Thursday was a day of terror at a Synagogue in Michigan and at Old Dominion University in Virginia, and it was the latter incident that provided what must have been an uncomfortable situation for those in charge of making editorial decisions in the liberal media. No one was killed at the Synagogue, except the person who drove his bomb filled car into the building in an obvious terror attack, but one person was killed and two wounded in the other, obvious terror attack at an ROTC classroom at Old Dominion, but would the media tell all about that attacker?
The answer for the big three network nightly newscasts is mostly yes.
Mohammed Jalloh, the shooter who was killed in the attack, served in the National Guard, and in 2016 pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to ISIS, and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. That’s the easy part. But would the media specifically raise the issue of his early release, and would they play the clip of the FBI Agent in charge who said that Jalloh shouted “Allahu Akbar” during Thursday’s attack. ABC’s Pierre Thomas did both on ABC’s World News Tonight
THOMAS: Tonight terror on the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, with members of the school’s ROTC program targeted by a suspect with ties to ISIS.
The suspect has been identified by the FBI as 36-year-old Mohamed Jalloh, a former member of the Virginia National Guard. Sources tell ABC News he calmly walked into the classroom, asked if it was an ROTC class, and then shot the instructor several times, and two students who were wounded. The instructor later died.
And then came the key statement from FBI Special Agent Dominique Evans, “We have confirmed reports that prior to him conducting this act of terrorism, he shouted, or stated Allahu Akbar.”
And Thomas concluded his report by providing specific information, and raising some good questions.
THOMAS: Jalloh was convicted in 2016 of attempting to provide material support to ISIS and trying to acquire weapons for an attack on U.S. Soil. He served eight years of an 11-year prison sentence and was released in 2024. Jalloh was under five-year supervised release in which he was to check in with his probation officer regularly. He was also subject having his internet activity reviewed. But Tonight so many questions, including how a convicted felon got a gun and whether he’s recently been under surveillance.
MUIR: Yeah, major questions moving forward.
Both CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News also presented Agent Evans saying that Jalloh had stated Allahu Akbar during the attack, but left the viewer to do the math on his sentence, without spelling it out the way ABC’s Thomas did, that he served only 8 years of an 11 year sentence.
Based on past performance it can certainly be considered surprising that the big 3 networks all edited in the Allahu Akbar remark. Meanwhile, both The PBS News Hour and FNC’s Special Report With Bret Baier skipped the statement while each one did say that the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
