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BumRushDaShow

(160,061 posts)
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 05:15 AM Saturday

HRC demands WSJ retract report linking Kirk shooting to transgender community

Source: The Hill

09/12/25 5:21 PM ET


The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, is demanding that The Wall Street Journal retract its reporting incorrectly linking the shooter in conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination with the transgender community.

Kirk, the 31-year-old co-founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon while speaking at a Utah college. In the clamor of information related to Kirk’s killing, The Wall Street Journal, citing “an early bulletin circulated widely among law enforcement officials,” reported Thursday that investigators had discovered ammunition with expressions of “transgender and anti-fascist ideology” inside the rifle believed to have been used in Kirk’s killing.

The New York Times reported later Thursday that the document had not been verified by analysts with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, did not match other summaries of the evidence and “might turn out to have been misread or misinterpreted.”

The story from The Wall Street Journal was later updated to reflect caution from some Justice Department officials about the veracity of the internal bulletin. On Friday, a lengthy editor’s note was appended to the outlet’s original report, after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), during a news conference, “gave no indication that the ammunition included any transgender references.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/5501615-human-rights-campaign-wsj-retraction-kirk/

29 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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HRC demands WSJ retract report linking Kirk shooting to transgender community (Original Post) BumRushDaShow Saturday OP
It's probably telling how automatically the right responds to any "anti-fascist" sentiments AZJonnie Saturday #1
And the media refuses to acknowledge that distinction BumRushDaShow Saturday #2
Seems like 'The Anxious Generation' runs along similar lines of your thoughts. I've not read it yet. Have you? ancianita Saturday #22
I read HRC as Hillary Clinton. If only she was our President. 💔 littlemissmartypants Saturday #3
Me too! She should've spoken out already! Condemning the WSJ wolfie001 Saturday #4
I don't know why everyone is being so quiet. Are they afraid? ... littlemissmartypants Saturday #5
Well, I guess taking center stage would inflame the crazy repukes at this point wolfie001 Saturday #6
As did I Just Jerome Saturday #8
Me four! BumRushDaShow Saturday #9
Couldn't. Eight years has passed rpannier Saturday #12
??? I'm confused. Please explain. Thank you. ❤️ littlemissmartypants Saturday #14
She ran in 2016 rpannier Saturday #23
Unless she had ran again in 2020, won the primary, and got re-elected n/t Polybius Saturday #19
Me too! Polybius Saturday #18
❤️ littlemissmartypants Saturday #20
Ditto. Clearly far from the only one. Alice B. Saturday #25
The political leaning of the shooter is irrelevant. We are being sent down this rabbit hole for nothing. Walleye Saturday #7
Well the Human Rights Campaign is an advocacy group BumRushDaShow Saturday #10
Its Obvious!!!! Mustellus Saturday #11
Um...Ok.... DrFunkenstein Saturday #16
Rupert's son Lacksoul won't do a damn thing. bronxiteforever Saturday #13
The "transgender engravings on bullet casings" story reeked of BS from the beginning IronLionZion Saturday #15
As they should. orangecrush Saturday #17
He sues everyone.. why can't a trans person sue the WSJ mountain grammy Saturday #21
Show some honor WSJ BoRaGard Saturday #24
If WSJ wants a story they should print the numbers of gay and trans Americans FakeNoose Saturday #26
45 has a gays in his administration BumRushDaShow Saturday #27
I thought somewhere on DU recently I read KS Toronado Saturday #28
TMZ reporting TheDemsshouldhireme Saturday #29

AZJonnie

(1,476 posts)
1. It's probably telling how automatically the right responds to any "anti-fascist" sentiments
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 05:42 AM
Saturday

They just KNOW they must be coming from the Left, even when they have no idea who the person who expressed the sentiment IS, don't they?

You ever wonder if, deep-down, most of them are aware that there side are, indeed, the fascists?

But they don't all think this way, because Richardson was almost certainly a kid who thought anyone to the left of his own far-right ideology was fascist, despite the historical inaccuracy (fascism IS a radical right-wing ideology, through and through).

Also more to the point, the WSJ's report was despicable, and they need to print a FULL retraction and apology. Pricks!!!

BumRushDaShow

(160,061 posts)
2. And the media refuses to acknowledge that distinction
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 06:10 AM
Saturday

These are the same RW loons who call their "establishment" GOPers "RINOs" for not being far right enough.

IOW, the media wants a clean, strictly binary "left/right" choice to write about, and that doesn't exist.

This kid is a solid GenZ and they are an oddly unique generational group because they were drenched in "online" from birth, with literal GLOBAL access to various viewpoints spanning the ideological spectrum. They might be guided towards one side or the other (from their parents), but they are constantly challenging the dichotomies because they have exposed themselves to all the nuances across the social and political spectrum.

And the wildest thing is (and I see this with my 19-year old niece) is that they "communicate" their thoughts at a particular moment, using memes presented through short video clips. It's like a whole other language that requires understanding the analogies. And these memes, often shared on TikTok and obviously present in the many video games that a bunch of them play, serve as fodder for describing what they are thinking and where they are coming from as they navigate through young adulthood.

ancianita

(41,772 posts)
22. Seems like 'The Anxious Generation' runs along similar lines of your thoughts. I've not read it yet. Have you?
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 04:35 PM
Saturday

It's also on Obama's latest recommended reading list.

wolfie001

(6,119 posts)
4. Me too! She should've spoken out already! Condemning the WSJ
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 06:35 AM
Saturday

All Democratic leaders should have by now! In unison!

littlemissmartypants

(29,722 posts)
5. I don't know why everyone is being so quiet. Are they afraid? ...
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 06:37 AM
Saturday

I don't get it that's for sure.

wolfie001

(6,119 posts)
6. Well, I guess taking center stage would inflame the crazy repukes at this point
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 06:44 AM
Saturday

But criticizing MSNBC for firing Matthew Dowd and the WSJ for their knee-jerk reaction puts them on the backfoot. Small counterattacks cut through their hypocritical fake outrage.

BumRushDaShow

(160,061 posts)
9. Me four!
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 07:34 AM
Saturday


But I know that most sites only use that term within an article and not as part of a headline.

Walleye

(42,445 posts)
7. The political leaning of the shooter is irrelevant. We are being sent down this rabbit hole for nothing.
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 06:45 AM
Saturday

Plus, he obviously wasn’t active politically. We always defend ourselves against false accusations only they never really accuse anybody. They just smear.

BumRushDaShow

(160,061 posts)
10. Well the Human Rights Campaign is an advocacy group
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 07:51 AM
Saturday

and has a job to call out bullshit that has circulated, not only on social media, but in supposed "mainstream media", regardless of any "political leanings", given that LGBTQ+ people come from all parts of the political spectrum.

The attack on trans people, AMPLIFIED by the broadcast and print media, has come from one side only, and they, as well as all the other marginalized groups in the U.S. - the non-white, non-male, non-RW Christian, non-straight demographics, who are being impacted by this nonsense, and should not be told to "sit down and shut up" and ignore who is doing the attacking.

This is regardless of what the shooter's thinking or political persuasion is.

It is an intentional assault by the media using this incident as a catalyst to continue to marginalize the marginalized, and justify further attacks on those groups.

DrFunkenstein

(8,832 posts)
16. Um...Ok....
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 09:20 AM
Saturday

I get it. It is a fast changing world and sometimes we cling to ideas that are long past their expiration date. To help out, try an internet search on the differences between transgender people and drag queens.

IronLionZion

(49,889 posts)
15. The "transgender engravings on bullet casings" story reeked of BS from the beginning
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 09:04 AM
Saturday

GOP loves to spew BS without evidence to scapegoat whoever they don't like. It's fun seeing how their messages shifted upon finding out the killer was from the far right. Their agenda is so obvious

FakeNoose

(38,620 posts)
26. If WSJ wants a story they should print the numbers of gay and trans Americans
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 05:32 PM
Saturday

... who vote R. For some reason the Journal assumes they all vote D as a monolith, and it's just not true.
Some of them might even be working at the Wall Street Journal.

KS Toronado

(21,252 posts)
28. I thought somewhere on DU recently I read
Sat Sep 13, 2025, 06:14 PM
Saturday

the shooter's girl friend was trans. Don't know if this is true or not but some of the very early
reporting stated (if my memory serves me correctly) engravings on the bullets mentioned
Fascists and transgender.

RWNJs keep changing the story as tsf tells them " Don't say that, say this instead"

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