The fact that literally zero outlets ever cover crime decline as a story is a huge reason. (And before you yell at me, we do!)
This @today.yougov.com poll is why I'm going to become the Joker.
The US murder rate in 2024 was likely down nearly 30 percent relative to 2020 and down nearly 50 percent relative to 1990.
You work for an outlet. Have you discussed this or tried to put it in a major story on your show?
Come to think of it... why doesnt every news outlet constantly tell us that trump is not legally allowed to set tarriffs each and every time he does so?
But also Democrats CHOOSE not to talk about it because (I'm speculating here) it makes it harder to address related issues like gun control.
the thing is, do you trust crime stats from police?
or is it more likely they've figured out a way to offset the numbers somehow?
3000 people still die each month from covid a 9/11 per month down from 3000 per WEEK couple years ago was 3000 per DAY in 2020-2021
yet most don't know, not reported
Poverty leads to crime and violence. Let's see how pushing more folks into desperation with unfair policies favoring elite donors works out.
The result of strategic fear-mongering to softly propagandize people into thinking they live in constant danger. Then promise to fix it with simplistic solutions, to win over our dumbest votes.
Precisely how they sold people on scapegoating immigrants. It’s fascism, brother.
If all you see on tv is non stop talk about various crimes then you think crime is on the rise.
Well part of the problem is local media (who are all owned by Major corporations) always have stories about murders just about every day. They never focus on how the actual rates are falling.
Right? Like homelessness is down AGAIN in LA! www.lahsa.org/news?article...
Well we do have an increase in crime at the White House so is that a balance?
Can u post 2024
If it bleeds it ledes.
Polls need to stop looking at people’s perception of things; they need to present factual information AND THEN ask people for their opinion. “Do you think crime is worse now than 10 years ago?” Is a meaningless and potentially harmful poll question.
The worst part about these polls are the people who confidently answer incorrectly and would be willing to fight you over their wrong answer.
And remember immigrants commit less than 1% of the crime than whites! So why do we need the ICE GESTAPO?!!!
Every local news show has 10 minutes roped off for crime and they find a way to fill it. Here in Baltimore where homicides have fallen off a cliff the news is covering car vandalism in Fed Hill with the same breathlessness as a mass shooting.
By the way: the murder rate in Europe is much lower still than in the US.
As is the rate of 🚗 deaths...
Then it's not "literally zero", Chris, it's literally at least one. It's figuratively zero. Justsayin.
Im guessing those stats don't include crimes committed by government officials.
Social support including access to health care, MAKES A POSITIVE IMPACT ON HUMAN WELLBEING
But the 30% decline in the US murder rate during the Biden administration wouldn't fit with the Republican-owned mass media's Sleepy Joe gossip. It would've reminded Americans that policies that make lives better for the poor & middle class (Bidenomics) also reduce crime. OMG too pro-Democrats!
Republicans have always used fear to make the masses obey.
I hope someday as a society we decide to put importance on what is objectively true instead of people "feel" is true.
in Chicago we got a guy you like charts? you like graphs? you like to build a story? crime is down
Illustrating the Chicago Values of Crime, Murder & Mayhem with comprehensive charts, precise graphs and exhaustive data sets of Chicago stupidity.
Crazy idea: Let’s make a plan to put crime back in the news by commandeering Proctor and Gamble products. I mean, they’re raising prices anyway because they want to price gouge and blame the tariffs to excuse their behavior.
We don’t need the laundry detergent container, so just siphon the Gain!
broken car windows feel no pane
When crime drops it's usually a sign of prosperity.
But in the US homelessness and food insecurity have been rising for decades, so it's not that.
The actual reason why crime has been dropping in the US is because it's becoming a police state ☹️
You are 100% right about the coverage tho.
It's incredibly frustrating that even good-faith journalistic outfits rarely see "public woefully incorrect about basic facts" data as an indication that they should treat those facts as news rather than tut-tutting about how hardheaded these rubes are on page C23 or whatever
You also need to report way deeper analysis on jobless claims. Some people have stopped looking and insurance benefits long gone
Crimes per 1M transit trips NYC: 1.3 Dallas: 38.0
"Republican-controlled states have higher murder rates
"being within California means 40% less gun violence
"Texas has highest maternal mortality rate in developed world
"Liberal policies like California’s keep blue-state residents living longer"
The long arc of history has been to improve humanity's condition. The forces of tyranny, however, require this fact to remain ever hidden.
Virtually every sensational (and sometimes just ordinary) murder anywhere in the country is reported by "local" news almost everywhere.
Also ...
Even if more outlets covered the decline, many of our "I do my own research" citizens wouldn't believe them anyway.
Would the government rig these numbers? What is considered a crime? Right now the criminals are in charge.
I’ll attest. I remember you going over the drops in crime rates. I have seen many Democrats who have stood up to Trump. They are splitting up into groups covering different law/rule breaking actions Trump has taken. There is much to go around.
It’s a function more of local news - the “crime of the day” each and every day makes for more clicks and views than a barrage of feel good stories. Simply re-posting statements from police is also much easier than drumming up those feel good stories, too.
I used to notice the local news would keep a running count of how many homicides the city'd had so far that year. Reporting on the latest they'd say "This is the 22nd homicide so far this yr. Up/Down this much since this time last yr". I found that very useful & kept a mentally tally from it.
What I’ve seen is all crime has fallen dramatically since 2020…
True - it's also true though that many people are just gullible dumbasses.
You are NOT Chris Hays! Go away!
Odd, because there has never been a better time to risk killing because detention facilities are full of people illegally kidnapped off the streets by masked militias.
Story is 9 months too late.
NPR: Murders are down nationwide. Researchers say COVID is a big reason why
Homicides are falling dramatically in many U.S. cities, after a surge in 2020 and 2021. Analysts say a reinvestment in communities from local government after the pandemic's disruption is a key reason...
I just shrug when people go on about danger in big cities nowadays after having lived in the Boston, New Haven, and Richmond metro areas during the 1990s.
the nuance is lack of data or reporting to given database. thus creating an illusion of a decline. the media biz already works as to touting or burying various crime stories depending on whether it suits their political agenda. MSNBC does it every day. also using 2020 as a baseline...
They also don’t cover the large difference between states.
You can’t run on high crime when crime is down…unfortunately no one reads anymore
Why don't Democrats ever run with these types of stories?
But we need to keep funding the police because of ….reasons
The media ecosystem is just irreparably broken. No one knows anything about reality anymore it all just runs on vibes. And honestly much of the mainstream media is leading the charge away from factbased journalism to newsy editorializing.
"Things are fine" don't get clicks or views
I took a class on the history of crime and policing. I was the only person in the class who got it right: crime rates have been falling for hundreds of years. The other twenty college educated students in their final year said that it was 2-5x higher than in 1776
C'mon Chris, clearly you're not paying attention. It's a hell scape out there. I mean really, who are going to believe, data or the maga sphere?
Biden’s focus on crime reduction had great effects. Trump breeds violence. Our brief decrease will turn around. Sad.
it's been like that for along time but you wouldn't know it listening to Wilson Fisk, ehem, I mean the orange menace in the People's House.
Yeah onetruth.day happens to cover this topic today. The misalignment between public / media perceptions and actual crime statistics is pretty stark...
Also that every news outlet covers a mass shooting 24-7 for a couple weeks every time it happens.
@equalityalec.bsky.social Thoughts?
Are you a news outlet or an opinion channel?
But the murderers and rapists are eating the dogs and cats!!!’
This is what happens when you get LEAD out of circulation. LEAD is the greatest human killer in history and it's fitting that it killed it's creator too.
So not literally zero?
I'm sure the recent high-profile mass-shooting in NYC will continue to color people's impressions.
If it bleeds, it leads.
We know that we live in a fox news world. Its a mainstream media failure (exceptions noted)
I think the nationalization of local news plays an important role as well. Probably didn’t hear about a murder in another state before the internet, now you do
It's also important to police budgets for the public to be uninformed about this.
I say this with zero snark, and 100% sincerity: Chris Hayes should write a book about this.
There's a big commercial incentive for outlets to emphasize fear of crime, which is so bad for society.
I don't know if people could truly comprehend how much crime there was in the late 80s compared to today. The amount of murders committed in NYC in 1990 was FIVE AND A HALF TIMES AS MANY as were committed there in 2024.
it is infuriating to see more stories on what people think is true instead of stories on what is true.
Local news is a huge problem in this regard bc the top story is ALWAYS violence resulting in the perception that crime is everywhere
🤭 yes you do!
Thank you Joe
you... work at one of those outlets?
People hold on to fear because it makes them feel important (facts just make them feel stupid)
Most corporate media serves only to scare old people
And yet there is one of been dreaming about for years!
Asher says murder rates have declined in the U.S., but the polls are about CITIES. Not the same. Comparing chalk and cheese, are you?
Because last year we had 1 attempted break in, 1 successful breaking stealing from our storage lockers, an arson at our front gate, three vehicles stolen by an organized group, and the police aren't responding unless a crime is in progress and a person is threatened. City is Seattle
They are too busy with cops having fake fentanyl episode 911
One of many old TV news maxims: 'If it bleeds, it leads.'
Reporting on a decline in crime does not draw eyeballs, another problem with ratings-driven news
Murder? Doesn’t that take a judge or jury to decide?
Does this data include police killings, or do they not count this?
Chris, can I ask you a favour?
We constantly get reports of crimes disproportionately committed by poor and working class people. Why not have an annual feature on corporate crime indicating the number of $Bs stolen in unpaid overtime, Wells-Fargo fake acct fees and the like?
And there are too many goddamn cop shows and true-crime shows on TV.
I voted in this very unscientific daily poll, and was at least on the right track when I said murder rates have declined on these 2 questions.
People get PISSED when you say crime is falling.
Yay! I’m glad I pay attention. 😊 I chose “Decreased a lot”:
I think the impression that it's gone up comes from the age of the internet where maybe you didn't hear about every murder in every city across the country every single day. They still happened before the internet, and even more so than now, we just didn't hear about it.
The scariest thing about the post-pandemic murder spike is knowing that more people are close to snapping than I am comfortable with.
Lockdown is my preferred lifestyle, too, but lock some introverts in their houses for a few months, then force them back into society, and suddenly it's the purge.
Americans can’t do math.
But doesnt the maga crowd just claim that cities undereport crime to the FBI? They can never accept crime is down in major cities.
Can’t wait for Sinclair Stations and CBS News to start saying this, but make it seem like all the declines only began in 2025…
@thebaltimorebanner.com has covered this in detail.
Reported you. Bye bye.
What sells better, a story on the long steady decline in crime that people can’t notice in real time vs guy getting pushed in front of a subway train
It’s not dissimilar to people not being able to sit & read long form journalism in favor of a two min summarization.
AI is further summarizing life
thank god trump is putting lead back in everything. he's going to make american crime great again
We're never going to stop Republicans from distorting crime and their attendant bogeyman immigration hammered as deterioration because they're bound by racism and generational lies. But we should always print the facts for our benefit and just in case one of their strays is listening.
I watched Nightcrawler the other day and I think that movie really sums up the problem with the media really well. "If it bleeds it leads" and scaring white people in the suburbs is really the entire business model.
Must not be working then. You should leave for or start your own respectable news org
Good news isn’t NEWS. Just ask the folks who worked for Joe Biden.
In a way it makes sense. When people’s aren’t experiencing violent crime, they aren’t watching the 11 O’Clock News every night. Same goes for inflation, bad economy, weird weather, etc.
ok fine literally zero is literally wrong, but you get the point! (I meant literally metaphorically, which is, alas, an acceptable usage, and don't yell at me prescriptivists!)
If that’s true, Chris, then it’s not literally zero.
The city I live in just had its first homicide of the year in 2025. In 2020, there were 22 murders, but it still has a reputation as a high crime city because there were 61 murders in 1991. It’s maddening.
Trump floods the zone. Next week we will all forget about BOVE. But we shouldn’t and we can’t. Someone needs to report “the deplorable act of the day” and make a website of it.
Don't talk about MURDER rates, talk about SHOOTING and STABBING rates. Thanks to medical advances, more victims are surviving.
When they finally do, those same news outlets make sure to downplay it with: "people's feelings about crime are still important despite the statistics."
www.nytimes.com/2024/10/18/o...
Dialectical Materialism.
Reality doesn't generate clicks, peace doesn't sell newspapers.
Crime came down under President Biden!!!💙💙
The entire political message of Republicans for the past 50 years has been "kids these days," but no Democrats seem to have noticed and taken moves in response.
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
The sharp rise in violent crime starting in 2020 received lots of attention. The recent reported drops, not so much.
"zero outlets ever cover crime decline as a story"
Incorrect!
Here are some stories from the past 4 days ...
Nah, it is because particular news outlets only cover such declines when it favors Republicans. There viewers conveniently believe what they are told.
If it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t lead.
Republicans hate facts...they would rather lie about them to their base to push Hate
Chris unfortunately the crime is all at the top of the US federal government period full stop 🛑
Chris, I just wrote a book about this. We should discuss! It’s funny because Asher (who features prominently in my book) has me blocked so I can’t read his posts—he’s one of the biggest spreaders of misinformation and copaganda. Very funny to see his outrage at the levels of public ignorance.
"'Yes, crime may be down, but the FEAR OF crime is at an all time high!' My arse! Zombies don't exist, but the FEAR OF zombies could be really high!" - Dara O'Briain
Fox says it's up, and their viewers are gullible and lazy. Crime increase per capita is a red state phenomenon. Fox always reports numbers instead of rates.
Got the lead out.
It's going back up since hate has been allowed back into the land.
Soooo...not zero then?
I've written four stories in the past two years about crime decline
www.economist.com/united-state...
www.economist.com/united-state...
www.economist.com/united-state...
www.economist.com/united-state...
Baltimore’s success may illustrate why
Part of the problem is that if you open Twitter, you’re likely to see a murder within 2 min of scrolling. The algorithms inundate.
How can Fux News exist if they can’t keep their audience terrified of non-existent violence? They replay videos of a couple of the same immigrants committing a crime on a loop despite them committing the fewest crimes overall. Gotta stir up the hatred, too.
They need to keep people afraid for some reason. Oh yea, to keep Republicans in office.
Maybe a monthly or quarterly 2-minute segment for your show?
Couldn't hurt to put a short 'this is better' segment out there each week that you can find something positive to report! Maybe title it the "Monday Good News Offset"
The same every where around the world: And crimes - at least where I am from - that currently make national news, a few decades ago it was not even half a page in regional news paper.
Fox News effect has made many scared constantly. Cheered on by the militarization of our police forces to get bigger toys.
Literally zero
I’m continually surprised by relatives and friends who express fear about NYC, especially the subway
Yep. Here in Los Angeles local news mostly focuses on high and low speed car chases.
Add the fact that right wing "news" outlets promote fear at every turn and it's easy to see why people's opinions of crime are so different from the reality.
I do want to point out that hate crimes and homicide against transgender people is MUCH greater from 2014 to 2024
@boltsmag.org does :)
in fact, also seeing how the decline in crime is affecting some of the local elections that have happened in recent months, like below boltsmag.org/norfolk-virg...
White Supremacy only works with a riled up, terrified mob, of privileged pricks-
Excellent use of “literally zero” before immediately giving an example of one.
The Prebuttal is the official bird of Bluesky.
I thought they were going to take tariffs away from him because the reasoning is not what he said it was before
Well that, and the Faustian pact between Cops and Hollywood hasn't helped.
I think the coverage (not talking about yours, Chris lol) is not just lopsided but warped and it's warped a lot of people's thinking. Like people in the Bakersfield area probably don't know their murder rate is higher than LA They didn't connect the dots when it skyrocketed during Trump I.
Because you know too positive for Dems…can’t have that….and start with MSNBC….
I really think you’re underestimating the power of concerted propaganda ob this point. Some corrective crime reporting would be nice, but everyone knows that’s not the issue here. “Send in the troops” has been one party’s urban policy for decades.
But Charlie Kirk felt unsafe in NYC recently because he’s a fucking coward!
What a stupid question. I’d look it up before answering.
Still feel more comfortable if I yell at you
True, but even if it was reported accurately, saying crime is down to those who would still think crime is problem would not help.
MAGA! Malicious Assholes Gaslighting America
How many times have you covered it on your show?
I’m trying! open.substack.com/pub/crimefor...
The definitive and authoritative account
Why the right is so afraid. Constant fear mongering used to justify their lashing out. They've been told for decades now that it's the exact opposite. Fox sells sh*t like it was candy. Migrant caravans, buses full of antifa, no go zones in europe, sharia law taking over, mex. gangs running cities...
Lol, local talk radio (presumably from provided talking points) said it was because of all the good guys with guns.
Every murder is news, and often for weeks. The annual decline in murder rates gets reported once a year.
Mass shootings are up tho.
Not yelling, but what purpose is served by conducting an opinion poll on murder rates? There are statistics ffs
This is a big ‘We did it, Murica!!’ achievement that the press and GOP are either indifferent to or outraged by. Teen pregnancy decline and how well we handled pandemic inflation compared to the rest of the world are two others. Three things that should exude collective pride, and yet.
My theory is that no news = good news. Once the bad stuff stops happening, they usually stop talking about it.
It’s almost as if Biden enacting social programs reduces crime! We have always known this while conservatives foolishly believe longer sentences reduce crime!
vera-institute.files.svdcdn.com/production/d...
The increase in crime got covered a few years ago, in large part, because some police groups (National Association of Chiefs of Police) were actively pushing the data (focusing on cities where it grew, ignoring those where it did not). Media covers the stories that are handed to them.
But Foxaganda GOP
Snakes & Lions don’t mix! #Beliefs that promote hate go extinct. #Obama #Trump #Epstien No Predictions please. #Cause & #Effect is #Karma Conspiracy is #Treason Not affected by opinion! #media folks are in trouble civilly & criminally. Be wise, not a biased puppet
open.spotify.com/track/51czDX...
Chill in Brazil · Ilussion · Song · 2025
The bulk of the MSM outlets just repeated manufactured GOP lies about crime rates
So you are calling MSNBC a "literal 0"?
