WARNING: This piece contains excerpts from what is alleged to be the manifesto of the transgender Nashville school shooter. Explicit and derogatory language is used. Reader discretion is advised.
On Monday, Nashville authorities, Democratic politicians, and local media types were thrown into a tailspin by conservative podcaster Steven Crowder after he released three pages of the manifesto written by the transgender shooter that targeted elementary students at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee earlier this year. Despite the authenticity of the writings being confirmed by multiple outlets (local and national), the broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC ignored it that night.
Instead of reporting on this massive leak, ABC’s World News Tonight chose to hype Dolly Parton getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, CBS Evening News touted Britain’s Price William handing out an environmentalist prize, while NBC Nightly News fretted over the actor’s strike dragging on. Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo also refused to cover the leak. NBC’s omission stood out because their local affiliate, WSMV had been reporting on it all day.
The Democratic Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell and WSMV went straight into damage control mode. According to their reporting, O’Connell ordered Metro Law Director Wally Dietz to get to the bottom of what happened and weed out the possible leaker.
In their midday report on the alleged document dumb by Crowder, WSMV anchor Lauren Lowery and investigative reporter Stacey Cameron seemed intent on trying to discredit the images. “These are images that purport to be part of the shooter’s journal,” Cameron said. “And then sadly, I think there are a lot of people on both sides of the political aisle that are thinking that maybe there is something that helps push their arguments forward gun control or cultural war issues and stuff.”
In a Monday night news update, WSMV anchor Marius Payton announced that their sources told them the writings in the images were indeed authentic.
Another local reporter, Phil Williams, the chief investigative correspondent for News Channel 5, confirmed the pages were real as well but claimed he had “multiple sources” that told him “the selective leak of three pages of the #CovenantSchool shooting ‘manifesto’ is EXTREMELY misleading.” “People who have read the whole thing say ‘there’s something in there for everybody.’ Another, ‘She hated everybody,’” he added.
Williams’ liberal bent was obvious since he put out multiple posts on X (formerly Twitter) lashing out at the “MAGA keyboard warriors” and “MAGA accounts” that were criticizing him.
The Metro Nashville Police Department refused to confirm or deny the authenticity of the images but did put out a statement saying, “The photographs are not MCPD crime scene images.” But The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak reported that his sources also confirmed that the writings were real.
The formal release of the entire manifesto had been tied up in a legal battle for months before Crowder had at least some of the pages leaked to him.
On the page titled “DEATH DAY,” the shooter expressed excitement about the day of the attack finally arriving. “Today is the day. The day has finally come! I can’t believe its [sic] here. Don’t know how I was able to get this far,” she said. Another page was a timetable of what the shooter planned to do that day. Plans such as “9:00am – east breakfast at home,” “12:00pm – Arrive at covenant (check parking lot for security),” and “12:37 – open fire towards SW entrance.”
On the third page, the shooter seemed to rage at the Covenant students and how she wanted to “kill those kids!!!” “Those crackers going to private fancy schools with those fancy kwakis [sic] and sports backpacks.” “Fuck you little shits,” she allegedly wrote. “I wish to shoot you weak ass dicks w/ your mop yellow hair.” Adding: “Bunch of little faggots w/ your white privlages [sic]]. Fuck you faggots.”
