Abstract
Gun control is one of the most important political issues of our time. It has been shown time and time again from unbiased studies that the correlation between gun ownership per capita causes homicide rates by guns to increase. The issue is muddled though because of the powerful gun lobby and a media that lacks in its journalistic coverage on the issue. These factors combine to bring The United States to it’s current political stalemate on the issue.
Since the tragic events of Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, the issue of gun control has resurfaced as a hot issue needing to be addressed by a government able to make changes that could mitigate the chance of a repeat tragedy. The casualties were drastic, twenty children, all first-graders, just 6 or 7 years old, felled by semi-automatic rifle fire within five minutes. Six women _ teachers, aides and the principal gunned down. The shooter also took his own life and, before heading to Sandy Hook Elementary School, killed his mother. (Bismarck Tribune). The current laws are not working in terms of protecting people from guns. The issue has failed in terms of legislation being past to change the current laws, which are not allowing the issue to be properly broached. Media coverage on the issue, and polarization between the two controlling parties in the United States works against progress on the issue.
In order to resolve an issue, one has to face facts. The gun lobby promotes the premise that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. But this is a fallacy, since research on the issue is pretty conclusions—more guns equal more deaths, both accidental and intentional by guns. More guns mean more death by guns. A study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Study on Homicide Rates (UNDC) has shown statistically that guns per capita had the strongest correlation with homicide rates. We can assume that most people owning guns are the so called “good guys with guns,” yet the data shows that the NRA premise is a false one, but the issue is still debated because of biases in the media and the No one on either side of the aisle is suggesting that guns be completely outlawed. What is needed is logical legislation without looking at the issue as it stands. Gun control is an issue with a powerful lobby of support and also citizens that fall polarized on either side of the issue. As a result, in the news coverage of the current state of the issue, with the latest update being gun measures failing the senate by a margin of six votes, different media outlets while reporting on the same issue, do so in different ways. This essay analyzes the coverage of the issue and debate and compares Fox News’ , which has a reputation for a strong right wing slant, with other major media publication’s coverage of the same issue.
Below are instances of polarized language surrounded the issue. With 24-hour cable new coverage being a relatively new phenomenon, what is happening is people are getting more coverage time wise, but less substantial coverage of important issues.
Despite the massacre that occurred in Sandy Hook, a political issue that had been largely put on the back burner re-emerged in the forefront of political discussion. The issue was mostly divided along party lines, as the vote on the issue indicated.
The New York Times called out Fox News for what they considered to be biased coverage of the issue. They said that “The Decision not to show the president’s angry rejouring to the Senate vote – or to cover the vote in any detail an hour earlier – was the latest example of Fox’s evident lack of interesting in the gun violence debate that has captivated many other media outlets. (NY Times).
In analyzing the April 7th, 2013 article, “Background check plan defeated in Senate, Obama rips gun bill opponents” one begins to see some grounding in the reputation that Fox News denies about it being slanted one direction to the other. This comes through in the article in discussion. By looking at syntax choices in the headline and comparing it with Fox’s competitors, there is, in the very least a different between their coverage and other media houses.
One article by Jonathan Weisman titled, “Senate Blocks Drive for Control” discusses how the senate failed to meet the vote for the 60 votes necessary. Faced with a decision either to remove substantial new gun restrictions from the bill or to allow it to fall to a filibuster next week, Senate leaders plan to put it on hold after a scattering of votes Thursday. More than 50 senators — including a few Republicans, but lacking a handful of Democrats from more conservative states — had signaled their support for the gun bill, not enough to reach the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster.
Yahoo news called the failure of the measure to pass “likely demise of the biggest package of gun legislation in Congress in two decades. “ (Yahoo).
Senate majority Harry Reid, was more optimistic than the president. He said it was "only a matter of time before we bring this anti-gun violence measure back to the floor for a vote." (Yahoo). He offered no potential time frame for the process.
The article, Morning Bell: Senate Control Bill Erodes your Rights and Privacy by Amy Payne discusses all of the provisions in the Gun control bill that will erode individual rights. First, “the gun control bill would charge people with a sentence of five years for gun transfers at guns shows” (Payne). Next, “the bill would allow fireman dealers to do secret background checks on job applicants” (Payne). Finally, “the bill reduces existing privacy protection for mental health records relevant to background checks”(Payne).
Another article, “America’s Gun Divide” by Lexington and featured in the Economist says the gun control is going nowhere. The reason the author says the gun control issue is going nowhere is because “the millions of Americans in favour of gun control do not live in the right places” (Lexington). Support for gun control is geographically and racially concentrated in ways that sap the movement of political power. And that disparity of opinion is linked to another
Their word choice in the headline “defeated” imparts a level of finality, which the debate is over. This is the same choice of words that CNN chose in their coverage, issuing a headline “Senate defeats gun background check proposal.” ABC News, used drastically different choices of words in framing the gun-debate, running one story whose headline read, “Background Check In Peril” in senate. Consistent with that is the headline they ran to cover Background Check’s bills defeat in the senate, “Gun Control Loses: No Expanded Background Check.”
This framing seems more in support of the measure than Fox’s coverage where a close reading of the story in analysis is consistent with Fox’s reputation for conservative coverage. Fox, however, does not acknowledge any bias in their reporting and operates under the slogan “Fair and Balanced.”
Also noteworthy is the choice of including Obama’s response in the headline saying that he “Rips” those who were opposed to the bill.
When reading the story, Fox’s coverage seems more similar to reading a sports story where there is a clear winner and loser, and where perhaps the writer, who remains anonymous in Fox’s coverage but not the other major network’s, seems to be philosophical in favor of the bill’s defeat. While the other major networks ran pictures of The Senate or lawmakers involved with the bill, Fox’s choice of pictures included a featured photo of a handgun in front of a random sampling of driver’s licenses.
The framing of the story and photo create a consensus before even the first word of the story is read that favors opponents of the gun bill and cast Obama and supporters of the bill as adversaries before even the first word is read.
The first paragraph is wrought with language biases saying the Senate defeated a “vital background check amendment” and that this was a linchpin to Democrat’s gun control bill. ABC news took a dramatically different approach to framing the story, writing that a “Sense of pessimism was settling” among supporters of the bill, and that despite an aggressive push from Obama and families of Newtown shooting victims, the bill fell short of it’s necessary votes.
Though the whole issue of gun control is currently a topic of relevant debate because of the December, 2012 shooting in Newtown, Fox News first mentions the tragedy by attaching a strong bias to it, saying that the opponents, which they make mention of the fact that a few were democrats, claimed that this type of legislation would “not have prevented” incidents like Newtown.
The Fox New article fleshes out by quoting Obama’s response, but instead of using neutral constructions like “Obama said in a speech,” their verb choice is “accuse” a strong verb that it could be said casts Obama as antagonist in the context of the story.
“ ‘All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington,” Obama said, accusing the gun lobby of lying about the bill.’” Whether or not the gun lobby did lie about the bill, was not elaborated upon in the article, despite it certainly being newsworthy and relevant, not least because the president of the United States is accusing a lobby of lying to the American people to advance its self-interests.
While other news articles point that this is one piece of legislation and others are on their way, citing Obama’s appeal to the American people not to forget about their passion for the issue, Fox News implies that the defeat will silence the issue. “It’s unclear where supporters will go from here,” they article goes on to say. Following is a very telling sentence of the whole article:
He said the claims "upset" some gun owners who in turn "intimidated" senators.
The use of quotations in this manner causes the speaker, in this case Obama, to seem insincere or dishonest. People put words in quotations in this manner when there is an overriding doubt as to the veracity of their statements. Whether or not claims (from the gun lobby) did upset people or intimidate lawmakers, the use of quotations marks makes the claim seem less credible than if they had been omitted.
The article contains four specific instances of stating claims for why the bill would not have functioned or been effective gleaned from opponent’s criticism of the bill, while the argument for contain no specific rational for why it was being proposed and what it hoped to do. While in ABC and CNN’s coverage there is some development of the bill in question, Fox’s coverage does not give readers much of an understanding of what the bill contains.
The Fox coverage contains another addition not listed in the major networks—an alternate narrative that explains the defeat outside of Obama’s pronouncement that it was the gun lobby lying and intimidating. They cite an AP-GfK poll that showed forty-nine percent of Americans support stricter gun laws, which they say is down fifty-eight percent from January, implying that the American people, who Obama said in his speech, were 90% in favor of the bill, are no longer behind the actions being proposed in the Senate.
The Los Angeles Times Saw the events in Washington as a defeat of any gun control for the time being. Their headline read, “Tougher gun laws seen as unlikely.”
In a piece they ran shortly after the attack one reporter said, “But although the tender age of the victims brought tears to President Obama's eyes and an assertion from him that We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.”
Fox News, in this analysis, was consistent with its stereotype of being biased towards right-wing agenda. While there is nothing wrong with right wing values, the conflict enters when one considers who they claim to be and how they claim they do their news coverage. In the article analyzed here, Fox news took a defensive tone, citing and justifying why the bill was defeated and seemingly agreeing through rhetorical devices and framing with the opponents of it.
References
"Background Check In Peril In Senate - ABC News." ABCNews.com - Breaking News, Latest News & Top Video News - ABC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/background-check-peril-senate/story?id=18978861#.UXFTuyvwKYk>.
"Background check plan defeated in Senate, Obama rips gun bill opponents | Fox News." Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/17/background-check-plan-in-trouble-as-dems-call-votes-on-gun-bill/>.
"Loaded language poisons gun debate - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/31/politics/gun-language>.
"Senate rejects expanded gun background checks - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/17/politics/senate-guns-vote/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+Politics%29>.
"Senate rejects expanded gun background checks - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/17/politics/senate-guns-vote/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+Politics%29>.eaders, agreement of Senate. "Gun Control Loses: No Expanded Background Checks - ABC News." ABCNews.com - Breaking News, Latest News & Top Video News - ABC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/senate-vote-nears-background-check-bill-peril-18975627#.UXFVMSvwKYk>.
"For gun control, now what? A look at the issue." The Bismarck Tribune. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2013. <http://bismarcktribune.com/news/national/what-now-for-gun-control-a-look-at-the-issue/article_a0e1ab68-6173-5102-88dd-6f4cda8279db.html>.
"Fox News, MSNBC and the Gun Debate - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/media/fox-news-msnbc-and-the-gun-debate.html?_r=0>.
"Senate Democratic leader Reid hits "pause" on gun-control bill - Yahoo! News." Yahoo! News - Latest News & Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2013. <http://news.yahoo.com/blow-obama-senate-blocks-gun-control-plan-005249522.html>.
"Senate leaders: Too close to say if gun control bill has the votes to pass | Fox News." Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2013. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/14/senate-leaders-too-close-to-say-if-gun-control-bill-has-votes-to-pass/>.
"Senate leaders: Too close to say if gun control bill has the votes to pass | Fox News." Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2013. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/14/senate-leaders-too-close-to-say-if-gun-control-bill-has-votes-to-pass/>.
