On Wednesday, June 14, 2017 there was yet another mass shooting in the news again...
This time it was a shooter who had actually worked on the Bernie Sanders' campaign trail...
And he shot up a congressional softball game, hitting House Majority Whip Steve Scalise...
Now, I'm two days late to reporting the events of that Wednesday Morning because I didn't want to wade back into the swamp. But very clearly, the story of the day in America, on that date. was an assassination attempt on one of the leaders of Congress.
Basic Journalism 101
I couldn't imagine that it wasn't the top story of the day, but in case I was wrong, I screen grabbed two pictures from 12 hours after the shooting. The first was from FoxNews.....
Was FoxNews perfect in its coverage? Of course not. They focused on the shooter instead of the historical significance, but they got the gist of it right.
Now let's look at the screen grab over at CNN at the same exact time.
Let me put on my reading glasses, because that headline doesn't seem to read: Congressional Assassination Attempts. Oh wait, it doesn't? It says Trump under Investigation. How often are presidents under investigation?
Let's google that....
presidents under investigation....
Wow, there's actually a Wikipedia page for that....
With hundreds of entries in the modern era alone.
Maybe CNN is desensitized to mass shootings, there's one at a UPS facility right next to the Congressional Assassination Attempt up there. Wait, it doesn't say that either? It says How Morning Baseball Practice turned into Terror.
This is how reporting worked when it was about NEWS. Here's the front page of the Washington Post from 1954, the day after there was one of the last mass attacks on sitting congressmen.
Ironically, if you look back at the Headlines over at CNN, one of them, on the same day of the shooting, says: Fox News Drops Fair and Balanced Slogan.
Today News is not News. It is News Entertainment, sold to you based on what they want you to hear.
FoxNews isn't off the hook either. You see all those ads on the front of the Washington Post? Now look at the front of FoxNews. You don't even need your reading glasses.