Unsurprisingly, far right-wing site Breitbart has decided to go a different direction from the mainstream media when it comes to reporting on the Charleston, South Carolina shooting and its aftermath.
The site has gone on to compare Dylann Roof to William Ayers, because President Obama and Ayers used to spoon together after speaking at "Hate America" meetings or something to that effect, so the site felt the need to let it be known that since Obama used to associate with Ayers, he has no room to lecture the country about racism and race wars.
Not long after, the website posted this headline: "Serial Lies: Politifact blasts Obama over gun claim about mass killings in other countries."
Yes, that's a bigger exaggeration than if I said I'd slept with more women than Wilt Chamberlain and Gene Simmons combined.
The Politifact headline read, "Is Barack Obama correct that mass shootings don't happen in other countries?" While the site ruled his claim as "Mostly False," they had to do so since he spoke on the matter in (near) absolute terms. As teachers used to tell me throughout school, "If a true/false question mentions the word 'always' or 'never,' it's almost always false."
However, if Brainfart, excuse me, Breitbart, had read the entire article, they could see the fact-checking site didn't completely discredit President Obama's statement, not by a long shot.
In it's review, Politifact writes the following:
"The chart does show that the United States has more mass shootings -- and more people cumulatively killed or injured -- than the other 10 nations combined, partly because it has a much bigger population than all but China.
...Over the decade and a half studied, researchers found 23 incidents of mass shootings in the other 10 countries, resulting in 200 dead and 231 wounded. In the United States over the same period, there were 133 incidents that left 487 dead and 505 wounded."
Then Politifact reviewed this statement: "Barack Obama tweets that U.S. gun-homicide rate is much higher than in France, Israel, Japan," and ruled that "Mostly True."
The fact-checker then wrote this:
"Here are the rates of the four countries Obama cited, according to The Guardian:
United States: 2.97 per 100,000
Japan: 0.01 per 100,000
France: 0.06 per 100,000
Israel: 0.09 per 100,000"
So while President Obama probably should have rephrased his comment so that it didn't come across as absolute, and with that, mostly false, what he was really trying to get at with his two statements is that gun violence is much more prevalent in our country than in other developed nations, which is true.
The other ten countries mentioned: 23 mass shootings, 200 dead, 231 wounded (an average of 2.3 mass shootings, 20 dead, and 23.1 wounded per country)
The United States: 133 mass shootings, 487 dead, 505 wounded (yes, an average of 133 mass shootings, 487 dead, and 505 wounded)
So, the U.S. has an average advantage of 130.7 more mass shootings, 467 more dead, and 481.9 more wounded than these other ten countries. That means these other countries average just 1.7% the mass shootings of the United States, 4.1% of the deaths, and 4.6% of the wounded. This isn't even touching on the numbers mentioned by The Guardian, which showed that U.S. citizens kill each other with guns at a rate of 297 times more than those in Japan, 49 times more than those in France, and 33 times more than those in Israel.
Breitbart, as they so often do, can deny reality as much as they'd like, but while President Obama's absolute statement about mass shootings in other countries was mostly false, his main intention of bringing recognition to the fact that gun violence is far more prevalent in the United States than in these other countries is true, and Brainfart, I mean Breitbart, may want to read more than just the headlines of articles in the future in order to garner the full picture of the story and not just want they want to believe.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/06/22/serial-lies-politifact-blasts-obama-over-claim-about-mass-killings-in-other-countries/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/22/barack-obama/barack-obama-correct-mass-killings-dont-happen-oth/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/22/barack-obama/barack-obama-tweets-us-gun-homicide-rate-much-high/
The site has gone on to compare Dylann Roof to William Ayers, because President Obama and Ayers used to spoon together after speaking at "Hate America" meetings or something to that effect, so the site felt the need to let it be known that since Obama used to associate with Ayers, he has no room to lecture the country about racism and race wars.
Not long after, the website posted this headline: "Serial Lies: Politifact blasts Obama over gun claim about mass killings in other countries."
Yes, that's a bigger exaggeration than if I said I'd slept with more women than Wilt Chamberlain and Gene Simmons combined.
The Politifact headline read, "Is Barack Obama correct that mass shootings don't happen in other countries?" While the site ruled his claim as "Mostly False," they had to do so since he spoke on the matter in (near) absolute terms. As teachers used to tell me throughout school, "If a true/false question mentions the word 'always' or 'never,' it's almost always false."
However, if Brainfart, excuse me, Breitbart, had read the entire article, they could see the fact-checking site didn't completely discredit President Obama's statement, not by a long shot.
In it's review, Politifact writes the following:
"The chart does show that the United States has more mass shootings -- and more people cumulatively killed or injured -- than the other 10 nations combined, partly because it has a much bigger population than all but China.
...Over the decade and a half studied, researchers found 23 incidents of mass shootings in the other 10 countries, resulting in 200 dead and 231 wounded. In the United States over the same period, there were 133 incidents that left 487 dead and 505 wounded."
Then Politifact reviewed this statement: "Barack Obama tweets that U.S. gun-homicide rate is much higher than in France, Israel, Japan," and ruled that "Mostly True."
The fact-checker then wrote this:
"Here are the rates of the four countries Obama cited, according to The Guardian:
United States: 2.97 per 100,000
Japan: 0.01 per 100,000
France: 0.06 per 100,000
Israel: 0.09 per 100,000"
So while President Obama probably should have rephrased his comment so that it didn't come across as absolute, and with that, mostly false, what he was really trying to get at with his two statements is that gun violence is much more prevalent in our country than in other developed nations, which is true.
The other ten countries mentioned: 23 mass shootings, 200 dead, 231 wounded (an average of 2.3 mass shootings, 20 dead, and 23.1 wounded per country)
The United States: 133 mass shootings, 487 dead, 505 wounded (yes, an average of 133 mass shootings, 487 dead, and 505 wounded)
So, the U.S. has an average advantage of 130.7 more mass shootings, 467 more dead, and 481.9 more wounded than these other ten countries. That means these other countries average just 1.7% the mass shootings of the United States, 4.1% of the deaths, and 4.6% of the wounded. This isn't even touching on the numbers mentioned by The Guardian, which showed that U.S. citizens kill each other with guns at a rate of 297 times more than those in Japan, 49 times more than those in France, and 33 times more than those in Israel.
Breitbart, as they so often do, can deny reality as much as they'd like, but while President Obama's absolute statement about mass shootings in other countries was mostly false, his main intention of bringing recognition to the fact that gun violence is far more prevalent in the United States than in these other countries is true, and Brainfart, I mean Breitbart, may want to read more than just the headlines of articles in the future in order to garner the full picture of the story and not just want they want to believe.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/06/22/serial-lies-politifact-blasts-obama-over-claim-about-mass-killings-in-other-countries/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/22/barack-obama/barack-obama-correct-mass-killings-dont-happen-oth/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/22/barack-obama/barack-obama-tweets-us-gun-homicide-rate-much-high/
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