Via FAIR:
Even though they want to take away your rights and want you dead, just remember they're only human. Just like you and meAfter opening fire at worshipers celebrating the Jewish holiday of Passover at the Poway Synagogue near San Diego, California, 19-year-old John T. Earnest was arrested. Earnest killed one woman and injured three other worshippers before his semi-automatic weapon jammed and he fled the scene, calling 911 himself to report the shooting.
The shooter published an open letter online explaining that his actions were designed to defend the United States and preserve his race from “cultural Marxism,” an idea drawn from the Nazi term “cultural Bolshevism” and propagated by the likes of neo-Nazi mass murderer Anders Breivik and far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Earnest claimed to have been radicalized on online forums, and inspired by Christchurch shooter Brenton Tarrant and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting of October 2018. He also took credit for a March 2019 arson attack at a nearby mosque as well.
Yet much of the media have taken pains to present him in a relatively positive light. In a widely republished article, the Associated Press(CBS, 4/30/19) presented him as a lover of music who was “a nice guy…. Everybody loved him,” according to one source, who said of his family, “They are outstanding. Some of the finest people I’ve ever met.”
The article insisted that he “counted Jews and black people among his friends,” as though to claim the Hitler-idolizing attacker of a mosque and a synagogue might not be a racist. It took pains to present him as a musical genius whose performances “drew audiences to their feet…. Crowds would be cheering his name.”
The original headline on the AP piece, reprinted by many outlets (e.g., MSN, 4/30/19) informed us Earnest was a “Star Scholar and Athlete.” Meanwhile, USA Today‘s headline (4/28/19) read, “California Synagogue Shooting: Suspect Known as Quiet, Smart While Authorities Question if He Was Hateful.”
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