Charlie Kirk’s Assassination Was a Test — The Media Failed Miserably

(Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)

For all its hand-wringing over misinformation, the mainstream media sure spends a lot of time propagating it.

A troubling poll from YouGov illustrates the extent of the problem. The survey, which was conducted on Sunday — 24 hours after Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R) revealed that Tyler Robinson, the man arrested for allegedly assassinating Charlie Kirk, was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology,” and the same day that Cox confirmed Fox News reporting that Robinson had a transgender romantic partner — found that more Americans believe Robinson was a Republican (24%) than a Democrat (21%).

In truth, Robinson is registered as neither, though it’s abundantly clear that he’s a man of the left. Here’s what Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray had to say about Robinson’s views during a press conference on Tuesday:

Robinson’s mother explained that over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro-gay and trans rights oriented. She stated that Robinson began to date his roommate, a biological male who was transitioning genders. This resulted in several discussions with family members, but especially between Robinson and his father, who have very different political views.

“When asked why he did it, Robinson explained, ‘There is too much evil in the guy,’ referring to Charlie Kirk. ‘Spreads too much hate,’” continued Gray.

The prosecutor was mostly confirming what had already been reported on and verified by Cox.

Indeed, the motive of the shooter could have been reasonably inferred as soon as 48 hours after Kirk’s murder, when it was revealed that the ammunition brought by the shooter to the scene of the crime read, “hey fascist! CATCH!”

But that wealth of readily available information — all of which pointed in one direction — was willfully ignored by members of the press who were hellbent on ignoring Robinson’s motive.

In a Monday night monologue, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel remarked that “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”

That same evening, CBS anchor John Dickerson declared that Robinson’s motive “remains elusive.”

“That uncertainty and the risk of drawing sweeping conclusions suggests the murder may share similarities with recent violence not driven by an obvious political ideology,” added Dickerson.

The Atlantic‘s Jonathan Chait insisted that “There’s a party undergoing an online radicalization spiral. It’s not the Democrats.”

“As more info comes in this needs to be said: if it wasn’t some left wing radical that did it, and it appears it wasn’t, there need to be massive pushback because they are STILL pretending it’s some culture war and it is only in their own minds,” tweeted CNN’s Adam Kinzinger.

Heather Cox Richardson, a prominent academic and the most popular individual author on Substack, wrote that “the alleged shooter was not someone on the left. The alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, is a young white man from a Republican, gun enthusiast family, who appears to have embraced the far right, disliking Kirk for being insufficiently radical.”

A whole cottage industry of self-styled experts came out of the woodwork to argue that the engravings Robinson had made on his ammunition outed him as a Groyper.

“I wanted to jump on and add some quick gloss on recent events that might help folks who aren’t plugged into the far corners of the internet make better sense of the motivations and actions of two major right-wing groups that are involved in the recent events,” said Cybele Canterel at the outset of a video published after the shooting.

Welp. It turns out neither was responsible for the shooting. Headline: “Internet Expert Learns Liberals Can Be Terminally Online, Too.” Both Canterel and Robinson are great examples!

Facts be damned, some carried on the charade well into Tuesday, even after Gray furnished a truckload of evidence of Robinson’s progressive politics.

On CNN NewsNight, Montel Williams professed to believe Robinson was “motivated emotionally” rather than “politically” in a too-stupid-to-be-believed rant that caused Scott Jennings to erupt in righteous anger.

“There are people who are trying to pigeonhole this as a leftist thing,” complained Williams.

For years, Americans have been warned about a partisan, misinformation-filled, echo chamber in which dangerous lies were taking hold.

As it turns out, the old schoolyard adage might be right: Takes one to know one.

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