After news broke about the Covenant School shooting, a memo about banning the word “transgender” got leaked to The New York Post by a frustrated employee. The memo quoted an unnamed executive telling the CBS newsroom the shooter’s gender identity “has not been confirmed by CBS News.”
The memo went on to tell correspondents and anchors they “should avoid any mention of it as it has no known relevance to the crime.”
The anonymous CBS employee said the newsroom was shocked and bewildered by the decision since Nashville’s police chief had already told the media Hale, a 28-year-old female who was shot and killed by police, was transgender and identified as a male.
Curtis Houck of the Media Research Center tells AFN he noticed the omission because network rivals ABC and NBC repeatedly mentioned Hale’s gender.
“I counted at least 11 times,” Houck says, “between Monday night and Tuesday morning.”
So for CBS to call it irrelevant and leave it out of news stories amounts to “journalistic malpractice,” Houck insists. “Regardless about what you think about transgenderism,” he observes, “it's kind of important to include that in answering the who, what, where, when, why and how.”
What was obvious to many, he adds, is CBS News masked Hale’s gender identify from viewers – or attempted to do so – because the newsroom bosses sympathized with Hale.
As details emerged about the horrific shooting at The Covenant School, not only was Hale’s gender a basic fact but it was twisted by journalists to paint her as some sort of victim. NBC News said transgenders in Nashville feared a backlash from the shooting, and British tabloid Daily Mail said Hale felt rejected by her Christian parents.
And there are more examples, too. After the shooting, pro-trans activists held a “die-in” inside Kentucky State Capitol to protest a new state law barring life-altering surgeries for transgender youths.
Houck says he he watched video from inside the Nashville State Capitol, where activists demanded stricter gun laws after the Covenant School shooting. Those protesters held up seven fingers to recognize the shooting victims, he points out, including one for the killer.
In a sad but astute commentary about the school shooting, Christian writer Bethel McGrew first names the shooting victims and describes their lives, and credits the Nashville police officers for their fast reaction and bravery. Farther down, she then addresses what many others are witnessing, too: Everyone from the national media to President Biden are blaming guns and Republican lawmakers, and they have chosen the side of a mentally confused killer over the innocent children she gunned down and killed.
“The battle lines are drawn. The new religious war is upon us. May God help us all,” McGrew concludes.
Editor's Note: In photo at top, transgender activist "Charlotte" Clymer complains to MSNBC that conservatives are endangering transgenders after the Covenant School shooting. The school massacre was carried out by a female who identifies as male.
