However, the numbers show that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are far less likely to commit murder. On the January 16 edition of "Fox and Friends," co-host Steve Doocy noted that veterans are "five times less likely to commit murder." Gretchen Carlson noted the danger of putting out these dubious stories adding "You don't have time to actually get to the bottom of all of these articles. People just assume that what they read, wrong or right, is truth."
The entire transcript is below.
GRETCHEN CARLSON: Somebody else who needs to clear up something a little bit is "The New York Times." Surprise, surprise, they distorted some numbers on Sunday. There was a big article with regard to how many veterans coming back from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, 700,000 of them by the way, how many people that they have actually killed since they've been back.
STEVE DOOCY: Murdered.
CARLSON: Murdered and they said there were 121 killings, quote, "a cross country trail of death and heartbreak." Well, it turns out that they didn't necessarily do their math.
DOOCY: Well, the way "The New York Times" wrote it, and it was right there on the Sunday paper, which is the big one that people across the country read. It made it sound like as soon as the men and women in the military service return from Iraq and Afghanistan, they go on a killing spree. But "The New York Times" used, that's exactly what it sounded like. But "The New York Times" used kind of a fuzzy kind of logic. And what they did was, if you look at, 350,000 men and women have served over there so far, at least during the Global War on Terror. Now the Department of Justice says that if you looked at another 350,000 Americans who stayed at home and did not go to military service, that same number of people, they probably would have committed 750 murders. So you compare that, 750 to 121- And then when you look at all of the people that have gone there, turns out-
BRIAN KILMEADE: And how many years has this been going on?
DOOCY: Yeah, exactly, turns out you are five times less likely to commit murder, if you served in the military.
KILMEADE: So if you have a kid between 18 and 34 and you want to make sure that kid is not a victim of or perpetrator of violence, your best bet, looking at this with a sober view, without a negative view. Looking at this, just looking at the raw numbers, the best thing you can do is send your kid to the military.
CARLSON: Which is exactly the opposite of-
KILMEADE: They create less violent people!
CARLSON: I just find this amazing because what person who's reading "The Sunday Times," when you got probably three kids running around your house and you're trying to get to church potentially-
DOOCY: Wait a minute you're telling me your story, three kids running around the house.
CARLSON: Well, I thought I had two, well my husband, okay two kids. But you know what I'm saying? You don't have time to actually get to the bottom of all of these articles. People just assume that what they read, wrong or right, is truth.
KILMEADE: Yeah, soldiers become killers, keep reading and hopefully we've exposed the truth.
(Also see NewsBusters post by Warner Todd Huston)
