some people that think the breed is a "ticking time bomb"
Because they are. They are bred for the fight, century upon century. A Pointer points, A Retriever retrieves, a fighter fights. It's in the DNA of those dogs, and we put them there. Pitbull attacks are unlike other attacks, they come without signs of aggressiveness, it's all just a snap. Something triggers that dog and it goes off like a bomb, a time-bomb.
If 50% of the time they are wrong, that is a huge margin of error, and would account for half of the stories in the news being inaccurate.
Let's assume they are, then there's still a staggering amount of dog fatalities by Pitbulls. It's undeniable. That is what people get riled up about, that there's always an army of people blaming the victims, making up stories, anything to absolve these dogs from blame/involvement.
Let's hypothetically say that irish people and irish-like were placed into a negative category, and being banned from certain countries or cities, but the way they were identified was simply by visual identification.
Profiling happens yes, especially when Irish people would bite their fellow man to death. But I think the analogy is flawed, dogs are far more diverse than humans in race, which transends color, but size and shape by significant amounts. Also, humans are not bred to specific purposes unless you believe the slave theory.
I understand people come to defend their dog. It's like with cars, if I point out what a shitty car a Caddilac is, surely people come out of the woodworks to defend their brand. Doesn't change the numbers though.
And if the media needed a four legged scape-goat, why not a Poodle? or a Jack Russel? Or any other breed? Because it jumped right into their lap.
What the real manipulation is that people question the victims after their demise, they question the numbers, they challenge the sources that present the data, they do anything to sow the seed of doubt surrounding their favorite breed. It's like dealing with Vegans. Don't be like Vegans.