Blog 2: JD Vance response to Apalachee School Shooting: CNN vs. FoxNews

In this week’s blog, I will be doing a case study based upon what JD Vance has said in response to the recent school shooting in Georgia. Through the contrasting of FoxNews coverage and CNN’s stance, I can continue to identify the biased remarks in each media outlet. On September 4, 2024, there was a school shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia. The fourteen year old, Colt Gray, shot thirteen people and four have already been declared dead. His father, Colin Gray, has been arrested for involuntary manslaughter as well because he is the one who allegedly purchased the gun that Colt used. After this horrific instance, both FoxNews and CNN covered a specific statement made by President Trump’s choice of Vice President, JD Vance, at a campaign event in Phoenix. 

JD Vance stated on September 5, 2024: “I don’t like this. I don’t like to admit this. I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you’re, if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets, and we have got to bolster security at our schools.”

CNN reports on this statement by Vance with applying emphasis on the small part of his words that the shooting is “a fact of life”. Vance says he doesn’t like that school shootings are a ‘fact of life’ as he calls for more security | CNN Politics CNN actually continues to simply state more of what Vance spoke upon such as taking away guns is not the answer, and that is all Kamala Harris wants to do. This post made by the more ‘democrat-based’ news outlet begins as a more balanced representation of both. There is a clear explanation of both how JD Vance sees such a crisis as school shootings and on the opposite side, where Kamala Harris stands. However, the post does take a turn with this statement being included: The Democratic National Committee also slammed Vance in a statement. “Let’s be clear: no matter what Donald Trump and JD Vance say, tragedies like this do not need to be a ‘fact of life,’ and we don’t just have to ‘get over it’ when Americans, including young children, are violently murdered.” CNN is obviously trying to allude to the idea that JD only sees this horrific shooting as a part of life and we should just accept it. However, FoxNews disagrees with this breakdown of Vance’s statement, which aligns with Republican views. 

FoxNews covers the same topic, but also hones in on an out-of-context post made by the Associated Press on Twitter. What is considered to be the “gold standard” for news reporting posts a picture of Vance with the caption of “JD Vance says school shootings are a ‘fact of life,’ calls for better security” (pictured below). Vance spox blasts AP for 'brazenly lying' with out of context school shooting quote: 'Lost all credibility' | Fox News FoxNews describes how a spokesperson for Vance, William Martin,  blasted AP for making it seem as though the Vice President sees school shootings as simply just a ‘fact of life’. Fox also continues to provide a video of Donald Trump speaking on the shooting, which CNN does not do in their report. Lastly, FoxNews shows the tweets that were made back and forth between Kamala Harris and JD Vance (also pictured below).

I think above all else, this is a clear depiction of politics in the media and partisanship taking over validity. Furthermore, the inclusion of Twitter on the posts from FoxNews and CNN shows how all of the media plays such a large role in swaying the public and providing fake news.