00:00Another major news story, and the media is twisting numbers, bending facts, and hoping you won't notice.
00:07Welcome to Bias Breakdown.
00:09President Trump is looking to tackle crime in D.C., but the media's portrayal of D.C. crime is misleading.
00:16You're about to see a blatant example of how news outlets can handpick facts and construe real data in order to best serve their political agenda.
00:25We'll expose the half-truths the partisan media is giving you, then leave you with what they won't, the full picture.
00:32This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we're going to take our capital back.
00:37We're taking it back and placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.
00:44Trump announced Monday he is placing the D.C. police force under federal control
00:49and deploying both the National Guard and the city's police to patrol D.C. streets.
00:56As president, he has direct control over D.C.'s National Guard.
01:00And by invoking a 1973 law, Trump has the authority to use the D.C. police for federal purposes for 30 days.
01:08It's a major escalation to a topic that has consumed the news cycle.
01:12President Trump once again threatening a federal takeover of D.C.
01:15Federal takeover of D.C.
01:17Federal control of Washington, D.C.
01:20While Trump is federalizing D.C. police and not the entire city's government, it's still a historic move.
01:27Trump's reasoning for it, D.C. crime.
01:30And as you may have noticed in news coverage, this is the element of the story that is being spun.
01:36There's now a subset of facts for those on the left and those on the right.
01:40And it's hard to know what's true when you're being told two completely different things.
01:46Listen to this.
01:47Here's a chart that shows as of 2024, violent crime is at a 15-year low in the district.
01:54This year's numbers are currently on track to be even lower.
01:58Crime in D.C. is down this year.
02:00According to D.C. police, and the stats go through this morning, all crime, property crime, violent crime, all of it's down.
02:05Contrary to the president's claims, violent crime in Washington, D.C. last year hit a 30-year low.
02:12D.C. in many ways has become a disgrace.
02:15In 2023, D.C. had a homicide rate of 40 per 100,000 residents.
02:20It was the fifth worst of the 60 largest U.S. cities.
02:23The Washington, D.C. crime rate is more than twice the national average, making it one of the most dangerous metro areas in the entire country.
02:30The statistics are eye-popping.
02:32The homicide rate, when compared to other major U.S. cities, is horrible.
02:38D.C. has the fourth worst murder rate in the U.S.
02:41So I hear these two conflicting sentiments, right?
02:44That crime in D.C. is actually not as bad as the president makes it out to be.
02:49And that crime in D.C. is actually really bad.
02:52And the president is justified to step in and clean it up.
02:56There, you've got your left and right political narratives, criticizing or defending Trump's reasoning to become more involved in policing the city.
03:06And the partisan media is providing its audiences supporting evidence to back up their argument.
03:12That's not how the news is supposed to be.
03:15This is an example of slant, a form of media bias.
03:18And it wasn't just the talking heads on the TV, but also in headlines.
03:23Take one from Fox News on the right and another from Axios on the left.
03:27The news outlets strategically propped up their preferred conclusion of the crime surge versus falling crime.
03:35Then only provided data and statistics that would show crime in D.C. you're surging or falling.
03:41This is slant.
03:44As explained by media watchdog group All Sides, slant is a form of media bias in which journalists highlight or play up one particular angle through cherry-picking information to support one side.
03:57Slant prevents readers from getting the full story and narrows the scope of understanding.
04:02And that is exactly what's happened here.
04:05So here's what goes through my head when I see this kind of media bias.
04:08If you're like my family, the TV's on for the evening news, I'd say most nights, 5 o'clock or 7 o'clock news.
04:15And let's be honest, it's usually the same channel.
04:18Most of us gravitate toward the news outlets that match our politics.
04:22I mean, I don't know many liberal friends who are big fans of Fox News, but I do have conservative friends who like to poke fun at MSNBC.
04:30What that tells me is a lot of people never see what the other side is reporting.
04:35That's a problem when media outlets fuel their base with only half the story.
04:41It divides us under the guise of informing.
04:45We're not here to do that.
04:47Here are some of the facts that you should know about this story.
04:50In 2023, the homicide rate in D.C. was 40.9 per 100,000 residents.
04:57In 2024, the homicide rate in D.C. was 27.3 per 100,000.
05:04In 2023, D.C. saw the fifth highest murder rate among the nation's biggest cities.
05:09In 2024, D.C. saw the fourth highest murder rate among the nation's top cities.
05:15So what are fair conclusions you can make from this data?
05:18D.C. has one of the highest homicide rates in the nation.
05:21And homicides are also way down compared to 2023, down 31%.
05:28When looking at overall violent crime, in 2023, D.C. saw 5,345 incidents, or 1,151 violent crimes per 100,000.
05:41D.C. saw 3,469 violent crimes in 2024.
05:47And so far this year, D.C. has seen 1,572 violent criminal offenses.
05:53At this point in the year in 2024, D.C. had recorded 2,116 offenses.
06:002024 saw a 35% drop in violent crime compared to 2023.
06:05And there is also a 26% decrease in violent crime in 2025 compared to this time last year.
06:13Here are fair conclusions.
06:16When comparing crime rates, D.C.'s violent crime rate in 2023 was higher than any state.
06:23And when comparing to years past, total violent crime in D.C. for 2024 was at its lowest in 30 years for D.C.
06:32Data subsets can offer multiple conclusions.
06:36And data is a powerful tool.
06:38After all, numbers don't lie, as the saying goes.
06:41But how you use those numbers to create statistics can be manipulated.
06:46For example, when right-leaning networks compare D.C.'s crime numbers to those of states,
06:53it is factual but can be somewhat misleading.
06:56While D.C. does stand out as a federal district rather than part of any state,
07:01it's not a state and has a much smaller population.
07:05So crime rates can appear higher.
07:08And when left-leaning networks compare the 2024 crime rate to the record high levels of 2023,
07:14it can give a distorted impression.
07:17Yes, the percentage drops are technically accurate.
07:20But because 2023 had an unusually high crime rate,
07:24the decrease may look more dramatic, even if some crimes remain high.
07:29In both situations, when comparisons are selective, they often miss the full picture.
07:36My hope is that after seeing true data and understanding there's different ways it can be interpreted,
07:42next time you're reading or listening to a story with data points,
07:46you'll be able to recognize when a story uses numbers to push a particular narrative.
07:52See it, spot it, call it out, and don't fall for the media's slant.
07:57Like reading an article from the New York Post, a news outlet on the right,
08:01you would have learned that since August 2023, D.C. police have collared 333 carjacking suspects,
08:08and 56% of those busts were of kids under 18.
08:13A statistic with a conclusion that juveniles are committing high rates of petty crime in D.C.
08:20And if you read the article from the Washington Post on the left,
08:23you'd have read D.C. police have made about 900 juvenile arrests this year,
08:28almost 20% fewer than during the same time frame last year.
08:33A statistic with a conclusion that juvenile crime is substantially falling in D.C.
08:39These articles highlight different aspects of juvenile crime without addressing each other's statistics,
08:46so potentially skewing perceptions over the issue due to the slant within its articles.
08:52And that's your Bias Breakdown.
08:55Thanks so much for watching this week's episode.
08:57I appreciate you watching all the way to the end here.
08:59If you want to be among the first notified when new episodes drop,
09:03then all you have to do is download the Straight Arrow News mobile app
09:05and set up notification alerts for Bias Breakdown.
09:09And calling all Spotify and Apple Podcast users,
09:12don't forget we are uploading on these platforms as well.
09:15It should be a pretty convenient way for you to listen.
09:18You can also rate the show on Spotify, so please let us know what you think.
09:22You can also check us out on YouTube,
09:24where I like to respond to some of our most loyal viewers
09:27and to first-time listeners who just so happen to stumble upon us.
09:32Remember, any rating, thumbs up, like, or comment,
09:35all of these interactions really do help us out on these platforms
09:39because of their algorithms.
09:41So whatever you can do, it really helps.
09:44Something I want to say here, too,
09:45the story is seeing many new updates to it almost daily at this point.
09:50Major single crime events in D.C.
09:52like the carjacking and beating of a former Doge staffer are being reported.
09:57President Trump involving the National Guard,
10:00deploying hundreds of federal officers to the D.C. streets.
10:03And Trump now putting local law enforcement under federal control for 30 days,
10:08as we wait to see if this will be enough
10:11or if federalizing the city's government is something still on the table.
10:15It's an evolving story,
10:17and we're covering it through our daily news updates
10:20that we do here at Straight Arrow News.
10:22So I encourage you to check out our other content as well.
10:25Through this podcast and in today's episode,
10:29my goal is to break down the media biases
10:31shaping major news stories like this one.
10:35I want to try and inform you
10:36and give you the tools that you need to spot
10:39when a news outlet is serving up half-truths.
10:42If today's conversation about Media Slant
10:44gave you something to think about,
10:46maybe share it, tell a friend,
10:48and maybe they can check us out for themselves.
10:50Thank you so much for watching,
10:52and thanks to Ian and Allie
10:53for all of the video and graphics help this week.
Be the first to comment