After news outlets lost their bearings once a trans shooter was revealed, NBC News managed to encapsulate all the narrative problems.

It is with a small amount of amazement that the journalism complex is still working on the shooting at the Covenant Christian School in Nashville. Normally when these shootings take place and involve an attacker from a protected demographic, the press drops the story faster than if it were third-period Calculus. But in the case of the Tennessee attack, they continue to report on it, and continue to step on rakes.

What has been revealed this week is just how manipulative the press is with these shootings. I covered earlier this week on the Lie-Able Sources podcast how the media use these shootings as fodder for their broader agenda items such as white supremacy, violent rhetoric from conservative media, targeting Asians, etc. When the violence comes from another group, then the leverage does not exist. The coverage suddenly goes away. 

But in the case of the Covenant school shooting, the presence of the shooter as a member of the trans community has all manner of warped messaging continuing apace. NBC News logged a new report on the incident, and its content displays all of the revamped approaches to this case. This is both a laughable skewed version of events and revelatory about the press complex in general.

In coverage of the first funeral—held for Evelyn Diekhous, a 9-year-old victim of Monday’s attack— NBC News delivers fractured interpretations of the events, beginning with describing the shooting as a “rampage.” (This description is belied by the calm manner of the shooter seen in the security footage of that day.) When looking at how this all gets treated by the NBC reporters, what is described and what is not described speaks volumes..

The horrific act of violence was committed by a former Covenant student who police officers gunned down as the suspect opened fire on arriving law enforcement, authorities said.

Um, “suspect”?! Given the security feeds, police body cams footage, and a suicide note written ahead, it is fair to say there is no need for careful language, such as ”suspect/alleged” in this case of the neutralized shooter. The use of “gunned down” also presents a bit of a veiled message of unfairness, but what is more glaring is what we do not see reported.

Consider for a moment the blanket coverage we witnessed after the grocery store shooting in Buffalo, New York in the summer of 2022. We heard all about the white gunman, the black victims, how the attack was specifically made in a racist fashion, and how the gunman had been inspired by everything from white supremacist dogma to Tucker Carlson’s coverage of Replacement Theory. In most cases, there was little evidence and large amounts of speculation, but those realities did not stop the pundits from pontificating. 

Nowhere in this report, and for the most part in the broader media, are these usual commentaries attached to this attack. Notably absent are details about the shooter, when in other cases this is always a primary focus. Also in short supply are any signs of the victims being targets for a particular reason. Even in this friendly report of a child’s funeral, there is none of the usual hand-wringing accounts about how they were singled out by their killer for any reason.

Also not seen are the energized explorations of how the killer had in some way been influenced and inspired to carry out their massacre by items in their personal environment. What content they were consuming, what messages they had been absorbing, and any social circles they inhabited are not being explored here in any capacity. The closest we saw was the Washington Post and USA Today dredging up a holiday photo of Representative Andrew Ogles from over a year ago, which had zero bearing on anything.

Remarkably, there was no exploration at all of the trans-activist rally planned for April 1, “The Trans Day Of Vengeance.” This is notable as for weeks, they promoted this event with inflammatory language such as the use of “Genocide,” and their promotional graphics used a series of rifles painted as the trans right flag. While the event has since been canceled, you do not see any curiosity on the part of the press as to how this might have been a motivator—considering the past willingness to assign blame by any outside source.

Say, @USAToday geniuses?

Could you explain how a trans shooter would be inspired by a Republican Representative's holiday photo that is over a year old – but NOT by a trans activist group touting the same gun imagery in a protest THIS WEEK? https://t.co/KTKEsar6Gg pic.twitter.com/6EybkqgYeR

— Brad Slager: Just Watching Walls Moving Out… (@MartiniShark) March 28, 2023

What we are seeing is a national press complex that has fallen under the sway of a movement. They have been more than leery of pointing out the shooter was a trans individual; there is an activist effort taking place. You see some outlets avoid the fact outright, and still others go further, as if to attempt to silence those pointing out the fact that the shooter was a trans individual.

It has even been revealed that at CBS News, an internal memo was issued mandating that its reporters do not describe the shooter as being transgendered. This means we have arrived at a conflicting nexus – there is outrage at calling the killer transgendered, but also outrage if you refer to the killer by their given name.

This is the corner the media have painted themselves into; denying the facts, and condemning anyone using the facts, while lashing out at those resorting to previous labels after being ordered to avoid using current labels. It is such an embarrassing display, you see why it is surprising that this industry is still attempting to cover the event at all.