On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported its new ABC News-Washington Post poll on mass shootings on the front page. They asked: “Do you think that mass shootings in this country are more a reflection of problems identifying and treating people with mental health problems, or inadequate gun control laws?" By more than two to one (57 to 28 percent), people picked the mental health issues.
On this shooting in particular, that divide might seem obvious. Actually, that poll finding was nowhere to be found in the Post story. ABC's Jonathan Karl briefly mentioned it as "interesting" on Tuesday's Good Morning America.
Here's where it gets weird: MSNBC host Katy Tur actually put these poll results on screen on Tuesday afternoon, and then also showed the numbers on politicians not doing enough.
The Post story on Tuesday was headlined “Poll: 60% fault Trump, Congress in shootings.” That’s weird. When they asked if Congress had done enough, 77 percent said no. When they asked if President Trump had done enough, 62 percent said no. But the front-page story by Scott Clement and Emily Guskin began:
More than 6 in 10 Americans fault Congress and President Trump for not doing enough to prevent mass shootings, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, with most Americans continuing to say these incidents are more reflective of problems identifying and addressing mental health issues than inadequate gun laws.
Then Clement and Guskin reported (while the story was still on the front page) that 77 percent felt more effective mental-health screening could have prevented the murders, while 58 percent say stricter gun-control laws could have prevented them. The head-to-head finding was completely avoided, including in two charts that illustrated the story.
At least an ABCNews.com article by pollster Gary Langan eventually relayed the comparison:
The public’s especially broad endorsement of improved mental health screening and treatment is in line with another result: Americans by a 2-to-1 margin blame mass shootings mainly on problems identifying and treating people with mental health problems, rather than on inadequate gun control laws.
That online piece does come with a video from ABC's early-morning news show America This Morning that at least mentioned some poll results (but not the most troubling one for liberals).
The poll was taken from February 15 to 18, before ABC and The Washington Post could ask whether security officers actually doing their job instead of hiding outside could have prevented much of the shooting.
Correction: For a few minutes, I reported there was no ABC coverage, but our morning-news team informed me it was there was on GMA.
Clarification: The Washington Post pointed out there is a sentence mentioning the relevant poll question in the online version, in paragraph 17: “Asked about mass shootings more broadly, the public says by a roughly 2 to 1 margin that they reflect problems identifying and treating people with mental health problems rather than inadequate gun control laws.” That said, it was not in Tuesday's front-page story in the newspaper.
