Why would anyone do this?

[peterb]

WAIT! You mean that the press may twist things to fit an agenda?

Having been a member of “the press”(small-town weekly paper) many years ago, sometimes the “agenda” is simply editing for length while trying to write a coherent story, with incomplete information, under deadline pressure. I’m sure there are places where there’s top-down pressure to slant stories, but I didn’t see it. I do remember a lot of good discussions between reporters and editions about fairness and accuracy.

If you don’t want to be misunderstood or misquoted, “no comment” is a good choice.

[Hambo]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/arizona-h...-come-in-ready

Why would you ever talk to anyone from the press after a self-defense shooting? I just don't get it.

If you want to change the prosecutor's mind about your justified shooting, this would be a good start.

[BigDaddy]

Reminds me of an incident in a book I'm reading about the Golden State Killer. It seems the community was outraged over the killer and the lack of progress in the case so they held a town meeting. At that meeting one of the residents stood up and stated that they killer better never come to his house because he had a gun and would use it. Guess what happened? The Golden State Killer was at that meeting and subsequently broke into the guys house during the night and raped and murdered his wife IIRC. Discretion is better some times. Keep your mouth shut and just do what you gotta do. Don't tell anyone including your spouse.

[Gray01]

Why would you ever talk to anyone from the press after a self-defense shooting?

I have and continue to view all media as a very profitable product that is manufactured for consumption by poorly educated customers. In my experience it is a cheaply made product rife with deceit and fraud, and therefore is not a product that I choose to purchase or subsidize.

My stock answer was selected from a menu of "no comment", "information regarding open investigations cannot be divulged" "no entry allowed, this is a crime scene", etc, all in a decidedly bland, emotionless manner.

[Joe in PNG]

There's a good reason why you see people going with reading a carefully reviewed & prepared statement, or sending out a carefully reviewed & prepared press release, followed by a "no comments at this time".

[Cypher]

After the New Life Church shooting Jeanne Assam did not speak to the Press unless there was a representative of the church with her and she almost always spoke from a prepared statement. She didn't do a bunch of interviews but the ones that she did were pretty scripted.

[gtae07]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/arizona-h...-come-in-ready

Why would you ever talk to anyone from the press after a self-defense shooting? I just don't get it.

Because you don’t know better? Or even if you do, without conditioning to high-stress adrenaline-dump situations and the aftermath, the socially-conditioned reflex that it’s rude to ignore people can be hard for some people to overcome? Honestly this is something I still consciously work at—I’ve had to try hard just to break myself of the habit of reflexively answering the door or the phone for whoever might be there. The intellectual part of me knows that speaking to the press would be an absolute non-starter; it might still be hard to overcome the reflex to do so.

I think sometimes we at PF forget that most people don’t have the background and knowledge that we’ve gained through reading, training, professional experience, etc. Things that seem obvious or “common sense” are things that were just learned and ingrained for so long we forget that they were learned. Even the lowly unskilled noobs here (like myself) have probably at least done some reading, practice, and mental rehearsing, unlike most people who carry or have the notional “sock drawer gun”. And then, of course, factor in Dunning-Kreuger.

It’s not exactly the same, but I’m reminded of the guy that was SWATted a year or two ago; someone asked “what was that guy thinking?! Why would he make a drawing motion?” The poor guy wasn’t thinking about it being a tactical situation or being the center of all the attention, and I doubt he knew what a drawing motion was... he was probably just digging for his phone or putting his hands in his pockets.

[Gray01]

I think sometimes we at PF forget that most people don’t have the background...

I often refer to childhood training whereby the very first and consistently enforced lesson was discipline. There were two kinds: self and imposed. Fail the first? Swiftly and dispassionately receive the second. We were, at least in my 1940's-50's subculture, taught other "electives" as well: children should be seen and not heard, speaking to adults was yes sir, no sir,...

The very idea of babbling was not an inclination. Talk to a reporter? Not hardly.

[idahojess]

Here's the quote on video.

[Cypher]

In general, people talk too much