OPINION

The Reality of a Trans School Shooter Has Journalists Shaming Themselves As Unreal Explanations Backfire

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Mar 28, 2023
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

With the news breaking on Monday of a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, the media instantly fired up the narrative engines to begin churning out the expected reports we have all become too familiar with over time. The same touchstones were being trotted out, from gun control to the NRA, with "mass shooting" and "assault weapons" used freely, as well as statistics and global comparisons strewed throughout. And then the record-scratch moment arrived just as quickly: They learned the shooter was a trans individual. 

Suddenly newsrooms had editors barking adjustment orders like a college football coach at halftime whose team is trailing by 17 points. Just like that, the news reports were altered on the fly, and in the process, the media members began embarrassing themselves with all manner of unhinged commentary. This was a new development, and as a result, it required new narratives to be delivered in real time. 

The first indicator that things would be addressed in a completely ludicrous fashion was the stumbling from so many outlets as they fretted over the proper way to label the killer of half a dozen people. The group Trans Resistance Net sent newsgroups a letter to demand that the Nashville shooter be addressed in proper terminology, and it seems compliance was the result from the outlets. 

Just behold the struggle session these outlets submitted themselves to over this aspect of the story. As if misgendering or using the birth moniker of the shooter was itself a high crime. 

Let's go with this; we'll use a pronoun that is applicable and then a label that will not be considered provocative to the activist set: 

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A deranged psycho entered a school, and it murdered kids before the police stormed in and properly killed it, saving more lives. 

There, it is gender-neutral, and we will not even dignify identifying them so that dead-naming is not an issue. 

The confounding reality faced by these media geniuses led to really odd but not shocking hot takes. The Washington Post decided it was a clever get that they found a holiday photo of Tennessee Rep. Andrew Ogles (his district includes Nashville) and his family posing with guns. The image is from 2021, but the paper thought it was relevant – that is, until they took down that post. 

Not to worry, resident hysterics USA Today is here to pick up that slack and repost the Ogles photo for all of your slanted hot takes. One detail that the outlet has to overlook is if a representative with gun images is wrong, then what is to be said of trans activists seen repeatedly using gun images? (Trick question, of course; there is nothing to be said about those folks.) 

But even beyond this level of journalistic idiocy, other members of the press were unable to deal with this trans-reality in a healthy fashion. See, it turns out that when faced with a murderer they cannot criticize (because they were trans), and since the victims cannot receive sympathy (because they were Christians), the high-minded journos had to look elsewhere to place their focus. Now, we enter the misguided blame portion of the media coverage. 

On ABC News, Terry Moran saw fit to draw a conclusion that this shooting took place in a state that recently passed laws that...somehow had a connection to this shooting. This is both a desperate lurch at relevancy as well as being well off the mark in seeking the cause, especially since police have a manifesto from the killer explaining their motives. 

At Newsweek, they decided to follow Moran's lead, deciding the inspiration for this could be from legislation seen in the state. "Drag shows and gender-affirming care were banned in Tennessee this month, while assault weapons remain legal." That is some top-notch subtlety there, you clowns. Also donning the grease paint was Benjamin Ryan, who contributes to a number of outlets. He decided to hurl blame over to The Daily Wire because they are headquartered nearby in Nashville. 

This type of deflective reasoning and "reporting" is damned convenient for the press. Consider the duality of blame they have created in this need to excuse the trans murderer. By labeling some as "transphobes," they are frequently accused of fostering violence against the trans community, but now when there is violence derived from the trans community…well, they also get to blame this on the "transphobes." It is a wonderful cannot-lose scenario they have created for themselves.