(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Stop Calling It An Assassination Attempt! [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-09-16 I did not want to write this diary. Mostly because I feel stupid for being forced to make the argument. I feel dumber for having to explain something so self-evident. What happened yesterday was NOT an assassination attempt. It was a security breach. Trump was never in any actual danger at any point. The Secret Service stopped the guy before he attempted anything. To put in words Trump will understand, it wasn’t an assassination attempt, it was “the concept of an assassination plan”. Why does this matter? Well, for one thing, this specific framing makes Trump seem brave for “surviving” a situation he was in no actual danger during. This has been a bad news week for Trump, and calling it an assassination attempt is giving him positive coverage in the minds of both the viewer and the reader. I understand the legacy media pulling this shit. I even understand the AP polluting the Front Page of Daily Kos with this shit. But actual Daily Kos paid writers as well as well-known diarists on the rec list are using a damaging frame that did not turn out to be true. To be honest, yesterday people calling it that were probably well-intentioned. Because we had no information to go on. Now that we know that the only shots fired were by the Secret Service, there is no fucking reason for us to call it that. Biden and Obama routinely went through similar security breaches, and Biden probably will again. Nobody called them assassination attempts, and the news media (rightly, in my mind) always shrugged. Why? Because the Secret Service believed sensationalizing every plot or false alarm inspires copycats. Every single media article repeating this was an assassination attempt is going to get somebody killed, not necessarily Trump. An insightful commenter brushed back against me when I said this, pointing out they don’t care about what happens to politicians, dead kids will be the thing they’ll save their outrage over. But don’t you see? That’s the point! The guy never should have had access to a gun to begin with, and our gun situation, especially in Florida, is out of control. There is actually a big story here about how scarily easy it is to get access to a gun, and the media, and yes, Daily Kos, has turned it into a story about Trump’s safety instead. The puzzle pieces are there for genuine outrage and everyone is putting the picture together wrong. Stop it, okay? Trump was never in any real danger. The Secret Service did their jobs. Every single person who is giving this “concept planner” ink and attention is making those jobs harder and more dangerous. Knock it off. And maybe talk a little more about how easy it is for people who should NOT have access to guns to get them instead. ____________ If you enjoy my writing check out my free online comic book ,Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse! gildaandmeekandtheuniverse.blogspot.com/... Over 3000 pages on the site, 67 issues (and counting), free, and ad-free! What do I get out of it? Every person who reads an issue of my comic will understand me a little better. For a person on the spectrum, that’s all the payment I need. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/16/2270817/-Stop-Calling-It-An-Assassination-Attempt?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/