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 nations largest LGBTQ advocacy group, is demanding that The Wall Street Journal retract its reporting incorrectly linking the shooter in conservative activist Charlie Kirks 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 Kirks 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 Kirks 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 editors note was appended to the outlets 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/

AZJonnie
(1,476 posts)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)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)It's also on Obama's latest recommended reading list.
littlemissmartypants
(29,722 posts)wolfie001
(6,119 posts)All Democratic leaders should have by now! In unison!
littlemissmartypants
(29,722 posts)I don't get it that's for sure.
wolfie001
(6,119 posts)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.
Just Jerome
(344 posts)
BumRushDaShow
(160,061 posts)
But I know that most sites only use that term within an article and not as part of a headline.

rpannier
(24,764 posts)Someone else would be Prez
littlemissmartypants
(29,722 posts)rpannier
(24,764 posts)Reelection would be 2020
2024 has to be someone new
Polybius
(20,848 posts)Polybius
(20,848 posts)If only.
littlemissmartypants
(29,722 posts)Alice B.
(616 posts)Walleye
(42,445 posts)Plus, he obviously wasnt active politically. We always defend ourselves against false accusations only they never really accuse anybody. They just smear.
BumRushDaShow
(160,061 posts)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.
Mustellus
(390 posts).... There was no glitter found on the gun.
DrFunkenstein
(8,832 posts)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.
bronxiteforever
(10,765 posts)A chip off the old coprolite.
IronLionZion
(49,889 posts)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
orangecrush
(26,691 posts)mountain grammy
(28,199 posts)you know, for $1Billion or more?
BoRaGard
(7,517 posts)do the right thing
FakeNoose
(38,620 posts)... 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.
BumRushDaShow
(160,061 posts)and you can start with the Treasury Secretary!
Who is Scott Bessent? Here's the gay billionaire and treasury secretary backing Trump tariffs
KS Toronado
(21,252 posts)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"
TheDemsshouldhireme
(222 posts)he lived with a transgender partner/roommate.