In the wake of a Monday mass shooting that left three 9-year-old students and three staff members dead at a Nashville Christian school at the hands of a transgender killer, the propaganda press was busy doing what it does best: churning out headlines reminding readers it exists to serve regime narratives, not report the truth.
From sympathizing with the shooter to framing her victims as the villains, here are the most egregious headlines from corporate media — and what they should have said instead.
Reuters: ‘Former Christian school student kills 3 children, 3 staff in Nashville shooting.’
That’s how Reuters characterized the mass murder of Christian school students by a transgender killer on social media on Tuesday, drawing on the shooter’s distant past rather than her radical present to pretend Christians were the perpetrators rather than the victims.
Fixed it for you: “Transgender Killer Murders 3 Christian School Children, 3 Staff In Possible Hate Crime.”
MSNBC: ‘6 are dead in Nashville. Let’s revisit how much the Tennessee GOP loves guns.’
Corporate media — and other Democrats, including teachers’ union head Randi Weingarten and President Joe Biden — are working hard to spin this latest tragedy as if it were the product of Republicans’ support for the Second Amendment. Of course, the tool that ended the shooting was also a gun — in the hands of good men using the necessary force to stop violent evil.
Also, one little-mentioned fact Nashville police pointed out is that the Covenant School shooter wrote about plans to target a different location but was deterred by “too much security.” It’s hard to rationally make the case that the tools essential for target-hardening — and the politicians that promote self-defense — are the bad guys.
Fixed it for you: “Nashville Shooter Killed Innocent Children After Deeming Other Target Too Secure.”
HuffPost: ‘Gun-Loving GOP Congressman From Nashville Torched For Response To School Shooting’
The HuffPost article’s subhead and snippet posted to Twitter said: “Rep. Andy Ogles, who represents the district where The Covenant School shooting occurred posted a Christmas photo with his family toting guns in 2021.” For this reason — a law-abiding American legally owning firearms, handling them responsibly with his family, and taking a photo more than a year before an unrelated attack — Ogles apparently isn’t allowed to offer thoughts and prayers for the families of the shooting victims.
Fixed it for you: *Crickets.* There’s no story here. Nuke this headline and gotcha attempt from low orbit.
Newsweek: ‘Drag shows and gender-affirming care for minors were banned in Tennessee this month, while assault weapons remain legal.’
The tweeted snippet accompanying the Newsweek article reads like satire. It doesn’t mention the fact that the severe mental illness Tennessee Republicans are seeking to protect children from is the same type the clearly disturbed killer embraced. And you know what else is banned in Tennessee? Murder.
Fixed it for you: ‘Tennessee Moved To Protect Minors From Same Gender-Bending Interventions Embraced By Radical Trans Killer.’
USA Today: ‘Police on Monday afternoon said that the shooter was a transgender man. Officials had initially misidentified the gender of the shooter.’
OK, so this was less a social headline and more just an update in a breaking “news” Twitter thread, but it’s still ridiculous. As NewsBusters’ Managing Editor Curtis Houck pointed out in the replies: “Someone seems to be more concerned about properly gendering the monster who did this than focusing on the children murdered for simply loving Jesus.”
Fixed it for you: *Delete the tweet.* Police and initial reports were correct: The shooter was female. Period.
The New York Times: ‘Heavily Armed Assailant Kills 6 at School in Nashville’
The Washington Post: ‘6 slain in shooting at Nashville school’
The Wall Street Journal: ‘Six Shot Dead in Nashville Elementary School’
Chicago Tribune: ‘6 dead in shooting at Nashville school’
These variations of the same general headline graced the front pages of the nation’s top newspapers — but some key facts are missing. As the End Wokeness Twitter account pointed out, “Not a single headline says the word Christian, transgender, or targeted,” despite law enforcement characterizing the crime as a “targeted attack.” If a Christian had targeted a transgender person — or a building full of them — you’d better believe those sensational details would be plastered on every front page.
Fixed it for you: “Transgender Shooter Slays Six In ‘Targeted Attack’ On Nashville Christian School.”
NBC News: ‘Fear pervades Tennessee’s trans community amid focus on Nashville shooter’s gender identity’
As many families grieve the senseless and gruesome loss of their loved ones at the hands of a transgender killer, NBC News focused on the self-obsessed worries of unrelated transgender people. “We were already fearing for our lives,” the subhead quotes one transgender activist. “Now, it’s even worse.”
Fixed it for you: “Trans Activists Spin The Death Of Nashville Christian Schoolkids To Be About Themselves”