Though USA Today’s piece on Arapahoe High shooter Karl Pierson specifically addresses his motive to kill his debate coach and cites the influence one particular book had on him, the article fails to mention his well-known leftist ideological leanings. The media’s devious double standard at work by way of omission.
The closest the piece gets to discussing ideology is the brief mention of Pierson’s familiarity with the infamous 70s DIY bomb-making guide, The Anarchist Cookbook. And while ideology would seem to be a possible source for tension between Pierson and his debate coach, the topic is never even mentioned.
Pierson had read The Anarchist Cookbook, a notorious 1970s how-to manual for making explosives, and he had a grudge against Murphy, Redmond told NBC News.
"Speech and debate was his life, and the fact that he wasn't there crushed him a little bit and made him really tense and angry," said Joe Redmond.
Pierson and Murphy "did not get along, and whatever it was escalated to a death threat," he added.
Whether the source of this tension was personal, social, or ideological is never questioned. If the shooter’s political leanings even hinted at conservatism, would USA Today and other major news outlets have found the topic so irrelevant? National Review Online’s Charles C.W. Cooke thinks not:
For the most part, the media observe well the distinction between political and apolitical killings, and understand the different reactions they demand. Except, that is, when a shooting is carried out by someone suspected of being a conservative. Then, all discipline goes out the window; then, the act simply must have been caused by ideology; then, our television shows are filled with endless discussions of causes thrice removed, and we are subjected to earnest remonstrances about “rhetoric” and “climate” and, heaven forfend, “tone.”
Is ideology necessarily important in the case of the Arapahoe shooting? Probably not. Likely, as is true in so many of these tragedies, the mental health of the attacker is the real issue. The point is, the leftist media picks and chooses when ideology matters. It’s a simple equation: It only matters when it damages conservatism.
