On Wednesday afternoon, a man named Ezekiel Kelly went on a shooting spree in Memphis, Tennessee while livestreaming the evil act on Facebook. The shooting killed four and injured three others. Sadly this was all preventable since Kelly was let out of jail early. If he had served his full sentence he would've still been in jail and the shooting never would've happened. Though you would never know this if you were watching the three major evening news broadcasts on Wednesday or Thursday night.
All three ignored the shooting on Wednesday evening and all but ABC's World News Tonight ignored Kelly's arrest during their Thursday evening broadcasts. While World News Tonight covered Kelly's arrest, they failed to note that he was let out of prison early thanks to soft on crime leftist prosecutors and DAs.
No mention on ABC's World News Tonight that the suspect in the shooting spree in Memphis was released from prison after being charged attempted first-degree murder in April 2021. He was allowed to downgrade the charges and was released in March 2022. pic.twitter.com/RfBorZSCQ0
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) September 8, 2022
The networks had plenty of time, since out of their half hour broadcasts they spent one minute (ABC), 43 seconds (CBS), and 44 seconds (NBC), on news not related to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. While the Queen of England's death is important and sad news, there was no reason to spend almost the entire broadcast on it.
World News Tonight's only mention of the suspect's arrest was this brief segment:
DAVID MUIR: In the meantime, we do move on to the other news this Thursday evening and the deadly shooting spree terrorizing Memphis. Ezekiel Kelly accused of killing four people and wounding three others. Allegedly driving through the city shooting victims at random. Livestreaming the attacks on Facebook, police say. Parts of the city ordered to shelter in place for several hours. Arrested following a high-speed chase. The mayor condemning what he calls a senseless murder rampage.
You would think the fact that Kelly was let out of jail and subsequently killed four people would be bigger news. This is especially true since according to Fox News "Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland revealed during a press conference" that the suspect "was previously charged with attempted first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to a downgraded aggravated assault charge in April 2021."
Kelly "was sentenced to three years in prison, but was released in March 2022 after serving just 11 months of his sentence," according to Fox News.
This bias by omission from the three networks was made possible by IBM on ABC, Progressive on CBS, and Fisher Investments on NBC. Their information is linked.
The transcript of ABC's World News Tonight's brief September 8 segment is below:
ABC’s World News Tonight
9/8/2022
6:48:13 p.m. EasternDAVID MUIR: In the meantime, we do move on to the other news this Thursday evening and the deadly shooting spree terrorizing Memphis. Ezekiel Kelly accused of killing four people and wounding three others. Allegedly driving through the city shooting victims at random. Livestreaming the attacks on Facebook, police say. Parts of the city ordered to shelter in place for several hours. Arrested following a high-speed chase. The mayor condemning what he calls a senseless murder rampage.
