Media Betrayal and the
End of the Trust Society

We learn more when we listen than when we speak. I sat with some young lawyers who are far smarter than I am. After a while, they politely asked about my interests, and then asked me about mass murder with a firearm. We were both interested by what they knew and by what they didn’t know. We learned that the media failed them. What does it mean if the media has failed some of the brightest people we can find?

These young men and women were the elites of their trade. These young lawyers and journalists were supremely well educated. They had been to some of the top law schools in our country. After they graduated, their personal ability and work ethic let them advance quickly.

They follow the news. They watch and listen carefully. Rather than simply answer their questions about public violence, I asked them what they thought was true.

“How many people do you think are killed in mass murder with a firearm each year?”

Words have meaning. The couple who killed themselves and their children by crashing their car is a tragedy, but it doesn’t fit our definition of public violence. We want to know about people who use a firearm to kill strangers. .....