NBC Illustration Shows DC Shooter Using an M4 Carbine

Geoff7

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It has been widely reported that the Washington Navy Yard shooter initially used an 870 Remington shotgun before using a handgun from a fallen guard. Initial reports indicated an "assault rifle" was used, but those reports were proven false.

This morning, the Today Show ran a segment about the shooting. After displaying a graphic on the screen illustrating the layout of the Navy Yard and the shooter's actions, they proceeded to discuss gun control and how the shooter used a "loophole" to buy this weapon.

The problem was, the graphic used by NBC didn't show the shooter using an 870 Remington. It didn't even show the shooter with a shotgun. Instead, they illustrated the shooter with what I believe to be an M4 Carbine with Grenade Launcher!

It would be easy for a casual viewer who isn't familiar with the difference between a rifle and shotgun to view this and think the shooter used an automatic rifle or an "assault rifle" in this shooting.

I was so annoyed I took a picture of NBC's illustration (attached). It is hard to have an "honest conversation" about guns and gun violence when those tasked with disseminating information lie and distort basic facts...
 

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Pathetic & disgusting! The news media is so irressponsible when it comes to "marketing" their agenda. Trying to portray the lunatic shooter as a former service member who then uses(??) a military weapon to kill co-workers obviously makes for good copy and pushes their misguided agenda(s). :mad:

They must be scared to death to show the weapon actually used as it is as common a shotgun as might be found in North America. Might even let typical "folks" realize that it's not the weapon that kills, whether a firearm, knife, hammer or hands and feet, it's the lunatic using any of the above. For those who might not have already known, statistics have shown that in 2011 more Americans were killed with hands & feet than were killed with rifles of any and all types.
 
When I first heard the news about 2.5 hrs after it started, I was impressed that they already identified him with an AR15 rifle, bit did not know whether it was 1, 2 or 3 shooters, no description of the shooter(s), no location of the shooter(s), no indication of where shooter(s) started shooting, no idea how he/they gained access to base, etc. But they sure "knew" he had an AR15 shotgun shooting 3-round bursts.
 
I lost what little respect for the integrity of NBC news that I had, decades ago when they got "caught" rigging pickup truck gas tanks to explode (to show how dangerous a certain model was,...)

The rest of the major media has apparently sunk to nearly the same level, and some even lower in the decades since.

I was remarking to someone just last night, how, even though I have not been following the details closely, how the press was not railing 24/7 about the shooter having an assault weapon (AR/AK, etc.).

Watch your news, this case doesn't fit the media's agenda very well, watch and see how fast it disappears from the headlines.
 
Bah...NBC News....

They even got the story of Tony Blair's daughter being robbed at gun point wrong. They said it happened in London which is obviously impossible because England is a gun free zone. It must have been when she was visiting Detroit or Chicago (wait, not Chicago, that's Obama's town) or Washington D.C. (wait not Washinton D.C., that's where he lives now) or TEXAS, yeah that's right probably TEXAS or maybe Florida...

Good grief - can you say 'agenda'.

Tony Blair's daughter story:
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...t-gunpoint-during-failed-robbery-attempt?lite
 
It's often difficult to discern intent versus ignorance with the media. CNN ran a line that said that the shooter used an AR Shotgun.

I doubt it's intent, even though it clearly fits their narrative. It's a combination of "I need a picture of a gun" and that's what they found and complete ignorance.

They wouldn't have a babbling foreign policy "expert" on there who didn't know where Syria was or the difference between democracy and dictatorships but they can't seem to find one single person who knows what a .223Rem is or that a shotgun isn't an AR.

I don't think it's direct intent, except to the extent that they intentionally don't care to be accurate.
 
It's often difficult to discern intent versus ignorance with the media.

I agree this is sometimes the case, but I fear more and more they are agenda driven.

For instance after the shooting in Connecticut CNN Anchor Don Lemon made a statement that no one hunts with an AR15 because it would destroy the animal rendering the meat unusable. A few days later he hosted a discussion with a gun rights supporter and during the interview admitted that he had purchased and shot an AR15. Now, admittedly this by no means makes him a firearms expert, but it seems that he probably knew his initially statement was untrue.
 
What?!? That fine journalistic empire is falsely reporting the news? I'm shocked. Kind of like their creative audio editing they seem to favor.
 
I will agree with the above comment about the difficulty in determining whether its intent or ignorance when it comes to things like this. The media are going to report on these events but I seriously doubt very many of them, especially at higher levels, know beans about firearms. I just write it off as ignorance unless someone tries to make a serious point based on the ignorance.
 
Media, courts, jury members...

I wouldn't count on many US media outlets to be accurate or honest with guns/use of force/etc.
The media, like others in the criminal justice system, education, public service etc are not experts or up on all things gun-related, :rolleyes:.

If you watched the testimony of the recent George Zimmerman trial in Sanford FL & listened closely, there were many errors & over-sights on both sides.

I wouldn't get worked up over it. Unless it's a legal point or deliberate bias/lies, Id shrug it off.
It's like the Youtubers who go bonkers over calling magazines, "clips". Or complaining about what a "high cap" magazine is.
98% of the US public does not care.
 
"As details emerge" and decisions are being made about which of those details are going to be reported . . .
 
I heard CNN describe the movements of our battleships over the Syria incident.

You can look for conspiracies but stupidity is such a good choice.
 
Yes, I suppose we can’t take journalist too seriously. I’m not sure how many saw CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Jeopardy, but it was a hoot. He basically ended up $4800 dollars in the hole versus comedian Andy Richter. Also, if you’re not a fan of Jeopardy they kind of dumb it down a bit for the celebrity completion, so it was really worse than it appeared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVC28oemocA
 
It's clearly an MKA 1919 shotgun in the graphic. :P

In all seriousness though, I'm not sure that I'd be too quick to attribute this to an agenda. Investigative journalism is dead, and the accuracy of the news has suffered ever since. It wouldn't surprise me much if the CAD system they used just happened to already have that gun rendered in it, so they just used it to save time.

He's also holding it very strangely.
 
I had to explain to a local CBS reporter this afternoon that an AR-15 was not used by Alexis.

On some level, they don't care whether it was a Ford Explorer or a Ford Expedition. The assumption is that all they need to know is that guy who caused the wreck was driving a Ford SUV.
 
It's often difficult to discern intent versus ignorance with the media. CNN ran a line that said that the shooter used an AR Shotgun.

I doubt it's intent, even though it clearly fits their narrative. It's a combination of "I need a picture of a gun" and that's what they found and complete ignorance.

They wouldn't have a babbling foreign policy "expert" on there who didn't know where Syria was or the difference between democracy and dictatorships but they can't seem to find one single person who knows what a .223Rem is or that a shotgun isn't an AR.

I don't think it's direct intent, except to the extent that they intentionally don't care to be accurate.

I'd be more inclined to bet on this, someone in the graphics dept, who doesn't know the first thing about guns, was told to come up with something in a big hurry so it could be put on air. This is what they were able to come up with.

Not really worth getting your feelings all hurt over, I don't think.
 
Honest, one commentator claimed the shooter was armed with an "AR-15 Shotgun".

A good deal of writing has been done in the past couple of days on the Main Stream Media's fixation on the "evil AR-15 Weapon of War".
 
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