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Just read this in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram. I know everyone will be surprised but this was not front page news, because it was a justified shooting where a gun was used in self defense.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local ... 60186.html

Victim?

Yeah he must be a victim of the way society has treated him, and then he is just trying to earn a living and he gets shot for his trouble, my heart bleeds for him. Unfortunately the LTC holder aimed too low for the "victim's" heart to bleed.

I sent this to the reporter....

Hey, Ryan, this guy is not a “ victim “. He’s a violent felon who tried to rob
the wrong guy.

Good Guys 1, Crooks 0.

and got this response....

My apologies, that story should have been updated later in the day and wasn't. The "victim" angle was what we had early, before we found out he was a robbery suspect. Thanks for the heads up.

Ryan

Though the rest of the report is fairly neutral, the title stating "Gunshot Victim..." displays the media's bias in any report of this type. I would prefer to begin seeing titles beginning with "Armed Robbery stopped by citizen with a gun".

Sorry, but "neutral" is not the word I'd use to describe this story.

In our small company, we have one thing that is required reading for all new hires, and it is titled: I'm OK, the Bull is Dead. This short article only takes about a minute or two to read, but it's the perfect guidebook for how we communicate among ourselves, and to our clients.

While it doesn't specifically say so in the article, this mimics the way many news articles are written. You put in the punchline first, and then 'build down' from there, rather than build up to the story at the end.

News articles are notorious for this method. I travel overseas a lot for work and I do pick up English newspapers in cities around the world. During my breakfast, I find that I can pick up the paper, read the first paragraph on each story, and get a quick understanding of what's going around the region. Then, before I've headed off to work, I can dig deeper into the articles that are interesting, but nothing has changed - just the details of how we got to that first paragraph of each article.

Yet here, in this news article, the punchline is buried in the third of four paragraphs. Truly, the writer only expects only a small portion of the readers to get down that far.

OK, sure, he didn't attack the CHL holder for being the devil incarnate in the article, but this article wasn't neutral in any way whatsoever.

To explain it in our own language: I guess his bias wasn't Open Carried (via vilification of the self-defense shooter), but he was definitely 'printing' enough to tell where his bias lies.

bulinm wrote:I sent this to the reporter....

Hey, Ryan, this guy is not a “ victim “. He’s a violent felon who tried to rob
the wrong guy.

This is true. However, he was lucky that the guy whom he tried to rob only shot him once, and that there were several other people around who were kind enough to drag an armed criminal the ER.

Vol Texan wrote:In our small company, we have one thing that is required reading for all new hires, and it is titled: I'm OK, the Bull is Dead. This short article only takes about a minute or two to read, but it's the perfect guidebook for how we communicate among ourselves, and to our clients.

I will use this. Thanks!

I don't read the Star Telegram much anymore so I do not know the reporter's political or 2A views. But to be fair, headlines are generally chosen by an editor not the reporter.

allisji wrote:

bulinm wrote:I sent this to the reporter....

Hey, Ryan, this guy is not a “ victim “. He’s a violent felon who tried to rob
the wrong guy.

This is true. However, he was lucky that the guy whom he tried to rob only shot him once

The #2 rule of Zombieland is the double tap.

RoyGBiv wrote:Victim?

^^^^^^^^^^ Agreed.

See this all the time though.

In this case, I think 'recipient' would have been more appropriate!

RoyGBiv wrote:Victim?

bulinm wrote:I sent this to the reporter....

Hey, Ryan, this guy is not a “ victim “. He’s a violent felon who tried to rob
the wrong guy.

Good Guys 1, Crooks 0.

and got this response....

My apologies, that story should have been updated later in the day and wasn't. The "victim" angle was what we had early, before we found out he was a robbery suspect. Thanks for the heads up.

Ryan

I tweeted also ... the author of that article, https://twitter.com/RyanOsborneFWST and he changed "victim"
to "man"

My tweet:
Robber stopped by Good guy with #Gun http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local ... 60186.html … AND viewtopic.php?f=108&t=82711&p=1057069#p1057069 @RyanOsborneFWST The "ROBBER" is not a "VICTIM" #2A

New headline

Man shot in robbery attempt taken to Fort Worth hospital in critical condition

Man was shot once in the stomach, police said

He was transferred to JPS from an ER in far north Fort Worth

He had attempted to rob another man, police said

FORT WORTH

A man who was shot in the stomach

Thank you Ryan for the change. Link to article http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local ... 60186.html

jason812 wrote:

allisji wrote:

bulinm wrote:I sent this to the reporter....

Hey, Ryan, this guy is not a “ victim “. He’s a violent felon who tried to rob
the wrong guy.

This is true. However, he was lucky that the guy whom he tried to rob only shot him once

The #2 rule of Zombieland is the double tap.

Vol Texan wrote:...we have one thing that is required reading for all new hires, and it is titled: I'm OK, the Bull is Dead. This short article only takes about a minute or two to read, but it's the perfect guidebook for how we communicate among ourselves, and to our clients...

Excellent article! Thanks for posting and thanks for starting the thread, Jusme

I just like to see stories that show others the reason we all have our LTC. And that when someone does have to use deadly force in self defense they get mentioned as heroes and not just buried on back pages as an afterthought.

Thanks to those who wrote the author and I hope there is a follow up more prominently showing the LTC holder as a good guy stopping a bad guy.