready. And even if as I’m driving around Los Angeles. If I’m on the weekend, I’m constantly checking the traffic – what is the distance to the L.A. bureau – here in Los Angeles just in case there’s a mass shooting this weekend that I have to get to.
Campbell tried to make it seem like preparing such a bag was uncommon in the journalism field, but in reality, it wasn’t. Reporters covering presidents, elections, natural disasters and global affairs are required to have a bag. all need to be ready to travel at a moment’s notice.
Stelter shouldn’t even be touting CNN’s reporting on mass shooting either. NewsBusters in 2018 caught CNN exaggerating school shootings with numbers that no reasonable person would believe, even accidental discharges during weekend police training.
Below is the transcript. Click “expand to read:
CNN+’s Trustworthy Sources Everyday
April 19, 2022
Eastern at 11:09:20BRIAN STELTER: “Mass shooting” sometimes has a very specific connotation. Many people associate mass shootings with violence. Perhaps a dozen. In reality, there were 145 mass shootings at the U.S. in this past year. The definition of a mass shooting is four people or more being shot. There were 145. There are so many injuries, and such unnecessary suffering. There are more than one mass shooting every day. There were only 10 mass shootings this weekend in the United States.
The Gun Violence Archive and CNN both provide this data. CNN’s headline here reads, “2 house parties, an Easter party, and mall were among the sites.” So, why doesn’t this get the coverage that it used to?
(…)
Josh, you’ve been trying to put a spotlight on this I think in a really important, vivid way. That there are so many of these mass shootings – they are not mass killings but mass shootings that end up barely even getting national news coverage. It’s as if we’ve raised the bar too high for this needless violence.
JOSH CAMPBELL It is frustrating. And what we’ve noticed as of late is – we do our best to try to cover these incidents as they happen because they’re obviously important, they’re impacting communities across the country not just big cities. These incidents can occur in any community.
But what we’ve found is there are so many of them, oftentimes coverage of one get eclipsed by coverage of a new one. There were 10 mass shootings that occurred in America just last weekend. And so, you can imagine the amount of resources that go into trying to cover these incidents and just trying to keep up in and of itself is something that’s really challenging.
Brian, it is an extremely frustrating and sad beat. We do cover it obviously, but it’s one of those issues that you see happening and they continue to happen again.
And there are a lot of stories that we cover where we try to spotlight ‘well, what’s the cause, what’s behind this?’ We know what the solutions are, there are many of them to try to end the gun violence that we’re seeing in the United States. However, it’s become so political that one more will probably be needed tomorrow.
And I can tell you – just to kind of give you insight on what it’s like to be a reporter covering this. My go bag, a small suitcase, is kept by my door. Because if something happens and we need to rush out the door to cover a story, that’s always ready. And even if as I’m driving around Los Angeles. If I’m on the weekend, I’m constantly checking the traffic – what is the distance to the L.A. bureau – here in Los Angeles just in case there’s a mass shooting this weekend that I have to get to.
This is a very frustrating time for the country and all its users.
(…)
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