Attacks Create News from Nothing

The news media in the United States can make news from nothing - we knew that already - but they are increasingly making news for all the wrong reasons.  Case in point, a stabbing in the Mall of America which is filled with shoppers doing their Christmas shopping.  Why does a local crime of stabbing a person trying to steal goods from another person make the national news?  In September, three people were stabbed to death in Washington D.C. (the folks at MOA were just injured) and it made the local news, but not once did anyone mention it on the national news.  It happens frequently enough that the news media already knows why it happened.

Because the national news media are so anxious to be the first to get to a terrorism story that they bring the world details of an everyday occurrence.  ISIS has undoubtedly, somewhere, claimed responsibility for this act of terror even though there was no way for them to anticipate that a stabbing would occur under these circumstances.  This is why ISIS gets so much help from the press. All someone has to do is stab a person at a mall and that is broadcast all over the place as national news.  It isn’t.  The press would know that if they did even a tiny bit of due diligence before publishing their story.  They can’t wait for the police report.  They can’t wait for the witnesses to say what happened.  They know, as the old newspaper saying goes, blood sells.

“ When those who get news online from each source type were asked specifically about each’s accuracy, news organizations again sit at the top; 15% of those who get news from news organizations online find them very accurate, compared with 7% who say the same about people they are close with and just 2% for people they are not particularly close with.”  See Trust and Accuracy from Pew Research 

The FBI says you are three times more likely to be killed with a knife or club than with an AR-15.  In fact, you are more likely to be stabbed or clubbed than shot with either a rifle or a shotgun.  Yet, this is national news for a few minutes on Sunday.  The clear and simple truth is the pace of news is so fast that reporters no longer try to verify facts or circumstances.  They assume the worst and publish.  In intelligence circles, sources of information are scored for their reliability and accuracy.  We need a national scoring system for news outlets.