I don’t want to hear any more lectures on fake news, misinformation or lectures on not stirring up division from the likes of the Irish Times or indeed anyone in the mainstream Irish media following their disgraceful reaction to the most serious attack on the political process in the United States since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and RFK in 1968.
Not only was Charlie Kirk assassinated in life but then others including mainstream people in the Irish media defamed him in death. You would think condemning the cold blooded killing of a public figure in public in front of young people and his wife was the lowest bar possible. Joe Brolly at the Sunday Independent failed to do this. In fact he seemed to take issue with our Taoiseach and Simon Harris TD condemning his killing, (at least that pair understand the basics.)
The Irish times then engaged in some defamation of Mr Kirk very soon after his death, by issuing a list of what he said ‘in his own words.’ Doing this might seem to cover your ass, but anyone with half a brain cell as well a sense of decency must understand that these lines must be read in context. Also, there is such a thing as not dancing on someone’s grave (although Mr Kirk is awaiting his funeral) or simply sitting something out. They couldn’t manage that either.
Brendan O’Connor at the Sunday Independent also alleged that to the ‘US right school shootings mean nothing’ which is an absolutely appalling and untrue thing to say. The right do care about the murder of school children which he would know if he actually read or watched anything from the US right. Mr O’Connor then took exception to how friends of Charlie Kirk expressed their feelings in the immediate hours after the shooting. He also referred to the killing as a ‘clickable moment.’
After a week of saying Charlie Kirk was a racist and a far right extremist they then tried to tell us that his killer was not motivated by any particular political ideology. This is also fake news.
It seems the Irish Times editor does not understand the internet exists. In this piece they lie to your face when they say “Charlie Kirk shooting was not driven by motive or ideology – just a desire for virality.” This leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to accuracy.
The press conference laying the charges as reported by the Times of London said the following. The killer texted the following:
“I had enough of his hatred,” Robinson texted his partner, allegedly referring to Kirk, who had been speaking about mass shootings carried out by transgender attackers when he was shot in the neck. “Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
One engraving on the bullet read, “Hey fascist! Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓,”
It is probably the case that Robinson was radicalised online but it is inaccurate to pretend that this was not driven by left wing extremists who have been accusing conservative commentators of hate and worse, for years, as the piece yesterday by Liz Carolan attempted to do. It certainly was an act of “performative violence” but it is simply not accurate to say this act had “no real ideology.”
Robinson’s mother said her son had become more political and had “started to lean more to the left – becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented,” according to court documents. This is from his own mother who I think is better placed to say what Robinson’s motives were over and above Liz Carolan musings.
That resulted in discussions with family members, especially between Robinson and his father, who had differing political views. Robinson had accused Kirk of spreading hate, Gray said. The messages obtained by investigators between Robinson and his roomate include Robinson noting that “since trump got into office [my dad] has been pretty diehard maga.”
Seems pretty clear what the ideology was.
Carolan actually has the gall to end her piece as follows: Democratic senator Chris Murphy warned of the danger, writing on X: “The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent.”
There is nothing more anti-democratic than assassinating your political opponent which Charlie Kirk was to the Democrats. He was killed because he dissented from the leftist world view. Tyler Robinson pulled the trigger but a lot of people handed him that gun.
For the Irish media, none of that matters. This was the week when they utterly disgraced themselves. This was the week when all pretence that these people exist to give us the news in a fair and balanced manner went out the window.