The media often immediately prints the sensationalistic articles about the latest pit bull attack but seldom follows up when it’s shown that they were wrong. A recent example was an event in San Clemente CA. The San Clemente Patch (and others) reported on a man who’s Golden Retriever was attacked by two dogs while walking on a beach trail in San Clemente. In this one article the word “Pit bull” appears 9 times. (Also please note that in the url it says “pit bulls maul rottweiler”, the dog attacked was actually a golden retriever). The man, his daughter and a citizen who stopped to assist were all injured. It was later found that the dogs were NOT pit bulls. This story had brought up the issue of a “pit bull ban” in San Clemente. At a city council hearing where many people showed up to fight the idea of a ban it was noted that the dogs who attacked were actually a Labrador/Boxer mix and a Bull Mastiff. The San Clemente Times mentioned this fact once, almost in passing and as a sidenote, but still mentioned the words “pit bull” 6 times (including in the url of the article). In both articles very little was mentioned as to why the dogs were loose (the broke out of their yard), what consequences the owner of the dogs would suffer (although they VOLUNTARILY pledged to pay the vet bills for the golden retriever, and what steps owners could take to make sure this sort of situation does not happen again. Instead, the media yelled “pit bull”..people yelled “ban them” and when that idea was shelved (mostly due to a state law that prevents breed specific legislation in California) the media never made another statement.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 16:33:23 +0000
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