-
Looking Back — And Forward
May 15, 2013 | 19 comments
-
Lies About Libya
May 14, 2013 | 80 comments
-
Bouncing Ball Politics
May 8, 2013 | 16 comments
-
Words That Replace Thought
May 7, 2013 | 57 comments
-
Is Thinking Obsolete?
May 1, 2013 | 36 comments
A Further Perspective
News Versus Propaganda
Too many people in the media cannot seem to tell the difference between reporting the news and creating propaganda.
Since so many in the media cannot resist turning every tragedy into a political talking point, it was perhaps inevitable that (1) someone would try to link the shooting rampage at the Batman movie in Colorado to the Tea Party, and that (2) some would try to make it a reason to impose more gun control laws.
Too many people in the media cannot seem to tell the difference between reporting the news and creating propaganda.
NBC News apparently could not resist doctoring the transcript of the conversation between George Zimmerman and the police after the Trayvon Martin shooting. Now ABC News took the fact that the man arrested for the shooting in Colorado was named James Holmes to broadcast to the world the fact that there is a James Holmes who is a member of the Tea Party in Colorado.
The fact has since come out that these are two different men, one in his 20s and the other in his 50s. But corrections never catch up with irresponsible news broadcasts. The James Holmes who belongs to the Tea Party has been deluged with phone calls. I hope he sues ABC News for every dime they have.
This is not the first time that the mainstream media have tried to create a link between conservatives and violence. Years ago, the Oklahoma City bombing was blamed on Rush Limbaugh, despite the absence of any evidence that the bomber was inspired by Rush Limbaugh.
Similar things have happened repeatedly, going all the way back to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which was blamed on a hostile right-wing atmosphere in Dallas, even though the assassin had a long history of being on the far left fringe.
But, where the shoe is on the other foot — as when the Unabomber had a much marked-up copy of an environmentalist book by Al Gore — the media heard no evil, saw no evil, and spoke no evil. If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly.
As for gun control advocates, I have no hope whatever that any facts whatever will make the slightest dent in their thinking — or lack of thinking. New York’s Mayor Bloomberg and CNN’s Piers Morgan were on the air within hours of the shooting, pushing the case for gun control laws.
You might never know, from what they and other gun control advocates have said, that there is a mountain of evidence that gun control laws not only fail to control guns but are often counterproductive. However, for those other people who still think facts matter, it is worth presenting some of those facts.
Do countries with strong gun control laws have lower murder rates? Only if you cherry-pick the data.
Britain is a country with stronger gun control laws than the United States, and lower murder rates. But Mexico, Russia, and Brazil are also countries with stronger gun control laws than the United States — and their murder rates are much higher than ours. Israel and Switzerland have even higher rates of gun ownership than the United States, and much lower murder rates than ours.
Even the British example does not stand up very well under scrutiny. The murder rate in New York has been several times that in London for more than two centuries — and, for most of that time, neither place had strong gun control laws. New York had strong gun control laws years before London did, but New York still had several times the murder rate of London.
It was in the later decades of the 20th century that the British government clamped down with severe gun control laws, disarming virtually the entire law-abiding citizenry. Gun crimes, including murder, rose as the public was disarmed.
Meanwhile, murder rates in the United States declined during the same years when murder rates in Britain were rising, which were also years when Americans were buying millions more guns per year.
The real problem, both in discussions of mass shootings and in discussions of gun control, is that too many people are too committed to a vision to allow mere facts to interfere with their beliefs, and the sense of superiority that those beliefs give them.
Any discussion of facts is futile when directed at such people. All anyone can do is warn others about the propaganda.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
spike59| 7.24.12 @ 6:37AM
Mark Steyn said it best:
"The definition of a nano-second is the time between a mass shooting and some guy from the left blaming it on talk radio, or Sarah Palin, or Fox News."
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.24.12 @ 7:56PM
Newt blamed everything on the '60s counterculture:
"my hair went gray because of those protesters."
RJ| 7.24.12 @ 7:23AM
Imagine what America would be if more people in government thought as clearly as Dr. Sowell.
irish19| 7.24.12 @ 10:18PM
Be still, my heart.
dbsdey| 7.24.12 @ 7:51AM
The Obama Administration will get their wish to control guns by signing the UN Small Arms Treaty on July 27th. Unless the Senate fails to ratify the Treaty, the UN will be given control of gun ownership in the US. When I called my Senator Bill Nelson, the person on the phone tried to tell me that American gun owners would not be affected by this Treaty. When I challenged his comment, he became indignant. Bill Nelson is losing voter confidence, because he votes straight Democratic on all issues. We must call our Senators and demand a NO vote on this Treaty.
JimH| 7.24.12 @ 8:30AM
I don’t object if a news outlet or reporter puts a spin on their material. What I object to is the hypocrisy and lying that comes with trying maintain that they are being objective.
JD| 7.24.12 @ 12:29PM
There is no such thing as unbiased, as the truth has bias. There is, however, dishonesty.
Bob K| 7.24.12 @ 8:45AM
To many of those people who "won't allow mere facts to interfere with their beliefs" are employed as journalists and talking heads on the 6PM news!
Bob K| 7.24.12 @ 8:48AM
Of course that is" TOO many of those people.... "
If I keep at this I might become smart like a journalist! Don'tcha' think?
TLP| 7.24.12 @ 8:57AM
Not worry.
Me am think dat you be am smart ass journOlists already now am.
You just can't spell.
Which is why we need an EDIT APP, thank you very much.
Seriously. You already am be smart.
TLP| 7.24.12 @ 8:54AM
If any Republican Politician sat in a White Racist's Church for 20 YEARS, how long would it take for the Press to Dogpile him in to Oblivion? What if that Minister Hated Blacks, Jews, AND America?
What if this Republican was FRIENDS with somebody like a Timothy McVeigh? A Domestic Terrorist, who's goal it was to bring this Country to its knees and had already Killed Cops, Blown up Recruiting Stations, and Bombed the Pentagon?
What if a Sitting Republican President was Charged with RAPE, on National Television on the Left's favourite Show - 60 Minutes?
What if he was charged with GROPING another Woman, inside the Oval Office, as she sought out his help, while her Husband Lay Dying, on that same Favourite Show a few weeks before?
What if he LIED to a Federal Grand Jury at his INDECENT EXPOSURE Trial?
What if he REFUSED to release controversial Documents that he had Sealed in a Vault, and had spent MILLIONS to keep them locked away?
What if a Republican Secretary of State, had an Assistant who's Family was UP TO THEIR ASS in a Terrorist Organization?
What if we had a Press, and a Media, that Demanded the REAL UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS?
What if they reported on FAST and FURIOUS, Homelessness and the Price to Feed One's Family?
What if there were Woodwards and Bernsteins, all over the place, all of the time, and not just when a Republican was in charge.
What if the Press were still a Watchdog, instead of laying there Licking itself, everytime a Liberal gets Elected?
Bob K| 7.25.12 @ 2:39AM
The press writes for each other and the talking heads talk to each other and the liberals have more of them in the trade (let us stop using the term "profession" to describe what journalists do) than conservatives do. How often we read about them throwing dinners for themselves where they give themselves awards!
But then, no one else would do it for them. The few I have known have been opinionated, defensive and cheap tippers who never buy a round! And at least one of them, a former pro athlete, never paid his tabs either!
Appleby| 7.24.12 @ 9:21AM
Handguns have been de facto illegal in Canada since 1934. Last Monday night a couple of Victims of Society shot up a neighbourhood barbecue (in a welfare housing neighbourbhood) killling 2 and injuring 19, one of these a baby -- and the first shriek out of the box (closely followed, of course by GIMMEE MONEY!) was "ban handguns!"
Last year I was peacefully coming home by train from a visit to my Mom and was delayed at the US/Canada border by 1/3 of a massive gun sweep (as we discovered later). One cannot check luggage on that route, and nobody inspected the luggage coming or going, so it seems young persons were travelling back and forth from Detroit with wheeled suitcases full of handguns for the Canadian market. Luggage is now inspected if the border agents deem it necessary. I daresay there are still plenty of guns getting in.
Conservative Bob| 7.24.12 @ 10:41AM
There is no price for their mal-practice.
They lie distort and fabricate in service of an ideology that reduces our freedoms and limits our rights.
Their failure to vet or really to critically evaluate in anyway the current occupant of the Whitehouse is a major factor in how he got elected in the first place.
If you hired a watchman to keep an eye on your most precious possessions and later found out that those possessions had been pilfered with the aid of the watchman for his own gain and beliefs... how would you deal with him? What if the valuables you had him looking after were your children's and grand children's entire future?
There should be a price to be paid.
Petronius| 7.24.12 @ 11:54AM
"Hell no, we don't tell the truth. We give Them what WE want Them to have." News producer Van Gorden Sauter to an ABC film crew outside Blackrock after hoisting a few leaving his retirement party, unintentionally went public with what we all now know. That was over 40 years ago.
RWinks| 7.24.12 @ 12:04PM
Sowell is, as usual, correct. Facts mean nothing to the Left. The policies they promote have never produced fairness, justice or prosperity over a century of spectacular failure, yet they still peddle the same BS.
Just this weekend an article in a NY newspaper took numbers released by Obama's own administration and showed how the top 20% of income earners had the largest percentage decline in income during the downturn. It also showed both the top 1% and 20% paid a far higher share of taxes than their share of income....Or more than their "fair share". The first ten comments were all vicious charges that the author was a liar and shill for Republicans.
When this country was founded in the 18th century, it was called the Age of Reason. It is becoming obvious we now live in the Age of Insanity.
Thom| 7.24.12 @ 6:14PM
“Too many people in the media .... creating propaganda.”
There has never been an objective “Press” in this country. The concept of “fair and balanced” suggest that the owners of that claim understand that and try to present both sides of every story but make no claims that what is presented meets some artificial standard for “objectivity”.
Compared to the time of the Founding of this nation, the “Press” today is much more monolithic in nature and less open to the concept of a “free press”. With 80% of “news” content distributed from people with direct ties to the Democrat Party, Herr Goebbels could not be displeased with the control that exists over what gets reported favorable to the party line without having to crack a few heads.
Like every other monopolistic entity, the “news” business is just as prone to the same malicious practices with regard to its interest as any other business. Ask the bulk of those employed in the “Democrat Media” what Freedom the Press means and most will make reference to a “collective” right while the actual right is individual in nature and has nothing to do with the “Press” as a profit seeking corporate business and degreed “journalists”.
Like Academia, if you want a better balance of views you have to introduce free enterprise competition into the mix. That won’t happen as long as a handful of corporations control the bulk of the business.
Just saying….
Bob S| 7.25.12 @ 1:43AM
News coming out of Aurora is that gun purchases there have spiked. The left would have you believe that there will be copycat killers, but the fact is that the people have realized they can't depend on law enforcement to defend them. Law enforcement comes in afterwards and cleans up the mess. The people need to arm themselves to defend themselves from the next nutjob who decides to shoot up a public place. This fact is what the people of Aurora have come to realize painfully.
CaneCutter| 7.25.12 @ 1:26PM
In 1871 an eastern newspaper reporter was visiting Abelene, Kansas. He congratulated Wild Bill Hickok, the City Marshal, for maintaining such a peaceful and respectful town environment. Wild Bill remarked, "Abelene is a city of an ARMED populace. This tends to make things both peaceful and respectful."