In the category of “misleading lefty clickbait stories with ridiculous headlines,” Newsweek put forward a contender on Nov. 14 under its “Culture” section.
The full headline read: “REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR BLAMES MASS SHOOTINGS ON ZOMBIES, ABORTIONS, US ‘CULTURE OF DEATH’—NOT GUNS” And with that, author Benjamin Fearnow already started walking back that whopper of a title in the lede: “Republican Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin blamed the continuing occurrence of U.S. mass shootings on America’s culture that ‘celebrates death’ through zombie television shows and abortion.” Oh, so Gov. Bevin wasn’t actually attributing gun deaths to zombies? How very disappointing.
To Fearnow’s credit, he does eventually relate Bevin’s full thoughts on the issue of violence, which single out larger cultural currents:
“Conservative radio host Leland Conway of 840 WHAS in Louisville pressed Bevin Tuesday on how to stop future mass shooting incidents…’When a culture is surrounded by...things that celebrate death...These are drips, drips, drips on the stones of the psyches of young generations that are growing up in a society that increasingly says this is normal and OK.’”
But instead of ending the article with Bevin’s complete position (which would have made for an oh-so-boring work of actual journalism), Fearnow instead veered off into a discussion of Bevin’s “ongoing federal court battle with Louisville's lone abortion clinic” and Bevin’s incriminating right-wing credentials: “Bevin received an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association during his....2015 gubernatorial campaign. He has repeatedly denounced restrictions to firearms as a "premature" solution[.]”
Fearnow immediately follows that with “More than 20 people have died across the country in the past three weeks as a result of mass shootings.”
To the mainstream media, caring about gun rights while condemning cultural influences that desensitize people to violence are incompatible -- if you truly care about human life, you have to turn your back on the NRA and guns completely. Opposition to abortion, also, is just a fake expression of one’s dedication to the sanctity of life.
