News/Commentary

NBC News ‘smear merchant’ brings own twist to nightclub shooting because, who needs facts?

November 23, 2022 | | Print Article

While CNN’s Alisyn Camerota was left visibly stunned on air reporting that the suspected Colorado Springs murderer was identifying as non-binary, other members of the supposed smart set were attempting to memory hole wall-to-wall accusations of conservative incitement bringing “disinformation reporting” to a whole new meaning.

NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins is on the “dystopia beat” where he has appeared to have learned all he has about journalism from George Orwell’s “1984.” Tuesday morning, he promoted his own analysis on MSNBC where he had referenced a slew of headlines that he had written to drive the narrative that Republican pundits and politicians had been the motivation for the tragedy at Club Q.

“But I think we need to have a come to Jesus moment here as reporters,” he said after rhetorically pondering what he could have done differently. “Are we more afraid of being on Breitbart for saying that trans people deserve to be alive, or are we more afraid of the dead people?”

“Cause I’m more afraid of the dead people. I don’t want to wake up on a Sunday and see that all these headlines came to fruition,” he went. Those headlines included:

  • Anti-LGBTQ threats, fueled by internet’s far right ‘machine,’ shut down trans rights and drag events
  • Trans woman’s photo used to spread baseless online theory about Uvalde shooter
  • Doctors providing trans care are under increasing threat from far-right harassment campaigns

Even before the court documents had been filed noting the gender identity of the suspect, The Spectator’s Stephen L. Miller had called out Collins over his baseless accusations against conservatives writing, “There is no one anywhere saying Trans people don’t deserve to be alive. You’re a terminally online smear merchant using 5 dead bodies you know nothing about to grandstand for your career.”

Later Tuesday after reports on the court documents came out, Miller asserted, “If the details of this Co. Springs shooter coming out turn out to be accurate, Ben Collins needs to be fired.”

As Grabien founder Tom Elliott had put it, the reporter was exhibiting “exploitative, soulless narcissism,” and it only got worse when the whiplash pivot came shortly thereafter with Collins suddenly reporting about online harassment as the motive behind the suspect’s alleged crime.

Like Miller, other conservatives online weren’t ready to simply drop the fact that they had been continually smeared over this story and others for voicing their opinions which have yet to credibly be linked to the unstated motive.

Influencer and former congressional candidate Robby Starbuck wrote of the news, “Wait a minute. I thought that me, Tucker [Carlson], [Matt Walsh] & [Libs of TikTok] were responsible for this. Can any of those who blamed us explain how we’re at fault now for a mentally ill non-binary guy killing people? It was already an insane, sick, evil argument but even more so now.”

While others joined in calls for Collins to be fired for his reckless “reporting” one Twitter user simply quipped, “You’ve had one helluva day, but I’m glad you are able to tweet through it.”

Kevin Haggerty
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