00:00There was a school shooting this week at a Catholic school in Minneapolis.
00:04There is easy common ground in recognizing this as a tragedy,
00:08but where to place the blame is politically divisive, and the media is fueling it.
00:14While most coverage has been centered on the crime itself and the victims,
00:18the narrative splits when it comes to explaining what caused it.
00:22Before we even knew all the facts to the story, you could predict how each outlet would frame it.
00:27But welcome back to Bias Breakdown.
00:30And it is far too easy to buy a gun. It's the guns, everyone. It's not really a secret.
00:35So a suicidal transgender who hates Trump's Christians and Jews shoots up kids at a Catholic school,
00:40and the media wants to take away your handgun.
00:43Rather than giving you balanced viewpoints or straightforward facts, you got typical media spin.
00:49If you only consume left-leaning news after the shooting,
00:52you'd likely hear that guns are the root of the problem.
00:55The United States not only has the highest rate of gun violence of any country in the world,
00:59it's become a leading cause of death for young people and teenagers in this country.
01:04That should make everybody angry.
01:07Weaponizing the shooter's identity is meant to distract from what matters.
01:10People who have known mental illness are still able to very easily,
01:14it looks like according to the police chief in Minneapolis,
01:18recently could just go in and get three guns,
01:21and then use those guns to murder children in a school.
01:23But flip the channel to right-leaning media,
01:26and you're largely told a mental health crisis created this tragedy.
01:30Just a few years ago, the psychiatric community classified transgenderism as a mental illness.
01:36When someone has an illness, we should treat it instead of affirm it.
01:41No one wants to call this out for what it actually is,
01:44a mental illness that the left have spent years brainwashing society into thinking is normal.
01:51This is what we call media framing, a type of media bias.
01:55It's not that the facts are wrong, but the story is told or framed in a way that pushes one angle over another.
02:03Here, left-leaning media largely framed the school shooting around gun violence,
02:07calling for more laws.
02:09And right-leaning media focused on mental health, calling for intervention.
02:13This story is also an example of bias through flawed logic.
02:17When journalists oversimplify a complex issue or narrow the scope,
02:22they push you toward a one-sided takeaway.
02:26So in this example, if a news outlet says a school shooting happened primarily because of lax gun laws
02:32or only because of a lack of mental health awareness,
02:36both are drawing connections and conclusions that are narrow,
02:40presenting a single factor as the guaranteed cause is flawed logic.
02:45Oftentimes, when we see flawed logic, it's paired with a news outlet leaving out or burying certain facts of a story
02:53that may support a different conclusion, which is another form of bias we saw here.
02:58The school shooting happened on a Wednesday morning.
03:01And by the time Wednesday evening rolled around, it was known the shooter was transgender,
03:06born a male but who identified as female and changed their name to reflect that, according to court documents.
03:11This is a fact to the story, but one some left-leaning networks buried in their evening coverage the day of the shooting.
03:18In ABC's nightly coverage of the shooting, the name change of the shooter was mentioned more than nine minutes into the broadcast.
03:25We're also learning that Robin Westman was born a male with the name Robert,
03:29but in 2020 identified as a female and a Minnesota court approved his name change to Robin.
03:35It was similar for NBC.
03:36According to court documents obtained by NBC News, the shooter was granted a legal name change to Robin in 2020.
03:43The documents saying Westman identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.
03:49And CBS devoted six seconds to the shooter's name change nine minutes in.
03:54Several years ago, Westman sought a legal change of name from Robert Westman to Robin Westman.
04:00None of these networks used the word transgender in their coverage.
04:04It was also known in the early hours after the shooting, the shooter had recently and legally purchased a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol and bragged about how easy it was to get the guns in manifesto writings.
04:18But in Fox News' primetime lineup, they don't mention this fact at all.
04:23How the gunman obtained the firearms wasn't talked about on any of the primetime shows the evening of the shooting.
04:30These are examples of bias by omission.
04:32It happens when information is either left out completely or buried in the story.
04:37Some of you may think the shooter being trans is irrelevant or that how the shooter got the guns doesn't matter.
04:44And that's OK.
04:45You're supposed to form your own conclusions.
04:47But when the media shields parts of a story, that's not right.
04:51Whether a journalist thinks the info is relevant or not, both pieces of information matter to one political viewpoint or another.
04:58Omitting or glossing over these facts, that's bias.
05:02This is an emotionally charged issue.
05:05And the network coverage, it was just as emotional.
05:08Piecing together clips from both left and right outlets, it sounds like heated arguments and fights playing out in the media.
05:16The thoughts and prayers, I'm so beyond, so beyond that, that nonsense.
05:21And yet again, like clockwork, half the politicians in our country have little more to offer than thoughts and prayers.
05:28That is all they are offering.
05:29I think people want more than prayers at this point.
05:32They're really angry.
05:33I'll go to bed tonight and thank God on my knees that don't exist anymore, that my child is still alive.
05:40And any Democrat politician that says I'm wrong for that, that anyone's wrong for praying, God help you.
05:46You're going to start seeing narratives, you're already seeing them, they're already out there, about how the shooter was trans.
05:51Is there any doubt that this person wasn't in the midst of a mental health crisis?
05:55So what about these narratives are not true?
05:58Why should we not be looking at these storylines to find out why this happened?
06:02And mental health issues are not unique to the United States.
06:05And yes, we should do more to address them.
06:07But it's also an issue all over the world.
06:10But this is the only country where shootings like this, this one happened this often.
06:14What is so glaring about the trans cult, apparently your identity is the only thing that matters until you do something awful.
06:21His killing resulted from that ideology.
06:25And if you don't believe that, you're one dumb a**.
06:28Listening to that, there really isn't any sense of clarity or common ground.
06:33Instead, it's just passionate feelings and noise without cohesion or understanding.
06:38In times of tragedy, people usually come together after a tornado or natural disaster or an act of war.
06:46But that's not the case after school shootings.
06:48We want to point blame.
06:50The divisive rhetoric from partisan left and right-leaning media mirrors the same political divide Americans feel over the issue.
06:58Both sides are quick to identify what they think is the root of the problem.
07:02And both are demanding action.
07:04They just don't agree on what action is needed.
07:07And the truth is, neither do most Americans.
07:10The polarization over more strict gun laws is seeing an even deeper divide in recent years.
07:16In 2003, 70% of Democrats said gun laws should be stricter, according to a Gallup poll.
07:22And 41% of Republicans agreed.
07:25In 2023, a year after the Uvalde school shooting, and Americans are even further apart on the issue.
07:3284% of Democrats and 31% of Republicans want stricter gun laws.
07:38What was once a 29% gap is now a 53% gap apart, making the issue more polarized today than in decades.
07:47Gallup did not include in its survey questions over mental health issues, or I would have included those too.
07:53But an Economist YouGov poll taken a month after the Uvalde school shooting also shows the deep divide.
07:59The poll found 51% of Americans agreed with the statement, school shootings are a mental health problem, not a guns problem.
08:0741% disagreed with that statement, and 9% were unsure.
08:12The survey also found 41% of Americans believed stricter gun laws would have prevented the Uvalde school shooting, while 40% said they wouldn't have.
08:2218% were unsure.
08:23All of these numbers are extremely close together, again showing a picture of a divided nation, with a solution unclear.
08:32This isn't an easy story, especially when strong emotions are triggered in stories like these of real tragedies.
08:39We're all human, even journalists.
08:41And when we feel strongly about a social or political issue, it can be hard to stay impartial.
08:47But that is our job.
08:49My grandpa was my biggest fan and my biggest critic.
08:53He always told me, if he watches one of my stories and can tell how I feel about it, then I did it wrong.
09:00And he was right.
09:01When news outlets frame facts to fit a narrative, and leave out or bury certain facts that don't fit their perspective, trying to lead an audience to a conclusion, that's bias.
09:13And what comes from that bias isn't answers or clarity, but more division and polarization of a nation.
09:20And that's exactly what we saw here.
09:21And that's your bias breakdown.
09:24Thank you so much for watching all the way to the end here.
09:28This is a lot of your time that you're willing to give us, and I really appreciate that.
09:32We're here to tell you the story a little bit differently, pinpointing the narratives in other media storytelling to hopefully leave you with a more well-rounded understanding of major stories.
09:43To be the first to get notified of new episodes dropping, all you have to do is download our Straight Arrow News mobile app, and then sign up for notifications for bias breakdown.
09:53And remember, if you listen to Spotify or Apple Podcasts, we are also on those platforms as well.
09:59There you can rate us and leave us reviews.
10:01We also love to hear from you on YouTube, so like or comment or engage with us on that platform as well.
10:08Keep the feedback coming.
10:10A big shout out as always to our talented team behind the scenes, Ian Kennedy and Allie Caldwell on our video editing and graphics.
10:19Our podcast would be a lot more boring without y'all.
Be the first to comment