Stelter: Media Using the Term ‘Active Shooting’ Misleads Viewers

EXCERPT:

STELTER: “Number two, the language around shootings sometimes misleads. The phrase 'active shooter,' for example, creates an impression that these mass murderers take place over a lengthy period of time, but more often than not, the damage is just in just a minute or two. So by the time the news starts covering a so-called active shooter, the activity is almost always over, the gunman almost always either dead or in custody. Active shootings are real, but the terminology ends up misleading viewers when they hear about it, say 30 minutes or an hour later. Modern weaponry means maximum carnage in the blink of an eye, in a minute or two, and the language sanitized that fact.”