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NBC Says 114 Mass Shootings in 20 Years, But Once Claimed 307 in 2018 Alone
NewsBusters ^ | March 23rd, 20 21 | Nicholas Fo ndacaro

Posted on 03/24/2021 12:31:32 PM PDT by george76

Determined to not let any tragedy go to waste, each of the broadcast networks touted President Biden’s call for gun control on Tuesday following the mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado. But NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt went a step further, trying to browbeat viewers with a claim that America had experienced “more than 100” such shooting in “the last 20 years.” But back on November 8, 2018, the network claimed there were 307 mass shootings in the first 10 months of the year alone...

As a nation, we have been here so many times before. More than 100 times over the last 20 years. After a deadly pandemic year, the country is again facing an enemy within: gun violence and mass murder,” Holt pontificated.

But as NewsBusters reported back in 2018, NBC was known for throwing out completely bogus mass shooting statistics. “Less than two weeks ago, we were reporting from the scene of another mass shooting in Pittsburgh. In fact, folks, there has been a mass shooting almost every day this year,” he said back then.

Holt left it up to Stephanie Gosk to specifically toss out the fabricated stat. “This year alone, Parkland, Santa Fe, Pittsburgh, and now Thousand Oaks. And that skims the surface,” she proclaimed. “There have been 307 mass shootings with four or more people shot. 328 people killed, and the year is not over.”

But NBC’s conflicting information was of no concern to correspondent Tom Costello, who claimed: “Since the Columbine massacre in 1999, there have been at least 114 mass shootings, 1,300 victims.”

Of course, Costello used his report to decry every citizen’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms and to self-defense:

COSTELLO: While hate and mental problems occur in every country, America is unique with more guns than there are people.

MICHAEL BESCHLOSS (historian): The effort has always been through American history to protect everyone's rights under the Constitution. But at the same time, we all have the right to public safety.

COSTELLO: The country has suffered through so many mass murders, many Americans now feel a personal connection to one or even more. The same hometowns, the same school, the same grocery store, the same bar or concert.

“Just as the country begins to emerge from the COVID darkness, the question many are asking tonight: is America's new normal just the old normal once again,” he concluded.

All this came after the network lauded President Biden for pushing for gun control and griping about legislation already being dead on arrival in the Senate.

“It's uphill for any new gun legislation with the Senate divided,” whined chief White House correspondent Kristen Welker. “Most Republicans and at least one Democrat argue the focus should be on enforcing the laws already in place instead of imposing new ones. As a candidate, Mr. Biden vowed to introduce new gun legislation on his first day but has yet to do so.”

And to prove how morbid he was, Holt kicked off the program by tying the shooting to reopening after the pandemic and fear-monger about how prevalent gun violence was. “This is not the normal anyone wanted to return to. The America where people going about their day going about their business could have their lives snatched from them by a stranger with a gun,” he ranted.

NBC’s fear mongering and conflicting statistics on mass shootings were made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Consumer Cellular and Progressive.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: boulder; colorado; enemedia; guncontrol; guns; holt; lesterholt; media; mediots; msn; nbc; newspapers; oldmedia; oops
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1 posted on 03/24/2021 12:31:32 PM PDT by george76
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To: george76

I think NBC is saying 17 different things. Of those 17 things, I think 23 of them are wrong. The other 6 might be true. Which leaves 11 things that we cannot be sure of. So I guess they’re batting .500.


2 posted on 03/24/2021 12:34:12 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("I see you did something -- why you so racist?")
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To: george76

See. Like daily occurrences now. 😕🐎💩


3 posted on 03/24/2021 12:34:36 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this?)
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To: george76

I don’t have the book with me (it is in my personal library at home), but I recall John Lott discussing media reporting of the number of mass shootings in the United States and their tendencies to be (of course) wildly inaccurate and overstating the number of such incidents in his book The Bias Against Guns. He tells a story of his discussions with a couple of NYT reporters who simply told him that they just picked a number out of thin air and also said that they did not have the time to fully research their claim for this number they used in a report on mass shooting incidents.


4 posted on 03/24/2021 12:35:07 PM PDT by OttawaFreeper ("The Gardens was founded by men-sportsmen-who fought for their country" Conn Smythe, 1966 )
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To: ClearCase_guy

Well ... that was clear ... have you considered a career as a trial lawyer or justice?

... also, I’m going to go bake a carrot cake now,...


5 posted on 03/24/2021 12:36:55 PM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: rktman

Oh, and over 500,0000 ‘reported’ from cv19. Numbers may vary depending on ACTUAL cause of death.


6 posted on 03/24/2021 12:37:12 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this?)
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To: rktman

500,000, Not the new math number of 500,0000


7 posted on 03/24/2021 12:38:59 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this?)
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To: george76

Someone may want to inform the illiterate “historian” that THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to “public safety”. If he thinks otherwise, ask him to point it out.


8 posted on 03/24/2021 12:39:04 PM PDT by 2harddrive (Go to www.CodeIsFreeSpeech.com for 10 FREE 3D-printer gun blueprints!)
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To: george76

I think NBC was trying to sneak 2018 gangbanger ghetto shootings into mass murder shootings and merge them into the crazy white man with an assault rifle storyline to bolster the numbers to support gun control and put all white males except journalists in prison


9 posted on 03/24/2021 12:40:22 PM PDT by chuckee
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To: george76

“There have been 307 mass shootings with four or more people shot.


The usual statistics, so that apples to apples comparisons are able to be made is 4 people killed in one location, not associated with gang activity.

There has been a recent move the past few years to broaden the definition, and to include the shooters as victims in order to use the collation statistics to imply huge increases - and since essentially no one classifies ‘4 people injured by a shooting’ as a mass shooting, it makes the US appear to stand out.


10 posted on 03/24/2021 12:40:30 PM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: george76

Americans are more in danger of being sucker punched on the street by a common thuh than getting shot by a psycho.


11 posted on 03/24/2021 12:42:56 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: george76

Myanmar and Venezuela are great current-event reasons why we need guns that match the military capabilities of the government.


12 posted on 03/24/2021 12:43:22 PM PDT by fruser1
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To: george76

How many children have been murdered by abortion?


13 posted on 03/24/2021 12:47:34 PM PDT by From The Deer Stand
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To: george76

An interesting stat would be how Chicago has had in the last few years. Do those count? I think we know the answer.


14 posted on 03/24/2021 12:55:30 PM PDT by cdcdawg (Biden is a potato)
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To: george76
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ff

15 posted on 03/24/2021 1:05:02 PM PDT by foreverfree
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To: fruser1

My question for socialists has always been :

Just who do you think is going to grab guns from individuals ?
The local police ? The military ?

Get real.


16 posted on 03/24/2021 1:07:15 PM PDT by BrexitBen
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To: george76

All this depends on how you want to define a “mass shooting”. I think from a view of federal law enforcement, it means a shooting with 4 or more people involved in some way (victims, perps, bystanders, injured or dead).

But if you use that measurement a lot of drug gang related shootings are mass shooting events.

So for the purposes of propagandizing it is important to use a different means of counting - e.g. it only is a mass shooting if someone shows up and indiscriminately shoots a lot of people for some reason; but not drug gang shootings.


17 posted on 03/24/2021 1:14:30 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: foreverfree

Thanks.. Lots of strange happening. Try this :

https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2021/03/23/nbc-says-114-mass-shootings-20-years-once-claimed-307-2018


18 posted on 03/24/2021 1:19:54 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

They cannot even make their Gaslighting self consistent!


19 posted on 03/24/2021 1:28:09 PM PDT by EasySt (Say not this is the truth, but so it seems to me to be, as I see this thing I think I see #KAG)
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To: george76

Are they counting every ISIS & Boko Haram event???


20 posted on 03/24/2021 2:18:20 PM PDT by ridesthemiles ( )
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