On San Bernardino

On San Bernardino

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

Hours before Wednesday’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, a group of physicians petitioned Congress to end the so-called Dickey Amendment, a nearly twenty-year-old ban that effectively prevents the CDC from researching gun violence. Brooke talks with Todd Zwillich, Washington Correspondent for The Takeaway, about the history of the ban and its current political state.

And: as the names of the victims are being released to the public and their families struggle to make meaning from their incalculable loss, they often find they must learn how to manage the media to achieve their goals. The template for that kind of PR savvy was established back in 1999, after the massacre at Columbine High School, as Karen Duffin reported for us a few years ago. 

For more OTM follow us on Twitter @OnTheMedia, and subscribe to our newsletter at our website, www.onthemedia.org.