From: hes@ncsu.edu (Henry E. Schaffer)
Subject: A Case History of Newspaper Bias re: Firearms
Summary: Newspaper conveys incorrect message
Originator: hes@sparcler.cc.ncsu.edu
Keywords: sensationalism slant
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 20:02:35 GMT

  Here is an example of a newspaper's handling of a crime involving
a shooting, and how some factual issues are (mis)handled:

  My eye was caught by the headline on the front page of the second
section of the Raleigh News & Observer on Friday [the two quoted
sections from the N&O should be obvious - stuff in brackets is from me]:

Automatic weapons are used in shootout
by Francis Hopkins, Staff writer

  Raleigh - Two rival groups shot at each other with military automatic
weapons and one man was hit in the chest early Thursday in a shootout
that police say centered on drug money.
  It was the second shooting this week at ... Both involved assailants
using an AK-47 automatic assault rifle in attempts to rob the occupants
of money or drugs, police said.
[So far it sounded reasonable - but then I continued reading]
  But on Thursday, an AR-15 also was used, raising investigators' fears
that guns smuggled from the Persian Gulf war have made their way to
Raleigh streets.  [what???]
  "It's very disturbing, knowing that those criminals and drug dealers
have bigger guns than we have," said Sgt. J. W. Weatherspoon.
  U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents are investigating reports
that Fort Bragg soldiers smuggled into the United States some rifles
captured from Iraqi troops.
  The agents said they think Fort Bragg soldiers sold at least three of
the powerful [!] guns and other weapons in Raleigh.  Two of the AR-15s
were recovered this spring.
  ...

  OK - this stuff gets more and more confusing.  Does any army use the
AR-15 as a military weapon?  Is there any possibility that soldiers
smuggled AR-15s into the U.S. from the Gulf?  Then there is the problem of 
calling the AR-15 and the AK-47  "powerful".  

  Then on Saturday, on the 3rd page inside the second section of the
N&O there is a headline on an article with the same byline:

3 more charged in shootout

  Halfway through the article (7th-8th paragraph) it said:

  The AK-47 and the AR-15, a rifle that resembles the U.S. military's
M-16, are not automatic weapons as the News & Observer reported
Friday.  Both are semiautomatic rifles, which fire as quickly as the
gunman can pull the trigger, while automatics fire repeatedly as long
as the shooter holds down the trigger.
  Police said high-powered assault weapons, whether automatic or
semiautomatic, pose the same dangers to police and citizens.  "Both of
them do the same damage," Lt. D. R. Turnage said.

  Well, this corrected some of the earlier mis-statements.  If neither
of these were full-auto, then there is little chance of smuggling from
the Persian Gulf being involved.  But no correction of this is made.
Then this correctly distinguished between semi-and full-auto (with only
a minor glitch) but then goes on to make these semi-auto rifles sound
as dangerous as possible.  I wonder if Lt. Turnage was saying that a
*shot* from either is equally dangerous (which is true) or he was trying
to make it sound as if the semi-auto is as 'bad' as a full-auto?  (To
me is sounds as if either Lt. Turnage or the reporter was trying to make 
semi-auto rifles sound bad.)

  Then comes Sunday - and the Editorial Page cartoon shows Superman
lying dead in a Raleigh alley with a newspaper next to him showing
the headline:

AUTOMATIC WEAPONS PROLIFERATE IN RALEIGH

which indicates to me that not even the editorial staff reads the
corrections printed on the inside pages of their own newspaper, and
that topics involving automatic weapons are so attractive to this
newspaper (and IMHO to the rest of the media) that the truth can't
be allowed to stand in the way of a good headline or editorial stand.

  It seems to me that most all readers will go away after these
three days of newspaper reading with the strong impression that
automatic weapons, probably smuggled in from the Persian Gulf, are
making a large-scale appearance in Raleigh.  However it appears that
the only facts are that there was an illegal drug related shooting
incident.  Am I being overly sensitive?

--henry schaffer