Media Bias in Ft Lauderdale Shooting

I’m not happy with the media’s coverage of the Fort Lauderdale shooting today. For those who don’t know, a man got off a plane in Fort Lauderdale and shot several people in the airport.

The media (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News) and even members of the Senate (Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio) are using language like “nut job” or “whacko” or “mental case” to describe the shooter.

This really bothers me because our media in America is supposed to be unbiased and I feel like the use of these derogatory terms is only reinforcing and encouraging the stigma that surrounds mental illness. None of them have pointed out that most mentally ill people aren’t dangerous. What they’re doing is feeding a panic where the public will become even more afraid of us WITHOUT REASON.

Am I the only person bothered by this? Not surprised, but bothered?

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I think we tend to think of our political leaders as being absolutely perfect and able to treat everyone absolutely fairly. They certainly are not. Look at our president and all the things he has said which were simply poorly thought out, maybe outright careless. When you hear people using insensitive language as you have don’t consider it something to be surprised at. There are plenty average people who use this type of inappropriate language.

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In a way I worry about the government locking us all up in mental hospitals over incidents like this. But on the other hand I know they don’t want to spend the money.

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I had to look it up. Apparently they referred to him as a mentally disturbed person. Personally I think all the news channels are biased one way or another. They will probably chalk this up to an isolated incident. Don’t know for sure until we get the facts which is when they will shape their narratives.

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Senator Nelson was talking about putting us on a registry!!!

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Whoa didn’t hear that when I listed to it on cnbc. Well that would suck. Hopefully nothing will happen. Maybe a bunch of sz should send letters to their representatives about not putting us on a registry. I’ve sent emails to Ted Cruz a couple of times. Don’t know how much he listens to them but it couldn’t hurt.

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I didn’t hear about a registery. That is super scary!

dudes lets be real each and every one of us is dangerous and unpredictable when we aren’t medicated. I could be a totally different person tomorrow than I am today. Its something to be afraid of. I wish they would put me in a hospital forever

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I think they were assuming the shooter was a psychopath or a sociopath, which technically is a mental illness.

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Does he has a mental illness …!!!

From what I read he went into FBI office in Alaska and said he was hearing voices and being controlled by the government.

That is what I heard too

the real question is how did this guy manage to even get his weapon through airport security? unless he had his own plane and landed at an airport. and I thought MI people weren’t allowed to have weapons.

what does being “put on registry” mean?

I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. :disappointed_relieved:

That’s simply not true. The vast majority of people with Schizophrenia are NOT violent toward others, even when psychotic. A psychotic person is much more likely to hurt themselves than to hurt others.

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Yeah that’s what they ended up saying. Whether th at’s true or not, who knows? It seems odd to me, if he were being “controlled by the government” he would stay away from the government instead of going to an FBI office.

An issue that was brought up was that in the US the law is that if you’ve been “adjudicated as being mentally ill” you can’t own a gun. That means if you’ve been committed and a judge has said you’re a danger to yourself or others, you can’t own a gun. But this shooter had NOT been committed, ever, and thus it was perfectly legal for him to own a gun.

The other issue is what about people who are deemed dangerous by a judge but have a temporary condition? I’m talking about postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis, primarily, where women get this terrible condition TEMPORARILY and recover and become healthy again. If t heir illness is temporary why not let them have a gun once they’ve recovered?

And in my case I was committed but after that a judge ruled that I was not mentally ill and not a threat to the public. So I should be able to own guns because of that ruling. I even have the letter from the court.

Man, I am not ready for the fall out this spree killer is going to cause to the rest of us.

I am concerned about registries, too.

We’re already in the national crime database, regardless if we are criminals or if we’re NOT criminals (they lump 5150’s into this database). It’s called NICS or something.

Here’s an article I just found about MI patients and databases:

Meanwhile, not everyone with a documented history of mental illness is dangerous, but they would be subject to restrictions nonetheless.
In 2013, a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that more than any other measure, Americans said “better mental health screening and support” was the most important thing that could head off mass shootings in the U.S. Thirty percent of all Americans selected that option, compared to 25 percent who said stricter gun control laws and enforcement

I am against violations of my second amendment right and my right to medical privacy. Maybe we can start a petition limiting these blanket restrictions.

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They were talking about it on the television recently and looked like they were trying to link him to isis. I think we are safe in that they will probably more likely want to use ammunition to go after isis than the mentally ill. It might look like the democrat politicians(Only basing this off the fact Bill Nelson is a Democrat and talked about a registry apparently) will say it is the mentally ill and the republican politicians will try and link him to isis. Republicans are the ones in power so we could be safe in this case.

No, what they said was that he went to the FBI office last year and said “Voices are telling me to join ISIS”. The man had nothing to do with ISIS and the FBI has publicly said it had nothing to do with terrorism. He was crazy and they want to make it look like all crazy people are dangerous and that simply isn’t true. I wouldn’t hurt a fly!