Please disable your Ad Blocker to better interact with this website.

Opinion

Dear CNN: Jacksonville Killer Was An Anti-Trump Nut – Called His Supporters ‘Trumptards’ – Is That ‘News?’ (Updated)

*update*

Attribution of the killer making this statement, although widely-reported early on, have since been discredited.

While there were statements of an online person calling Trump voters ‘Trumptards’, that user was wrongly connected to the killer who shot up the Jacksonville Video Game competition.

While the political Left has used this to call out the political right, as ‘fake news’, this story was widely reported early on.

Not only did pretty credible sources like Rush Limbaugh,  report on it, was also — originally — reported as true by the so-called ‘traditional’ news outlets. This would include a Miami CBS affiliate.

Here was the more recent tweet…

And here is a reference to their original story.

So to recap: Did we report what was generally believed to be accurate at the time? Yes.

Did we look around to see whether reputable sources were sharing the same story? Yes.

There’s a long list of stories, (including the now-infamous Pizzagate) that we have spiked and refused to touch if they don’t pass the sniff test.

Did we issue the correction rather than just making the story disappear into the ether, like less credible sites may have done?

Did we modify the title to reflect the update? Yes.

How well does our upstart site compare to the ‘big guys’?

Well, we’ll have to wait and see whether CNN continues to “stand beside” their story. The one that was officially retracted by their original source… Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis.

*end update*

Some stories have the media interest suddenly dry up and disappear. This seems to be another one.

Is it because they can’t leverage his story to push their policies?

If the story is one that can be harnessed to drive an issue — like Parkland — it can have legs for weeks or more. But if it doesn’t fit neatly in one of their boxes — like the Scalia shooting or the Tibbetts Murder — they wrap up and move to the next story as quickly as they can.

The dust in Jacksonville hadn’t even cleared, and the facts weren’t yet known before we heard calls for ‘gun control’.

https://twitter.com/JakkieWith2Ks/status/1033855776375201792

Not everyone jumped on that bandwagon.

Nice of them to try to leverage the fact that he’s white into some greater meaning. There was no AR-15. There was no racial element to it. There was nothing to tie this to racial or political motives. And as far as gun laws go… this happened in yet another ‘gun free zone’.

The shooter from that video game event in Jacksonville ran riot with a gun — and he’s white. That must mean he’s one of those horrible, terrible, no good, very bad Republicans. Right? They’ve finally got that story they’re desperate to tell us?

Not so much.

Actually, if they could have tied him to Trump, he’d get more press than Stormy’s creepy lawyer. But they can’t. In fact, he seems to hate Trump just as much as the press does. Screen name ‘Ravenchamps’ in this thread. ‘Trumptards’.

https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1033898189357600768

He was an America-hating murderous dope. And he was a Trump hater.

Again, if he did it in the name of Republicanism, he’d be the poster boy for domestic terrorism.

But because he moves the needle in the wrong direction, we’re already hearing crickets.

Wes Walker

Wes Walker is the author of "Blueprint For a Government that Doesn't Suck". He has been lighting up Clashdaily.com since its inception in July of 2012. Follow on twitter: @Republicanuck