Before returning to mainstream news coverage of the attack on Covenant Presbyterian Church and its school, let’s look at a story that raises similar issues — in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Consider this new information linked to this week’s “Crossroads” podcast (click here to tune that in).
The headline on a KRDO report: “Manifesto details former student’s plans to carry out multiple Colorado Springs school shootings.” Yes, note the word “manifesto.”
In this case, police are dealing with threats, not actions. However, journalists covering this story face some familiar questions about content and emphasis. Let’s pick this up at the second paragraph.
According to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, 19-year-old William Whitworth - who identifies as “Lilly”- was charged after an investigation into "threats involving schools in Colorado Springs Academy District 20."
The context for this story is Colorado Springs. What do we know about that “conservative” city, in terms of its media profile? Here is an interesting headline from The Guardian: “Colorado Springs: a playground for pro-life, pro-gun evangelical Christians.”
Back to the very low-key Colorado news report:
Once inside [the home], deputies noted in the affidavit two holes that appeared to be punch marks in the wall. The door to a bedroom was off its hinges and lying beside the opening. … The sister identified herself as Lilly, but further investigation determined her birth name is William Whitworth.
Once again, readers face that familiar, but suddenly controversial, question from the old-school journalism equation “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why” and “how.”
A dozen or so paragraphs and news-you-can-use bullet lists into the story, readers finally learn:
When asked if she was going to shoot up a school, the affidavit states Whitworth "visibly shook her head and down indicating yes." When asked why she'd do that, Whitworth stated, "Why does anyone do it." …
While waiting for the fire department, Whitworth was asked how much she had been planning the school shooting. She stated she was "about a third of the way from doing it," verifying again that Timberview Middle School was one of the "main targets" currently and other targets were churches.
There’s some (#triggerwarning) anti-Donald Trump material in this troubled young person’s writings, as well. But it would be interesting — since Colorado Springs is internationally known as a haven for evangelical ministries — to know just a bit more (as in anything) about the targeted “churches.” Why attack specific churches?
Now, why link information about this story to the shootings in Nashville?
Once again, journalists face a rather familiar trinity of potential story angles linked to an attacker, targets to be attacked and access to guns for an attack. The word “manifesto” is a handy term to apply to the words of the attacker — in print or in testimony — about the “why” factor.
Now, if I was writing about the potential for yet another mass shooting in Colorado, especially Colorado Springs, I would put the material about targets higher in the story. Then again, I am a religion-beat scribe.
This brings me back to the podcast and discussions of the Nashville attack and the attacker. It appears that journalists are going to remain very, very quiet as the FBI and police officials ponder whether the public needs to know more about “why” and even “where” questions linked to the Covenant Presbyterian attack.
Compare two updates on a major development in the case. Here is CNN:
Investigators found a suicide note when they executed a search warrant at the home of the shooter who killed six people at a Nashville school last week, along with more weapons and ammunition, according to an inventory of items seized.
The search warrant and the list of items found were released Tuesday, just over a week after the shooter, former student Audrey Hale, opened fire at The Covenant School, killing three 9-year-olds and three adults.
The warrant, executed the same day as the shooting, shows authorities also found several Covenant School yearbooks and a school photo, in addition to the shooter’s journals. Some of the journals are described as being related to “school shootings; firearm courses,” the list indicates.
The investigation so far shows Hale, 28, fired 152 rounds in the attack, which was planned “over a period of months,” police said in a news release. …
Does the suicide note contain any revealing information as to motive?
Just asking. Most of the coverage of the “why” issue is getting rather old, even as it’s clear that there is more information to process and, maybe, discuss.
Also, what about “the shooter’s journals,” which continue to increase in number (and that’s without discussions of the hard drives in the computers and other electronic devices)?
Might one the journals be the previously mentioned “manifesto” about the attack and the potential for other attacks on schools, churches, relatives, etc.? Maybe this is related to Hale's final social-media warning: "One day this will make more sense. I've left more than enough evidence behind."
Now, let’s look at a “conservative” source, as in The New York Post. That report included images of the actual evidence lists (as seen above) obtained from police.
Officers who descended upon Audrey Hale’s Nashville home hours after the Covenant school shooting recovered, among the cache of weaponry, 20 journals, a half-dozen school yearbooks and several writings, including a suicide note, newly obtained court documents show. …
They left with dozens of items spanning from technology to firearms to health care cards, according to an Inventory of Seized Property obtained by The Post Tuesday.
The nine-page document lists 47 lines of items taken from the home, including 20 journals, Hale’s suicide note, other notes written by Hale, two memoirs, five Covenant School yearbooks, five laptops and seven cellphones.
One of the lines, which describes the items as “3 folders” and what appears to be “9 journals” further states, “school shootings; firearms courses.”
During the podcast, I noted that I think there are three logical, essential “angles” for Covenant-shooting coverage. Stated as questions, here they are: (1) Who was attacked, and how are they coping? (2) How was this attacker able to obtain the guns used? (3) What were the motives of the attacker and to what degree were they linked to Audrey/Aiden Hale’s “emotional disorders,” gender transition and beliefs?
The press is doing a fine job with the first two. At the heart of the third question, of course, is the “manifesto” and related materials.
Go to Twitter and search for “Nashville” and “manifesto” and it is clear that concerns about the “why” factor in this story are now a “conservative” thing.
Thus, I am still asking the same question I have asked since Day 1, as in the GetReligion headline that said, “Heeding the Nashville shooter's own voice: Do journalists want the 'manifesto' released?”
Enjoy the podcast (if “enjoy” is the right word) and, please, pass it along to others.
FIRST IMAGE: Uncredited graphic posted at Blackstone Management group.