A few days ago I posted a story about the ShootingTracker.com website, which uses incidents involving minor injuries from airsoft pellet guns to pad their “mass shooting” statistics. One of our eagle-eyed readers noticed that the person in charge of that website — Reddit user Gnome_Chompsky — was recently appointed as the moderator of an area of the website that deals specifically with propaganda. In his acceptance speech he points to his prized website as an example of the fine propaganda work that he’s been engaged in . . .

From the thread:

Hey everyone, glad to be on board! If any of you know me its probably from /r/GunsAreCool , a sub that mocks the absurdity of American gun culture. I’ve helped mod there for a couple years now, I’m the one who owns our website www.shootingtracker.com a nice bit of work we’ve been able to get used on-air on MSNBC and CNN, in print at Mother Jones and Reuters, and cited in peer reviewed academic journals like the American Journal of Public Health among other places. I’m fairly heavily involved in politics, most recently being brought in to work with Everytown in the last election here in Oregon, helping Chuck Riley topple an incumbent in SD-15 for the express purpose of getting a stalled Universal Background Check bill on to the governor’s desk, a bill that was signed into law last week. My fascination with propaganda began some years ago when I was studying journalism at Berkeley (fight on you Bears!) and continues unabated. The way it distills a message down to its basest form, and focuses its all on getting that message across and grabbing attention is what draws me in so much.

Deliberately including kids using (or abusing) airsoft guns along with actual “mass shootings” is prima facie agitprop. It’s a deliberate and calculated attempt to confuse the voting public in order to push a political agenda, which is basically the definition of propaganda. It’s nice when the creators themselves admit that their creations are deceitful, but I doubt that will stop willing accomplices like Reuters and CNN from continuing to use them in their “journalism.”