Put "pit bull" in the headline, ask questions later

This is the third similar case this week.  The media had a little trouble with breed ID in attacks last week, and this week is off to a similar start.

This week starts with an attack in Austin, TX - -where both the CBS and Fox affilliates went on air last night with stories about a "pit bull" attack on a six year old girl.  You can see their original headlines here.

Meanwhile, KVUE has updated their information to show the attacking dog as a Bull Mastiff.

KEYE originally reported it as a 'pit bull" attack, then changed it to a "Bull-mastiff mix" in 3 out of the four places it was mentioned in the story -- but left one of the 'pit bull mix' references in for good measure. 

Fox has not yet issued an update.

This is particularly annoying because the state legislature in Texas (which just so happens to be in Austin) is supposed to hear an ordinance this session that would overturn the state's ban on breed specific legislation.  In both Montana and Hawaii, when state legislation has come up, the media has instantly jumped on stories of dog attacks to fuel the fire...and in this case, the mistaken breed ID sends out the message of a 'pit bull attack' on the evening news, only to have it changed for the folks who are reading their news online.  Unfortunately, that's not what people remember so much.

Breed of dog is not a determining factor in dog bites or attacks. And the sooner the media quits trying to persecute a breed of dogs (without asking the appropriate questions or fact-checking) by putting 'pit bull' in the headines and asking questions later, the better off as a society we'll all be.

Comments

[Selma]

Oops. I think you mean breed is not a determining factor.

It's the typical media cascade, always orchestrated by you-know-who, that occurs whenever breed bans/restrictions are coming up for a decision.

Look at how many 'pit bull' attacks they had in HI just around the time that some coneheads were pushing for a ban.

It is entirely predictable, like most of what's in the mainstream media.

That's what 'press sl**s' means.

[Dan]

We see the problem. How do we fix it?

Should we make a phone list and perhaps a few dozen people call to ask why they are reporting in error? That is almost likely to be worthless.

As I understand it, the stations could be sued for reporting wrong information - but that would take some $$$ up front, is iffy, but might generate headlines as well.

Besides just being wrong, it teaches people incorrectinfo, and might be dangerous in leading them to think it's about the dogs.

They (scary, unnamed media and AR/AL folks) are terribly powerful, so how do we make a bigger impact?

[Carianne]

Speaking for Lack of Breed ID, and Mediaots, NewsNet5 posted the article about the dog bite on bus on Thursday, then changed it to pit bull attack on bus on Friday. I sent an email questioning these antics, including the breed change and level of severity, when bite, nor attack was really relevant for this case. The response was that they pulled from two differing sources. I then wrote back and said I find that funny, you skip much worse dog attacks by other breeds that cannot be called Pit Bulls and even gave very low coverage to a Husky/Child fatality last September in our own fair state, but chose to report this twice very differently, two days in a row.

How do we all work together to resolve this? Who knows somebody with some expertise in fighting the media or with an uncanny ability to write stories that get picked up by large news sources. Best Friends, kudos to them, seems to be getting a lot of coverage lately over the Vick dogs. Maybe they could write one that touches on the challenges of adopting out bullies because a dog bite is not really verified to check the breed, so by default Pit Bulls are showing up in news sources since they know it is essentially unverifiable (no AKC recognized breed/25 breeds that look like it/how many people actually follow up on a news story) and know it sells to people who fear what the media feeds them.

[Laura]

I couldn't agree more with this post! It is beyond irresponsible for the media to perpetuate this pit bull stereotype. I have owned a mixed-pit bull and she was the sweetest animal in the world, while one of our "cutest" dogs, a pure-bred cocker spaniel, would fly off the handle and attempt to attack people on multiple occasions. I came across your site while I was looking for information related to a dog rescue group I work with in Washington D.C. called K9 Lifesavers, and I was just so happy to find your blog. Many of the group members have pit bulls and we've made it part of our mission this year to better educate the public about this breed. Thanks for the post!