Salon: Charleston Church Shooter 'Right-Wing,' Protected By 'White Privilege'

June 18th, 2015 12:30 PM

Salon wasted no time in spinning last night’s terrible tragedy into another alleged occurrence of “White Privilege.” Nine people were tragically killed when a young, white gunman opened fire inside the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The suspect was identified as twenty one year old Dylann Roof, of Lexington, South Carolina. He was arrested Thursday morning in Shelby, North Caolina.

The shooter was clearly disturbed and troubled, but this didn’t stop Salon’s Chauncey DeVega from labeling him as a “likely right-wing domestic terrorist,” and claiming “White right-wing domestic terrorism is one of the greatest threats to public safety and security in post 9/11 United States of America.” DeVega then went on to demand we ask a series of questions, including “Are Fox News and the right-wing media encouraging violence?”

Also included in the hatred-filled tantrum was a proclamation that the media would rush to the aid of white America and refuse to accurately report this tragic story of senseless violence as an act of Caucasian terrorism:

The headline on the breaking news report about the Charleston shooting was an additional example of how the White Racial Frame dominates news coverage. MSNBC’s screen read “Police searching for 21-year-old suspect.” He was not described as “white”: the American news media is much more likely to racially mark black and brown suspects in crimes, and to include their racial description (or religious/ethnic as in the ubiquitous ”Arab” or “Muslim” “terrorist.”

This claim is not true. Major news outlets such as Fox News, MSNBC, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angelas Times, Dallas Morning News, Drudge Report, and more have explicitly included the word “white male” in their front page description of the suspect. The only major network that did not explicitly use this label for the gunman was CNN. However they made the details undeniably clear by posting a photo of the suspect along side grieving African-American members of the church.

There’s no doubt this horrible act of terrorism was a racially motivated hate crime. But there is little-to-no evidence that any major news network is covering it as anything else. Salon is simply showing again that they care more about spinning a story to fit their radical left-wing agenda than the actual facts surrounding even the worst tragedies.

Continue to pray for the families and friends of those affected by this senseless tragedy.