Wednesday’s Headlines: People Often Over-React Edition
Obviously, the big story yesterday was the terror attack on the N train during the morning rush. Every media outlet on the planet had it, so we’ll just point out a few things that are worth highlighting:
- The mayor used the attack to explicitly call for more cops and, possibly, for metal detectors on the subway (which is virtually impossible). Here are some key tweets:
Eric Adams is already using the Brooklyn subway shooting to call for more cops in the subways when he should be explaining to us why none of the multiple police officers that were in the station were able to prevent the incident, stop the shooter, or even get a proper description
— Olayemi Olurin (@msolurin) April 12, 2022
Adams said he will double the number of officers patrolling the subway system, which was a big safety push of his early into his tenure
— danielle muoio dunn (@muoiod) April 12, 2022
.@ericadamsfornyc appears to have just endorsed installing metal detectors on the subway system.
— Erin Durkin (@erinmdurkin) April 12, 2022
Since Giuliani’s last year in office, murders in NYC are down ~50%, major felonies are down ~40%.
Perceptions of crime are so wildly divergent from reality, so tightly tied to emotional responses to societal change. https://t.co/aV6LSGvNtK pic.twitter.com/DO1R5LPk7c
— Joshua Benton (@jbenton) April 13, 2022
https://twitter.com/nhannahjones/status/1514193329940013056
- Faulty subway cameras apparently hindered the search for the gunman. (NYDN)
- The breaking nature of the news led to this bizarre — yet grammatically accurate! — Post headline.
- The Times, as usual, unleashed a torrent of copaganda, which was evident from its very first headline edit and story recast:
- And Alec Karakatsanis also had a great thread on that, which builds to a great conclusion (and, cheerfully, a cat phot0): “So, with all the extra clicks that NYT gets from a breaking shooting, it used the opportunity to stoke fear, steer readers to police lies, highly dubious assertions portrayed as fact, and science-denying suggestions that more cops (and not less inequality) is answer to violence.”
THREAD. Today the New York Times responded to a mass subway shooting with a relentless string of copaganda. Let’s look closely at how the NYT used a crisis to boost police talking points and lies in some creative ways:
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) April 12, 2022
- Gothamist took a broader, “What does it mean?” angle. And the website also pointed out how rare mass violence is on the subway, which was some nice perspective.
- Citi Bike moved quickly to dispel a myth that it had taken bikes out of service — which would be a bad idea given how many people were inconvenienced by the subway shutdown:
These stations are all in service. Bikes tend to pool in Sunset Park in the PM. So given the incident this AM and the warm weather, we rebalanced extra bikes out of stations for people coming home. After a rough morning commute we didn’t want them to not be able to find a dock.
— Jordan Levine (@jordanlevine1) April 12, 2022
- In fact, as we often see during crises, Citi Bike ridership soars, as Dave Colon noted on Twitter.
Mobility note: This time last night, there were over 2300 Citi Bike e-bikes available to ride. Right now, there are fewer than 1000 pic.twitter.com/WuORFmNff4
— Good Idea Dave (@DaveCoIon) April 13, 2022
- Meanwhile, subway service was snarled terribly in the hours after the shooting (NY Post), which prompted “surge” pricing to kick in on Uber and Lyft (NY Post). But the company said it would reimburse people who got burned. (NY Times)
- Speaking of stoking fear and car trips, one city executive immediately tweeted that she was treating her employees to free car service so they could avoid the subway (right), but the tweet was immediately deleted (we contracted the company for comment but got crickets):
In other, non-local-terror news:
- Well, it’s terror of a different sort: Road rage is up! (It would be nice if America reacted aggressively towards its red state and blue state gun crisis, which is a problem every single day, rather than over-react to yesterday’s rare subway attack). (NY Times)
- Oh, and by the way, the lieutenant governor resigned in disgrace. (NY Post)
- And, finally, Transportation Alternatives did a great thread on garbage on the sidewalk, a New York tradition!
Are you missing March Madness?
Did you blow your bracket in the first round? Do you miss trash talking with your friends about teams?
Well we’ve got great news for you: Introducing #TrashMadness, NYC’s premier tournament of trash! pic.twitter.com/uDQGirpi6l
— Transportation Alternatives (@TransAlt) April 11, 2022