Open Letter to the New York Times
I am referring to your article “What Explains Mass Shootings in the US (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/world/americas/mass-shootings-us-international.html).” In it you lead with a very compelling graphic that shows number of mass shooters vs. the number of guns. The United States is in the upper right corner, with everyone else clustered near the lower left. It’s not even close, and the implications are clear.
And utterly misleading.
Of course the right way to look at it is chart 2, which scales the metrics by population. The U.S. is still the outlier, but the image is not as dramatic. The truth can be messy like that.
Why would you do that? Surely you know how misleading the primary chart is. It must be because it tells a story you want to tell more clearly.
But wait - even that’s not it. The real reason is Facebook. I keep seeing friends post a link to your article and your dramatic, misleading image is what shows up. Lovely clickbait, I’m sure.
This is very disappointing. I’m a liberal. I’m for gun control. But I don’t want a liberal, less bad version of Fox. I want something that really tries to be the truth. A media outlet I can count on. If you will mislead so transparently, what’s going on in all those other articles where it is harder to know the truth?
Disappointed,
Ross Rosen Seattle, WA