Montage: Media pins Colorado Springs mass shooting on Republican rhetoric
MSNBC, The View, and more suggested that rhetoric from conservative figures had led to the tragedy.
In the wake of the Colorado Springs mass shooting that left five patrons of an LGBTQ nightclub dead, numerous liberal journalists and pundits blamed Republican rhetoric for the killing spree—but have since gone quiet on the motive as new information trickles out, including his claim to be "non-binary."
While early reporting on the massacre was filled with headlines tying Christian conservatives, right-wing media outlets, and members of the Republican Party to the attack, recent reports instead focus primarily on victims of the attack, the patrons that intervened to stop the shooter, as well as concerns about gun laws.
In the days following the shooting, ABC's "The View" aired a segment about the shooting, appearing to blame Republican leadership, with co-host Whoopi Goldberg specifically calling out Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colo.
COLORADO MASS SHOOTING: LIBERAL MEDIA BLAME REPUBLICANS FOR TRAGEDY OVER LGBTQ RHETORIC
A woman and her daughter pay their respects at a makeshift memorial near Club Q on November 20, 2022 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. An attacker opened fire in a gay nightclub late Saturday night killing five people and wounding at least 25, officials said. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
NBC News reporter Ben Collins, during a Nov. 22 appearance on "Morning Joe," hoped that journalists would have a "come to Jesus moment" regarding politically divisive rhetoric, naming right-wing media outlet Breitbart in his comments. He read out his own stories' headlines about previous rhetoric about trans individuals and also claimed that the victims all felt they were only safe in that bar.
"Because there are five dead people in a strip mall, because that was the only place they felt safe as gay or trans people, in this town, in Colorado Springs," he claimed.
Collins' speech drew derision from media critics, including Substack writer Jesse Singal.
"Ben Collins is putting words into their mouths and thoughts into their heads. He is, in effect, speaking over recent murder victims solely to make a political point and to inflate the importance of his own particular beat. That’s the only way to describe this," Singal wrote.
Collins also brought up a story, published by NBC News’ Maura Barrett, of one of the survivors of the shooting, who was ridiculed by their parents for being gay after coming home from the club. He said that the parents responded this way because such a perspective was viewed as an "acceptable response" by the Republican Party.
NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny asserted there was a "one-to-one correlation" between recent Republican rhetoric surrounding transgender rights, criticism of LGBTQ-focused books in schools, "gender-affirming care" for adolescents, and attacks on LGBTQ Americans.
Chris Hayes also discussed the suspect's possible motive on his show "All In," when he admitted that while nobody is "responsible" for the shooting besides the shooter himself, anti-LGBTQ hysteria had created the "context" for the crime to take place. Hayes also attempted to tie Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to the tragedy by criticizing his Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the "Don’t Say Gay" bill by critics.
Similar comments were made in columns from The Washington Post, by analysts and journalists on MSNBC, and several other on-air and online print publications.
A mugshot of Colorado Springs shooting suspect Anderson Aldrich. (Colorado Springs Police Department)
But coverage took a notable shift after public defenders representing Anderson Lee Aldrich, the suspect accused of carrying out the mass shooting, described the 22-year-old as "non-binary" who used they/them pronouns.
After the story broke, a clip showing CNN host Alisyn Camerota learning on-air about Aldrich's claimed identity went viral.
"I don't know what to say about that," she said. "That is what he is now saying."
Several legal experts, including those on the CNN panel with Camerota, have suggested that Aldrich may be claiming that he is non-binary in order to avoid a guilty verdict in the five counts of bias-motivated crime charges he faces. Such charges are in addition to the five counts of first-degree murder he also faces.
This week coverage of the shooting has been scant, occasionally discussed within the context of gun reform and red flag laws, but rarely offered more extensive airtime. However, a few media figures did mention Republicans and the shooting in the same breath, stopping short of the type of rhetoric found just after the massacre occurred.
A police officer walks outside of Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Tuesday, Nov. 22. (AP/Thomas Peipert)
Monday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt attempted to tie former President Trump’s recent dinner with White nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye West to the shooting and said that the killer specifically went after LGBTQ people. Greenblatt made similar comments a day earlier on "Morning Joe."
That same day, MSNBC host Chris Hayes claimed few Republicans had condemned the attack and that in some cases, they had "doubled down" on homophobia.
Hours earlier, MSNBC's Joy Reid discussed the shooting on "The ReidOut" but made no mention of how Republican rhetoric may have inspired the shooter, instead attacking the party for not supporting new gun laws.
This week, several left-leaning journalists again jumped to conclusions on a motive when it came to a man who allegedly made terror threats against a gay club in Atlanta. Several media figures claimed the threats were the result of "stochastic terrorism" from right-wingers.
It was later revealed that the man was a gay Huffington Post contributor and a college admissions consultant with The Ivy Dean.
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NBC and ABC didn't respond to requests for comment.