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. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC Nightly News
March 23, 2021
7:04:51 p.m. EasternLESTER: President Biden said he was devastated by the attack. “Another American city,” he said, “now scarred by gun violence.”
[Cuts to video]
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: This is not, it should not be a partisan issue. This is an American issue. It will save lives. American lives. And we have to act.
[Cuts back to live]
HOLT: Kristen Welker is at the White House. Kristen, what's the President calling for?
KRISTEN WELKER: Lester, President Biden called on the Senate to pass two bills already approved by the House that would expand background checks. And he urged Congress to reenact the assault weapons ban.
It's uphill for any new gun legislation with the Senate divided. 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. Lester.
HOLT: All right. Kristen Welker, thank you.
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. Here's Tom Costello.
[Cuts to video]
TOM COSTELLO: Yet again tonight, familiar heartbreak and a gut-wrenching irony, that the victims in Boulder managed to survive a global pandemic, only to die in America's decades-long epidemic of gun violence.
Only a week ago it was Atlanta. Before that, there was Milwaukee and El Paso, Dayton, Virginia Beach, Thousand Oaks, Pittsburgh, Santa Fe, Parkland, Las Vegas, Orlando, Newtown, Aurora, Charleston, Virginia tech. The list of places and names goes on and on. Since the Columbine massacre in 1999, there have been at least 114 mass shootings, 1,300 victims.
Today, former President Obama wrote, “We should be able to live our lives without wondering if the next trip outside our home could be our last. We should, but in America, we can't.”
While hate and mental problems occur in every country, America is unique with more guns than there are people.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: 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. Tom Costello, NBC News.
