That Bloomberg headline is an interesting one. It’s fascinating really. That headline is phrased in a way that seems to imply that missiles, surface-to-air missiles, missiles designed for the sole purpose of targeting and destroying aircraft, are just floating around over Iranian airspace like a flock of geese. And that the plane, and its 176 on board, just happened to turn at the wrong time. Or the missile, you know the ones that just float about out there in the air not a care in the world, inconveniently got in the way.
International intelligence suggests surface-to-air missile caused Ukrainian plane to go down near Tehran, killing 176
See, that headline I just rolled off is of the same exact event. But, taking account of phrasing and tone, which one gives you a better picture of the fact that an Iranian precision anti-air weapon was fired, even accidentally (probably a panic shot), at the airliner during the hours surrounding the Iranian missiles striking Iraq near U.S. forces.
Iran denied it, Canada confirmed it, Ukraine is in possession of that intelligence. Maybe Canada and Ukraine blow up a few more evil asshole generals, who knows.
That isn’t the focus
The focus is language and the message being conferred. Most people don’t read past the headline. We know that, writers of every stripe must convey something through the headline to those who are skimming. But the Bloomberg really makes it sound like an accident, like a car crash type accident.
This is a tracking guided munition there BloomBoi. They didn’t just slip on some icy air and get in each other’s way.
The attorney general said it is “outrageous that a generation of individuals is growing up” with the idea that they could potentially be shot or the victim of a mass shooting.
Now we get to the linked piece above from CNN and its implication that only now, in this generation, was there a fear of murder.
In the long term, violent crime in the United States has been in decline since colonial times. The homicide rate has been estimated to be over 30 per 100,000 people in 1700, dropping to under 20 by 1800, and to under 10 by 1900.[6]
Now granted the older stats from beyond 1900 are far more estimate than the harder data we have today but give the rate was 30:100k or 20:100k and “today” (2017’s rate) is 5.3:100k I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest Mark Herring, the Virginia Attorney General, is mistaken.
That isn’t to say that public perception and media coverage haven’t shifted the fear and concern of a shooting, especially a ‘mass shooting’, to the public consciousness forefront. But you may also note that everything mass media publishers can possibly term as ‘a mass shooting’ is done so, with some blinders thrown up on overtly obvious organized crime. It’s the side effect of consumption media.
Virginia is heating up again, the middle east is simmering. Watch headlines. And take them with a grain of salt.
