Home invaders flee when 'assault rifle' is mentioned. Or.

[gnatshooter]

Friends,

This bit of news is about an event that happened, but it's also about what the press does with gun news.

This news first broke with the report titled, "Armed homeowner fends off five masked intruders", which came out on May 24.

That article concluded with this final sentence: "It is unclear if the residents ever produced the AR-15, or if the mere mention of it was enough to scare the intruders into fleeing."

Breitbart.com got a hold of this story, a few hours later, and the headline became, "Mere Mention of 'Assault Rifle' Sends Armed Home Invaders Fleeing".

 

According to this revised version of the news, "One of the three residents on the floor yelled, directing the resident upstairs to "get an assault rifle." Upon hearing this, the four invaders turned and "ran out the front door."

This is essentially a re-write of the first story, which reported: "...another resident called out to grab an assault rifle (reportedly an AR-15, but local media is calling it an “assault rifle”), the four other crooks that were still downstairs bolted out the front door."

 

And you'll notice, in the first article, it was only one guy 'fending off the intruders', when actually more people were involved.

 

The apparent purpose of both these news stories is to magnify the power and righteousness of the armed homeowner.

If MSNBC had taken this news story, it would be more like, "What every criminal knows: Assault rifles are too deadly", or something like that. And all using the same set of facts, which are actually pretty shaky.

 

In many important and non-obvious ways, the US is a hostage to the press.

Edited May 26, 2014 by gnatshooter