Properly Call the Nashville Shooter Transgendered? Not if You Work for CBS!!

Kobby Dagan / shutterstock.com
Kobby Dagan / shutterstock.com

Per a report from The New York Post, CBS News executives wanted news staff to not only refrain from mentioning the transgender status of the shooter. Per a memo the outlet obtained, the execs insisted they be tight-lipped about it. “The shooter’s gender identity has not been confirmed by CBS News. As such, we should avoid any mention of it as it has no known relevance to the crime. Should that change, we can and will revisit.”

Delivered to confused staffers, Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, the executive vice president of newsgathering, and Claudia Milne, the senior vice president of standards and practices took 15 minutes of the network’s morning call to go over the plan. The memo explicitly instructs them “Right now we advise saying: POLICE IDENTIFIED THE SUSPECT AS A 28-YEAR-OLD AUDREY HALE, WHO [sic] THEY SHOT AND KILLED AT THE SCENE…And move on to focus on other important points of the investigation, community, and solutions.”

As one CBS reporter told the Post “This is absurd because the police identified Hale as transgender. If the cops didn’t address it, maybe you could avoid it, but withholding information is not journalism.” Considering the network had discussed the shooter the night before, and explicitly mentioned her being transgender, it’s not only a violation of integrity but effectively lying by omission to leave that out.

Later, a CBS spokeswoman told the Post “We are waiting to see the manifesto [written by Hale] and any details about motive. As we say in our guidance, we will then review and revise our reporting.” One angry anonymous CBS reporter has a massive problem with this idea. “You need to look at all the facts of the case. Everyone should be invested in understanding what happened. I don’t know how you do that without understanding the full scope of the situation.”

The liberal bias of CBS is now on full display, and the American people are paying the price by not getting the whole truth about this case if they trust CBS alone on this case.

With Nashville police not announcing if they will release the manifesto, leaks have claimed that it contains “writings” with full details about attacking the school. A Nashville city official however has claimed that once the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit completed its investigation and determined the motive that they would release it to the public.

Taking their time to analyze the motives and discover the root cause behind the shooting is part of the usual template. However, CBS’ refusal to call the shooter transgendered is a horrific decision. When it’s a straight white male, they will make that known to the public before the police have even made a formal announcement about the shooting. A minority of any kind, they are more than happy to leave you waiting for details, and then explain it away as they make the announcement.

Journalistic integrity is something that is supposed to be the very foundation of every publication and reporter. While our 24/7 lifestyle has made being first more important than being right, the decision to disguise the truth or withhold facts from your audience is not something any news outlet should be doing. If the leaders of CBS want to be doing this, they should be moving on to tabloid journalism, God knows it sells with their liberals anyways.

However, there is one shining light in this report.

Seeing the number of CBS reporters and writers who are upset about being asked to make this change and just how upset they have gotten at the request is a glimmer of hope. Seeing journalists who still care about maintaining their scruples of being upfront with what they know even while giving it a liberal spin is a welcome sight.