On Wednesday, our Jorge Bonilla examined what the flagship network evening newscasts had to offer vis-à-vis the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting and found zero appetite to consider the transgender shooter’s motive was a hatred of Christianity and God Himself. Sadly, their lead Thursday morning shows felt the same way, sticking to the dishonest narrative the shooter’s scribbles on guns left no clue as to why Annunciation Catholic Church was the target.
ABC chief business and economics correspondent Rebecca Jarvis set the table as she anchored Good Morning America’s coverage from her native Minnesota, stating in a report summarizing the last 24 hours that “[a]uthorities say the shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, born Robert Westman” and “had ties with the church” as both a student and mother having “worked there as recently as 2021.”
But the real discussion of investigating the why for the transgender psychopath fell to chief Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas, who chose to emphasize the thug possessed a “darkness,” was “obsessed with violence,” and “want[ed] to kill people generally”:
Gee, if that’s the case, why didn’t the shooter go to, say, a mosque, a mall, or park?
A few minutes later, chief investigative correspondent Aaron Katersky wrapped the first half-hour’s coverage of the massacre with a liberal hot take about school shootings:
Over on NBC’s Today, Chicago-based correspondent Maggie Vespa sounded many of the same notes from Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News. At least she cited the shooter’s “writings...including acial slurs, a call for President Donald Trump’s death, anti-Semitic messages, and references to the Holocaust, and the Catholic Church”:
The real head-in-the-sand was delivered thanks to Minneapolis Police Chief Sean Hara telling co-host Craig Melvin he’s seen “nothing..specific” as to why the assailant shot up a century-plus-old church:
It was as though O’Hara’s posture hasn’t changed since Wednesday afternoon, which is a lifetime ago in high-profile investigations such as this one.
Just outside the flagship newscast hours of 7:00 to 9:00 a.m., CBS Mornings Plus tip-toed closer to acknowledging reality, courtesy of CBS News producer Anna Schecter:
