Tuesday afternoon, CBSNews.com broke a big scoop concerning the Sunday night mass shooting up in Toronto, Canada that left two people dead and 13 wounded. According to the piece on their website, the attacker frequented ISIS propaganda websites and may have lived in the Middle East for some time.
But after covering the attacks for only one day, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News decided to not only skip CBS’s findings, but also skipped reporting on the shooting all together Tuesday evening.
CBS’s findings were in direct contradiction to Canadian authorities that were telling the press they had found no connection between the shooter and terrorism. “The Ministry of Public Safety said Tuesday that they see no link to terrorism,” the CBSNews.com piece wrote. “But a law enforcement source told CBS News that Faisal Hussain visited Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) websites and may have expressed support for the terrorist group.”
“They were looking into whether Hussain may have lived at one time in Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan, the source said. There is no indication that Hussain was directed by ISIS to carry out the attack,” CBS added. The apparent lack of a direct order by ISIS didn’t rule out that he was inspired by the terrorist organization. The attacker’s family was adamant he “suffered from psychosis and depression for years."
Despite it being two days after the attack, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders suggested that simply talking about the possible motive now was pure speculation, according to CBS. “‘We do not know why this has happened yet,’ he said. ‘It's going to take some time.’”
While it was their scoop, CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor only gave the development 19 seconds of airtime in the form of a news brief:
Canadian investigators said today they see no link to terrorism in Sunday's mass shooting in Toronto, but a source tells CBS News the shooter visited ISIS websites and may have lived for a time in Afghanistan and Pakistan. [The shooter] shot and killed two people and wounded 13. He was killed by police.
The silence by ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News was very telling. These outlets normally rush to push whatever speculation gets published by their liberal cohorts when it has to do with some kind of Trump/Russia conspiracy theory. Instead of reporting on the possible motive of a mass shooter, ABC and NBC hyped the Mega Millions lotto jackpot reaching $512 million. Priorities.
The transcript is below:
CBS Evening News
July 24, 2018
6:52:30 PM Eastern [19 seconds]JEFF GLOR: Canadian investigators said today they see no link to terrorism in Sunday's mass shooting in Toronto, but a source tells CBS News the shooter visited ISIS websites and may have lived for a time in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Faisal Hussain shot and killed two people and wounded 13. He was killed by police.
