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This column reflects the opinion of the writer. Learn about the differences between a news story and an opinion column.

Not the worst shooting

As senseless and horrific as the Orlando carnage is, it is not “the worst U.S. mass shooting in history,” as the media has claimed. The slaughter of Native American men, women and children at Wounded Knee, North Dakota, on Dec. 29, 1890, resulted in at least 250 dead, and at least 120 were murdered at the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Southern Utah on September 11, 1857.

The news media in general is prone to exaggeration, such as calling the 1994 murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman “the crime of the century,” and therefore of more significance than the assassination of two presidents, William McKinley in 1901 and John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Perhaps the media from now on could simply report the facts, rather than engage in bombastic phrases designed to entice readers and/or viewers.

Dick Warwick

Oakesdale

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