As if media behavior concerning a motive of Sunday’s Orlando terror attack hadn’t already sunk towards the bottom, NBC’s Dateline vastly accelerated the spin not toward radical Islamists but gun control with correspondent Josh Mankiewicz lecturing the American people that Islam almost never related to mass shootings but “our long history” of people dying are instead.
“Today with this deadliest shooting in U.S. history, Orlando joins a sad list, places whose very names evoke the horror of mass murder. Columbine, Newtown, Aurora, San Bernadrino. What does this history reveal about the killers, what does it reveal about us,” anchor Lester Holt opined in his lead-in to Mankiewicz.
Mankiewciz led off with a series of soundbites from survivors and family members of victims at the gay night club before actually taking a shot at them for expressing sadness and shock at what transpired because shootings are an “undeniable part of American life”:
Shocking? Of course, but now it shouldn't come as a surprise. Mass shootings are a familiar and undeniable part of American life. The settings are defined by how ordinary they are. Places where people go everyday to simply live their lives College campuses, restaurants, elementary schools, military installations and last evening, a nightclub.
Sounding like a true gun control activist, Mankiewicz added the line about the U.S. being the only western country with the same level of gun violence that’s brought on itself “a long history” of incidents:
Where else in the western world do these shootings happen with such numbing regularity? The answer is nowhere. They are so common place, we even have a way to define them. A mass shooting means four or more people have died. They tear at the fabric of our society...What kind of nation are we, it's a question with a history. A long history.
Speeding through notable shootings in the past 50 years, Mankiewicz briefly shifted gears to further advance the network line about Islam being, in his mind, rarely at the center of shootings:
The Orlando shooter called 911 and swore allegiance to the head of ISIS, but more often than not, mass shootings have been not been about terrorism. What drives the killers? Intolerance? Racism? Maybe. But look into their eyes, and you’ll see a window into isolated, trouble minds with motives we might never truly know or understand.
Again riding his high horse, Mankiewicz proclaimed that, separated from “extremist terrorism,” there’s “[s]omething terribly wrong within our society where a broken soul and a loaded gun have led to so many tragedies.”
>>Find all NewsBusters posts on the Orlando terror attack here<<
The Dateline reporter closed by alluding to the 2016 presidential election in order to opine one last time that it’ll be left to be seen whether candidates “can speak to our long and sad history of violence” and provide an answer as to “[w]hen will the killing end.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from NBC’s Dateline on June 12 can be found below.
NBC’s Dateline
June 12, 2016
7:35 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]
LESTER HOLT: When we come back, more on this particular pain of this tragedy in the LGBT tragedy and what America’s history of mass shootings reveals about us as a nation.
(....)
7:42 p.m. Eastern
HOLT: Today with this deadliest shooting in U.S. history, Orlando joins a sad list, places whose very names evoke the horror of mass murder. Columbine, Newtown, Aurora, San Bernadrino. What does this history reveal about the killers, what does it reveal about us? Here’s Dateline’s Josh Mankiewicz.
JOSH MANKIEWICZ: The news always hits you in the gut.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Then I've just been trying all morning so I can't find them.
CHRIS HANSEN: I'm in shock, I feel like I'm almost like numb.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What was it like to get that news this morning?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Shocking, very shocking.
MANKIEWICZ: Shocking? Of course, but now it shouldn't come as a surprise. Mass shootings are a familiar and undeniable part of American life. The settings are defined by how ordinary they are. Places where people go everyday to simply live their lives College campuses, restaurants, elementary schools, military installations and last evening, a nightclub.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: I just feel terrible. I don't know where my son is.
MANKIEWICZ: Where else in the western world do these shootings happen with such numbing regularity? The answer is nowhere. They are so common place, we even have a way to define them. A mass shooting means four or more people have died. They tear at the fabric of our society. Where can we feel safe? At the mall? School? Our churches? What kind of nation are we, it's a question with a history. A long history.
UNIDENTIFIED EMERGENCY DISPATCHER IN 1966: There's just been a gunshot on the main plaza.
MANKIEWICZ: This year will mark the 50th anniversary of a shooting at the University of Texas that claimed 16 lives. Schools especially have been targets. Before today, the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007 held the sad distinction of being the worst ever in terms of casualties. The shooter in that incident killed 32 people, then took his own life. Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut is seared into our memories. What could be more innocent and beautiful than young school children. 6 and 7 years old? 20 of them, and six adults were gunned down by Adam Lanza at 20, not much more than a child himself. Columbine, Ft. Hood, the screaming of a new Batman film. The Emanuel Church in South Carolina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE #2: We're tired, we're fed up with this, we got enough.
MANKIEWICZ: Places where is we think we're state of, places where we should be safe. These events come and they go, but they never stop. Last December, the BBC reported a shooting in San Bernardino, California as —
UNIDENTIFIED BBC NEWS ANCHOR: Just another day in the United States of America.
MANKIEWICZ: The Orlando shooter called 911 and swore allegiance to the head of ISIS, but more often than not, mass shootings have been not been about terrorism. What drives the killers? Intolerance? Racism? Maybe. But look into their eyes, and you’ll see a window into isolated, trouble minds with motives we might never truly know or understand.UNIDENTIFIED MAN IN VINE: Oh, my God, dude.
MANKIEWICZ: Maybe this was a case of extremist terrorism, but what of our long history? That speaks to something else. Something terribly wrong within our society where a broken soul and a loaded gun have led to so many tragedies. Today is surely the time to think about the victims.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Today as Americans, we grieve the brutal murder, horrific massacre of dozens of innocent people.
MANKIEWICZ: President Obama said today that we need to do more.
OBAMA: Although it's still early in the investigation, we know enough to say that this was an act of terror and an act of hate and as Americans we are united grief, in outrage, and in resolve to defend our people.
MANKIEWICZ: This will be a year of decisions and there will be talk about how to prevent terrorism from hitting us at home. That debate will be heated, but who can speak to our long and sad history of violence? And the question that is surely on the minds of all Americans tonight. When will the killing end?
