The tragic shootings in Tennessee this week have unsurprisingly brought out the worst in progressive media. Although three of the victims were children, a fact that should dominate the coverage of such a terrible crime, mainstream outlets have spent an inordinate amount of time lamenting the “increased danger” to transgender people after learning the shooter identified as transgender.
Now comes word that one outlet actually went so far as to ban reporters from using the term “transgender” to describe the transgender shooter.
In an exclusive report on Thursday, The New York Post revealed CBS News executives sent out a memo demanding staff purposefully ignore the shooter’s gender identity, even though police indicated her transgender identity was most likely a motivating factor in the shooting spree.
“The shooter’s gender identity has not been confirmed by CBS News,” the network’s executives insisted in a Tuesday memo obtained by The Post. “As such, we should avoid any mention of it as it has no known relevance to the crime. Should that change, we can and will revisit.”
It should be noted that this is not the standard CBS or any other outlet has ever held in the past when reporting mass murder events. It is typical for mainstream outlets to throw motives and accusations around quite salaciously in the hours following tragedies like the one that unfolded in Tennessee. Sometimes they have even go so far as to highlight the social media of an alleged spree killer, only to later to discover they had identified the wrong person, but far too late to spare the innocent person some very scarring public attention. Suddenly they have a desire to wait for confirmation?
Executives told staff the transgender angle had “no known relevance” but that is completely untrue.
These are the same news industry agents who immediately scour the social media of any white man involved in a mass murder event in order to find out how he votes, in the attempt to link conservative politics to murder.
The CBS memo directed staff on how they should frame their reporting, and asked that they “move on” quickly to more important things regarding the case.
“Right now we advise saying: POLICE IDENTIFIED THE SUSPECT AS A 28-YEAR-OLD AUDREY HALE, WHO THEY SHOT AND KILLED AT THE SCENE,” the Tuesday memo said. “And move on to focus on other important points of the investigation, community and solutions.
Insiders told The Post the memo seems “absurd” in the face of the facts.
“This is absurd because the police identified Hale as transgender,” a CBS insider said. “If the cops didn’t address it, maybe you could avoid it but withholding information is not journalism.”
The source noted that the two CBS News execs appeared to be “twisting themselves in knots” by censoring the reporting over their own “liberal bias,” which is ultimately a “disservice” to the network’s audience.
You need to look at all the facts of the case,” the angry CBS source told The Post. “Everyone should be invested in understanding what happened. I don’t know how you do that without understanding the full scope of the situation.”
The Post notes “the decision has since been reflected in the network’s coverage,” noting that in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, CBS Evening News identified the shooter as transgender. After the Tuesday directive, all mentions of the shooter’s gender identity ceased.
A spokesperson told The Post they are waiting for more “details.”
“We are waiting to see the Manifesto and any details about motive,” a CBS spokeswoman told The Post. “As we say in our guidance, we will then review and revise our reporting.” The CBS spokeswoman declined to comment further.
The source for The Post’s reporting also indicated staff were left in “stunned silence” as the directive was delivered.
When Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot by a deranged voter back in 2011, liberal outlets immediately connected the shooting to a graphic Sarah Palin’s political campaign had been using that showed targets on different areas of the United States, indicating key races and geographical locations that Republicans needed to influence. She was maliciously accused of inspiring murder, even though the connection to her campaign graphic was a huge leap in logic (especially after it turned out the shooter was a Democrat voter).
Progressive journalists had no problem blaming Republican candidates for the acts of a lunatic shooter, but when faced with direct evidence of a shooter’s ideology motivating their murder spree, they want to “wait for any details.”
The absurdity of it all would be funny if this whole situation weren’t so desperately tragic.
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