There seemed to be little doubt in the wake of last week’s deadly shooting by a biological woman who identified as transgender that the mainstream media remains committed to treating the trans community with kid gloves.
In a staff meeting shortly after the massacre at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, CBS executives instructed reporters to avoid even mentioning the shooter’s gender identity.
“The shooter’s gender identity has not been confirmed by CBS News,” the network explained in a subsequent statement. “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.”
Other outlets stumbled over themselves to update earlier reports based on police statements that used female pronouns to refer to the shooter.
There was confusion later on Monday about the gender identity of the assailant in the Nashville shooting. Officials had used “she” and “her” to refer to the suspect, who, according to a social media post and a LinkedIn profile, appeared to identify as a man in recent months.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 28, 2023
“Update: A previous post about the Nashville Christian school shooting included initial information from police officials about the suspect’s gender,” MSNBC wrote in a correction. “Those officials have since noted that the shooter was transgender.”
After years of promoting gender transition treatments on minors and insisting that biological males should be allowed to compete against females, it might not be surprising that new outlets were preoccupied with accurately describing a killer’s gender identity — but it is not enough for one outlet.
A recent Vox article called out The New York Times and other media companies, asserting that “the anti-trans movement took over legacy media.”
In short, the article seems to suggest that reporters should never question the validity of any claim made by or on behalf of the transgender agenda, such as whether doctors should perform unproven and irreversible surgeries on young children.
“The anti-trans movement likes to frame these issues as concerns, particularly for trans children,” wrote Aja Romano. “If more people understood and accepted that being trans, even at a young age, is a valid, legitimate thing, that framing might make fewer inroads with the mainstream.”
The Times has previously received backlash for coverage that far-left trans activists believe is insufficiently supportive of the movement.
Earlier this year, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation took aim at the newspaper for its “appalling” practice of providing both sides of a controversial issue and daring to ask questions that do not instinctively endorse the trans community’s talking points.
While asking tough questions used to be the very definition of journalism, GLAAD now sees it as an unforgivable insult.
“We demand fair coverage, we demand that the Times platform trans voices as both sources and full-time writers and editors, and we demand a meeting between Times leadership and the transgender community,” the organization concluded.
