I have to say that most of the shared “news stories” on
Facebook always make me angry, especially when you follow the link and there isn’t
an author listed (strike one), it’s posted on someone’s blog (strike two), or
the website its hosted on isn’t really clear about what it stands for and has
something weird listed in the About Us section or at the bottom of the site
(strike three). Those are the big three I look for, but there are other less
obvious tells that something is absolutely false. To research this article, I
went where I hate to go… Family members Facebook pages filled with false “news”
stories. I’ve had to block quite a few family members notifications, simply for
my own future hypertension issues. I found this nugget posted:
“CDC Buried Study Showing Guns Are Used More Often For
Protection Then Crime” the headline screams out. Well darn, that sure puts a
dent into my argument in favor of common sense gun control measures. Following
the link show that a Florida State University criminologist, Gary Kleck, released
a new paper February 26th “exposing” (the author, AndrewBlake’s
words. And no, there is no space between his first and last names) the CDC not
publishing reports that most guns are used defensively, something Kleck has
been arguing since the 1990s. However, if you try to follow the “report” Kleck
released, you end up with an error page. Here’s the issue. Right at the bottom
of this article, which says it was published two days ago, is an update that
says “Kleck pulled his study over criticism that only 15 states were involved …
[and that these states] only account for 27% of the population.”
Another big issue I take with this is the timing of the so
called “study.” According to the article the CDC asked the question, “During
the last 12 months, have you confronted another person with a firearm, even if
you did not fire it, to protect yourself, your property, or someone else?"
in the years from 1996 to 1998. Again, there is no citation for any of this
information and if you perform a quick Google search, you can find that the
Dickey Act was enacted in 1996 with the goal to remove funding from the CDC if
they tried to research gun violence and its effects. Kleck claims that the CDC
was doing national gun surveys about defensive gun use in the late 1990s, but
that claim is problematic because:
1) there is no study to look at because it has been “buried”
on purpose by the CDC (very convenient).
2) Kleck’s recent response paper has been removed due to
criticism of his data and realization that such questions only covered 27% of the
US population at that time (including no major US cities, when looking at the
states listed).
3) The Dickey Law would make such research difficult to
complete, and therefore less likely to occur. On a side note, former Congressman
Dickey of Arkansas is now pushing to roll back his own legislation so the CDC
can research gun violence and help explain why mass shooter events are occurring
at such a rate in the US.
4) A single question about a gun owner’s actions in a 12-month
period does NOT equate to proving the author of the article (and the website it
is hosted on) “right” in their assertion of a CDC cover up on “defensive gun use”
research and data on the issue.
5) The article is posted on Blue Lives Matter, which has a
very upsetting About Us. I feel this website has become very important to individuals defending police in relation to police brutality. This has become
a national concern as more and more incidents pile up with proof of police officers
acting in ways that are directly opposite their first-hand accounts based on
video and audio evidence.
Taken directly from the Blue Lives Matter History section:
“On August 9, 2014, Ferguson PD Officer Darren Wilson was
doing his job as he stopped Michael Brown, who had just committed a robbery of
a local convenience store. Brown attacked Officer Wilson in an aggravated
assault.
Officer Wilson was forced to defend his life by shooting
Brown. In the months that followed, agitators spread outright lies and
distortions of the truth about Officer Wilson and all police officers.
The media catered to movements such as Black Lives Matter,
whose goal was the vilification of law enforcement. Criminals who rioted and
victimized innocent citizens were further given legitimacy by the media as
“protesters.”
6) Blue Lives Matter only has five staff members listed,
including three writers for the whole site meaning there is a lack of differing
viewpoint on the options and “facts” being reported.
7) The fact that people will not click on this article and spend
the 15 minutes digging around but will take the headline at face value and
share it on Facebook before verifying any of the information presented.
And this is why “news stories” on Facebook concern me so
much. People do not take the time to verify the information but by the time it’s
posted and shared 1000 times, it does not matter because that bullcrap is
already out in the world and being touted as “true.”
No comments:
Post a Comment