When a mass shooter opened fire, killing innocent children, America’s newsrooms faced a pressing dilemma: how to cover the tragedy while respecting the killer’s preferred pronouns.
From CNN’s Jake Tapper solemnly reminding viewers that the gunman “identifies as female” to Kyra Phillips repeating that the “minor child wants her name to reflect that,” the media’s first concern wasn’t motive, victims, or warning signs. It was linguistic etiquette and political opportunism.
NBC’s Scott MacFarlane dutifully relayed the shooter’s adopted female name, while Kaitlan Collins stressed that the legal name change from Robert to Robin had “no connection yet to the motive.” Police officials, meanwhile, claimed they had “no motive,” “no information” about one, despite the killer leaving a lengthy trail of evidence detailing his various grievances against Catholics, Jews, President Trump — though that didn’t stop reporters from filling the vacuum with lectures about trans sensitivity.
When Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey finally stepped to the microphone, it wasn’t to demand accountability or to confront ideological motives. It was to warn against “villainizing the trans community.” Erin Burnett praised his comments as “profound.”
MSNBC’s Ana Kasparian scolded online observers who pointed out the shooter’s transgender identity, insisting the “real problem” was white men. Joe Scarborough went a step further, mocking critics for noting the shooter’s gender identity while suggesting we should instead brand every killer a “straight white maniac.”
CNN’s Samantha Vinograd assured viewers that transgender shooters were hardly unique, comparing the incident to Charleston’s white-supremacist massacre. By the time Frey pivoted to scolding America’s gun laws — claiming “assault rifles can reel off 30 clips” — the story had fully transformed from tragedy into narrative maintenance.
In short: while families mourned, the media fact-checked pronouns, downplayed motive, and shifted blame. The victims may have been silenced forever, but for the networks, the only crime worth prosecuting was misgendering.
Watch the supercut — and remember: when ideology collides with reality, corporate media will always choose the narrative over the truth.