Dishonest: Media coverage of Wisconsin school shooting misrepresents key detail

The headlines this week were depressing. Yet another school shooting. Two in one week for Wisconsin.

CNN: “Student and school resource officer injured in second high school shooting in Wisconsin this week”

NBC: “Guns in America - Oshkosh, Wisconsin, school shooting leaves student and officer injured”

AP: “Student, officer injured in 2nd Wisconsin high school shooting in 2 days”

The headline in the Sun-Sentinel in Florida – a state still mourning the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting — “Another school shooting stuns Wisconsin.”

Horrible. Horrible.

Except… all of these headlines actually misrepresent what happened.

Yes, a shot was fired. By an armed police officer. Because a student entered his office at the school and STABBED him.
No one else was injured, and neither the officer nor the student had suffered life-threatening injuries.

But if you read just the headlines ¬— and no doubt that’s how many, if not most people digest the news — you would think this was another example of gun-crazed (white supremacist) nutcases (probably inspired by Trump) shooting up a school.

What about the first shooting of the week in Wisconsin? Well that’s another story too.

AP reported, “A police officer responding to a situation at Waukesha South High School shot an armed male student in a classroom. Officials say that student pointed a handgun at officers. The 17-year-old boy was wounded and is in custody in stable condition. No officers or other students were injured, Waukesha Police Chief Russell Jack said.”

“Authorities said the shooting followed a confrontation between two students.”

Still a bad situation, but it was the armed police officer who stopped the situation from potentially becoming a lot worse. No, we don’t know that for sure, but we certainly know what didn’t happen. No other students are teachers were hurt.

AP says “School shootings have occasionally shone a spotlight on the response by guards and school resource officers. Armed school resource officers have rarely prevented a school shooting.”

No sadly, the shootings have not been prevented. Or the stabbing for that matter.

No “common sense gun legislation” would have stopped the kid from pulling out a knife. The armed 17-year-old was not old enough to legally possess a firearm, handgun or airsoft gun. That didn’t stop him either.

But armed police and school resource officers at least have the ability to stop the shooter and limit the number of victims.

Of course, that’s a discussion we’ll never be able to have honestly in the media, because the media can’t even honestly present the facts.

But that’s the world in which we live, ladies and gentlemen. And it’s scary no matter how you look at it.

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