The media, breed mis-identification, and the danger in creating narratives based on untruths

Several months ago, I did a series of posts on Daniel Gardner's book, the Science of Fear (you can find links to all of the articles under the "best of KC Dog Blog" to the left). In part 3 of that series, I discussed Gardner's view on how politicians, and the media used very rare events, sensationalized them, and create a narative that drive panic.  I wrote:

What drives the media’s sensationalism seems to be plain old self interest. Fear creates interest….and interest means more newspapers are sold and more people are watching the news…which is good for the media.  And as there are more and more media options, and viewership becomes more fragmented, we can only assume that the sensationalism will continue to grow as the media works harder to gain eyeballs. This creates a complete feedback loop: the media reflects society’s fear, but in doing so, the media generate more fear, and that gets reflected back again.  This can eventually lead to cause a strange eruption that sociologists call a moral panic.

Creating a moral panic is not only irresponsible, but can be extremely dangerous as well.  The following are three examples of the media creating naratives in the past week -- with a couple ending in pure tragedy.

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In Mitchell, SD three dogs got loose and and were involved in an in threatening incident (no bite was reported). The newspaper called the dogs 'pit bulls', but two of the dogs are pictured with the girl to the left (in all their viciousness) that ran with the article in the newspaper.

The dogs are obviously not 'pit bulls' -- but that didn't prevent them frombeing called 'pit bulls' in the newspaper headline.

Because it got back into the feedback loop, where fear was created, and fed back to the newspaper, the newspaper then ran an editorial "Our View: Time for the city to enact a pit bull ban".

 Never mind that the dogs weren't 'pit bulls'. Never mind that the dogs were running at-large and in violation of the city's leash law. Never mind that it appears the woman was more scared than actually threatened. The city newspaper called for a ban on a type of dog that was not involved in the incident.  Brilliant.

H/T to For the Pit Bulls on the story -- and she has a very nice breakdown of it.

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Meanwhile, in Australia (because I want to be sure that I note that the media in all parts of the world are subject to this), a 13 year old boy was caught trying to save his Labrador from being attacked by a dog.  Saving Pets has a great breakdown of the series of news articles. They all begin talking about the 'pit bull' that jumped a fence and killed the boy's dog, and the media frenzy started -- including a poll question about controlling dangerous dogs.

Later, the media comes back and notes that the dog was "initially wrongly identified as a 'pit bull cross" -- and the breed was changed to being a "mastiff cross".

But the media frenzy had already been created at this point.

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In New Orleans, there were three different incidences involving "pit bulls' in the community in about a 9 day period. All were reported by the media. While repeated requests have been made to see how many total dog bites happened during this time period that were not covered by the media, no bite reports have been provided. Info on two of the incidences can be found here, and the third one here.

The first of the three incidents actually sounds like a pretty significant attack -- but the other two incidences involved very minor injuries. But the media did a tremendous job of creating a frenzy -- and a moral panic in the city involving 'pit bulls'.   All three of the incidents involved dogs that were roaming at-large -- and the first two involved 3 dogs each.

After the media creating a bit of a moral panic, the local SPCA approached the city council with the idea of urging the city to adopt mandatory spay/neuter of all pets. Whilethe spokesperson for the SPCA seems very well-intentioned, I will note that these laws never end up being about ENCOURAGING people to spay/neuter, the always end up about punishing people for not having done it.  And it also doesn't take into account that the SPCA has clearly got issues even dealing with enforcing the city's leash law, the last thing it needs is something more to have to deal with right now. Enforcing the leash law would have prevented all three of these incidents.

But what may be worse is that the hysterical fear that has been created is causing significant public safety issues. Over the weekend, no fewer than three 'pit bulls' were shot. Two of them were shot by a drive by shooting from a car that is believed to be some form of vigilante justice. So far, only one has made the news.

Creating such hysteria that it leads people to shoot at 'pit bulls' being walked by owners by drive-by automobiles is frightening indeed --and FAR more dangerous than the dogs themselves.

There are consequences to the hysteria that is created...and when the hysteria is not grounded in reality, it is even more dangerous.

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For several years, the media in Baltimore has been pretty unfriendly to 'pit bulls'. In spite of there being a wealth of poverty and crime problems in the city, it seems like the local media has cast a lot of the blame on 'pit bulls' for the problems.

Last November, a 21 year old youth leader was shot and killed -- allegedly because the shooter "felt threatened by his pit bull". By all reports, the young victim was a model citizen -- no police record, good student, and involved in several youth leadership and anti-drug groups. Shot. Dead. Because of a baseless fear of the dog the young man was walking.

It's senseless. It's baseless. And it very, very dangerous.  It is way past time we quit letting the local media scare us into bad policy that is counter to what all of the experts recommend.

 

Comments

[Aimee]

Another excellent entry!

It's sad, but it's this kind of madness that makes me think that I'll likely own another dog that falls under the blanket of "Pit Bull."

[Ted]

Don't you remember the Journalism majors you encountered in college, if you went? Think back now.

There. It's all clear now, isn't it?

With rare exception, this field tends not to attract the, shall we say, clearest-thinking best and the brightest. Thankfully, the ability of these energetically dim crusaders to create havoc is lessening with each print media subscription cancellation and network news (especially local network news, with Buffy and Lance as Your Anchors, Sabrina the Weather Girl, and Biff with Sports) viewer checking his or her iPhone or Blackberry for real-time updates.

In the meantime, until they're all selling furnitiure, we have posts like Brent's to counter their self-promoting sloth.

All hail.

[Brent]

In fairness Ted, there are a good many good reporters our there. Some have done a great job covering this issue.

There are also many who mean well, but because media has cut back on reporters so much in recent years, they seldom have the time to dig deep enough to really understand the stories they are reporting about.

And unfortunately, there are a lot of folks, just like what you describe.

[Jennifer Brighton]

How timely. I printed this post to give to my neighbor who is frightened of my new pit-mix that I adopted a week ago. He's a big, loving, licking, tail wagging boy, but b/c he has a huge head she is scared of him. She said she isn't scared of my current pit-mix because she doesn't look like a pit bull (despite what my trainer,vet and others familiar with pits say). Funny how the perception of pit bulls due to the media are 200 lb. biting machines.

My neighbor is a good friend and a very educated person willing to read The Pit Bull Placebo (of which I have the book) and to help her understand and learn why I love the breed so much.

The gun incident you referred to where the young man was shot and killed really rang true as my mother and I were threatened last fall on a walk with my pit girl in a legal off-leash area. The lady didn't bring out a gun, but asked if my dog had pit bull in her and when I verified it, she said, "That's okay, I have a gun." And I live in a very safe neck of the woods, so an incident like that was quite shocking, all because my sweet dog looks a certain way.

[MzTx]

Wonderful Article !!!!
I will share with everyone !!!!!!

[Patti]

This whole pittie ordeal just sickens me. I have 3 APBT and they are the best dogs I have ever had! They are clowns, give free lick baths, love unconditionally! The owners are the ones who need to be shot (figuratively speaking). It is not the breed of any dog, but the owners who do not take responsibility. Any time you hear of a dog bite, it always seems to come back to a pittie did it, sick of the media and all the sterotype idiots!

[Gus]

Thanks for this article. I don't have a pit bull because my hell hole city here in Winnipeg bans them. It sickens me how the media is not only reckless but ignorant the worst part is believe what is on the "idiot box"