Here we go again.
(edited title to revise death toll down per latest reporting; we’ll see if it stays that way)
0027CST update: The shooter has been identified as a 15-year-old girl, whom I won’t name given standard journalistic practice for minors. That’s available in the link, alongside an inexplicable reference to her sometimes using another name, as though this is somehow relevant. The good news is two have been released from hospital, but two remain in critical condition.
Fucking conservative ghouls have literally been chomping at the bit to make this about trans people from the second they heard “shooting”, and the media is desperate for their clicks, to monetize. Media has a literal vested interest in misinformation now, because there’s a demo that wants it. Atrocious and infuriating.
I’d ordinarily agree this could be a dog whistle, but “Samantha” is not generally considered male. I’d imagine this is more along the lines of going by a middle name as a teen act of rebellion.
Perhaps not in the NPR article, but in the first press conference held by the police, a reporter asked directly if they were trans. This angle is definitely out there, even if hopefully it will die out quickly.
Oh, for fuck’s sake … that’s not a question a reporter asks. If I’d have one come back, stating they fucking deigned to ask that, they’d quickly be back to GA instead of advancing their career.
But I was last an assigning ed in 2006, and the world has moved on. To a terrible place.