Everyone Got the Story of the Murder of Charlie Kirk Wrong

It Was a Dangerous Week for America, But Not for the Reasons People Cited

It was a tough week for America. So, this weekend I’m going to do two “Need to Know” posts. Today’s will be for everyone and will cover an aspect of the Kirk assassination story that I think almost everyone missed—and I will try to explain why the reason and the way they got it wrong actually posed the greatest danger associated with the event. Tomorrow, Sunday, I will do a subscriber’s only post on some of what I have been hearing around DC this week about how American politics are shifting in ways few people are prepared for.

One more note: As you may have noticed, paid subscribers now get access to a weekly “Need to Know” video/podcast. It is available to them—and to subscribers to our DSR Network podcasts— a week before it is available to everyone else. I’ll also be doing at least one paid subscribers only post a week. Please let me know what you’d like to see in those posts. And, while you’re at it, also share ideas that would make “Need to Know” more worthwhile for all other subscribers as well. Just share your thoughts in the comments or as direct messages to me.

It was a shocking week in U.S. politics. In fact, there was one shock after another. New revelations about the very close relations between the president and America’s most notorious sex trafficker. A job report that indicated we have over-estimated job creation in the U.S. this past year by almost a million jobs. A Russian drone incursion into Poland that was a clear test of NATO and the United States, a test that America’s president failed thus sending a message to the Kremlin that profoundly undermines European security.

That said, the biggest of this week’s shocks, at least based on coverage in the U.S. media was the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk during a college event in Utah.

The murder itself was deeply disturbing, captured as it was on video and replayed countless times on all platforms. The images were raw and horrifying. The crime was heinous and deserved all the condemnation it has received.

However, in retrospect, the greatest shock associated with the incident was how grotesquely wrong the coverage it received and the reaction it generated was.

I’m not just referring to the fact that almost as soon as news of the attack broke, media outlets and prominent commentators—including the president of the United States—characterized it incorrectly. The assertion was that it was an assault by America’s left wing against the right. Trump called the left lunatics. He called them terrorists. He and his sons and his other surrogates said all the blame for political violence in America lay with the left.

Media outlets reported stories that turned out to be false about the political orientation of the killer. They said he had a transgender agenda. They said he was a member of Antifa.

All the Lies That are Unfit to Print

Of course, as we now know, none of that was true. The killer, whose name I choose not to include here, was from a Trump-supporting, Republican, Christian, law enforcement family. If he had political leanings, they were to the more extreme elements of the right. But mostly, he seemed like another disaffected, disturbed young man with too much access to guns. He was a gamer with something broken inside him.

Nonetheless, not only did the media run with incorrect takes on his background, they went further. They argued that his actions were of out of control political violence in America. They suggested this violence came from both sides of the political spectrum. What is more, everyone not only did this before they knew the facts, but they’re doing it right now.

Why? For the right, they are seeking to use the killing to justify more authoritarian power grabs by the White House. They are also seeking to demonize the left. They are doing this for the obvious political benefits to them and because it distracts attention from the fact that it is the extreme right in American politics that has really been responsible for the vast majority of political violence in America.

They were responsible for it on January 6th. They were responsible for it in numerous armed incidents. The president and his cabinet have been responsible for promulgating a culture of violence with virtually all that they do. They celebrate violence. Trump always has. He has called for violence from his supporters since before January 6th and since. He has urged police who side with him to use violence. He has called for violence against those suspected of being illegal immigrants. He has excused and even elevated violent offenders from Ashli Babbitt to ICE agents who menace innocent people in American cities. He has celebrated murders in his name—like those of eleven Venezuelans who were gunned down at sea.

It is fair to say that no one has done more to aggravate and expand the culture of violence in the United States than Trump and MAGA.

That includes by the way, Charlie Kirk. You would not know it from most press coverage. What you have heard is that he was a “champion of free speech” who "practiced politics the right way.” In reality, the extensive record shows he promoted political violence, he promoted intolerance and political division in America, as I wrote in a Daily Beast column, he was not just a victim of our culture of political violence he was one of its authors. Calling him a martyr, like Trump did, or defending his actions as an extremist agitator as did many in the center and on the left, only makes it more likely that we will get more output and activities like his and frankly, that will only produce more fracturing and conflict in this country.

The media and our leaders got the facts wrong. They got the context wrong. They continue to get it wrong. But in many respects, in my view, those aren’t the biggest mistakes being made.

Political Violence Was Not the Story…But Getting it Wrong Makes More Violence More Likely

When we look back at the facts, this killing was not about political violence. It was about a fucked up kid with a gun. It was about America’s gun pathology. It was about our failure to provide adequate mental health coverage in America. It was about the alienation of a generation of young men. But, based on what we know now it was not, at its core, about politics.

Just like the shooting of Trump, the second most cited act of political violence we heard about this week, was not.

But people don’t want to talk about guns or mental health care because frankly, they think America is tired of hearing about these things. Highly paid lobbyists have bought both political parties in both areas and the result is that we know no matter how often the subjects are discussed there will be little to no change. (Unless a Dem president uses executive orders as Trump has done and the courts let it happen as they have with Trump.)

Meanwhile, political commentators on TV love talking about political conflict because it is dramatic, it is in their wheelhouse and it lets them sound as though they were being balanced by suggesting the violence comes from across the spectrum.

But, you see, it doesn’t. In those instances where there has been political violence, the vast majority of incidents have come from the right. That’s not to say there are no left wing nuts out there. But most of the time when someone with a gun and a political agenda acts, they are on the right. (Maybe they are racists. Maybe they are anti-Semites. Maybe they hate vaccines and the CDC. But their agenda is one that is derived from the white Christian nativist extremist agenda of intolerance and division promoted by MAGA and those to the right of them. (There are plenty of studies that prove this, including this one from the Trump-leaning folks at the Anti-Defamation League. More on this from the Economist.

Media companies, especially as they are one-by-one being taken over by right wing billionaire owners or afraid of being attacked by the anti-free speech White House, don’t want to speak the truth about this.

So they first run lies and then they run stories that seek to spread the blame to where it should not go. And they buy into framings that are wholly inaccurate about what really happened.

That would be bad if it just represented a failure of our media and our commentators. But you see, it also provides cover for the aforementioned authoritarian power grab of Trump and his plans to attack his opponents as if they posed the kind of threat that really primarily emanates from his supporters. So they undermine democracy. But, they also energize efforts by right wing extremists to seek retribution, to justify further violence. (For a particularly chilling example of this, see the remarks given by Kirk's widow.

Alternatively, see Laura Loomer’s post-Kirk murder calls to eliminate the left or Fox’s Jesse Watters’ assertion that this attack means war here in America.

So, it’s not just that our leaders, media and commentators have gotten this week’s big story wrong, they have gotten wrong in the worst way possible. They have made violence from the government and from the far right more likely. They have made addressing the real causes of what happened this week far less likely.

And that is in and of itself a great tragedy for this country.

For more on my views about the Kirk murder and this week in politics, go to some of our coverage at the DSR Network like this:

Or see my appearance with Joanna Coles, the editor of the Daily Beast, on the Daily Beast YouTube channel. Here’s just an excerpt: