A full day after the horrific Minneapolis church shooting, the legacy newscasts were mostly trying to render the shooter into an afterthought. But, when forced to mention him in any meaningful way, they continued to adhere to liberal orthodoxy and refer to him by his preferred pronouns.
Watch as ABC’s Alex Perez demonstrates the utmost respect for the gender-dysphoric mass shooter with a fetish for dead children on World News Tonight:
ALEX PEREZ: Robin Westman, seen in this yearbook photo obtained by our affiliate KSTP, was a member of the class of 2017 at the very school they attacked. At age 17, they filed documents to change names from Robert to Robin. Those documents were signed by her mother, Mary Grace Westman, who also worked at the school, retiring in 2021. Authorities say the shooter had no criminal history and purchased a rifle, shotgun, and pistol legally.
There seems to have been a collective decision to ensure today’s stories took focus away from the shooter. Overall, there was a greater effort to highlight the resiliency of the community and of some of the survivors. That is a good thing. But insisting on calling a man a woman is not.
It is mind-boggling that the networks still struggle to report a motive in this shooting. Rob Westman’s deranged writings made it very clear that he did it for no other reason than for his own pleasure- the natural consummation of a nearly-lifelong obsession with mass shooters. This information has been publicly available for a while. What possible reason could the legacies have not to report this except in order to shield the shooter?
NBC Nightly News did slightly better, with an entry that logged the first use of “transgender” among the legacy nightlies:
SHAQUILLE BREWSTER: A former Annunciation employee telling NBC news the shooter was often sent to the principal’s office for disciplinary discussions, adding the shooter’s mother, who had worked at Annunciation, talked about her child coming out as transgender and identifying as a girl. But tonight, law enforcement unable to declare a motive for a killer whose writings reveal a person filled with hatred.
NBC correctly identified the shooter as transgender, and delved more deeply into the shooter’s writings than did ABC World News Tonight, but continued using female pronouns to the shooter who, per The New York Post, was “tired of being trans” and wished he “never brain-washed” himself.
The most uneven coverage of the night goes to the CBS Evening News. On the one hand, they all but erased the shooter from their Minneapolis story. But at the end of the report, anchor Maurice DuBois briefly addressed the shooter as male:
Credit to CBS’s Maurice DuBois for, at least for tonight, refusing to bend to the legacy media’s orthodoxy and referring to the MPLS shooter as male:
MAURICE DuBOIS: And the principal there, he described to me running along the wall, the brick wall, as the bullets came in each… pic.twitter.com/OgiY24wRBm
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) August 29, 2025
MAURICE DuBOIS: And the principal there, he described to me running along the wall, the brick wall, as the bullets came in each bank of windows he kept moving toward the last bank of windows, and if this guy came in, this shooter came in, he was ready to jump them and do whatever he could do, and so that was typical of what happened inside there. Those teachers, those faculty members, those staff- true heroes, John.
Because of the phrasing, it is unclear to this news analyst whether or not DuBois was paraphrasing the Annunciation School principal. Nonetheless, he said it and it rang out. At least for a fleeting second, we saw the news media address things as they are.
If only the rest did the same.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective newscasts on Thursday, August 29th, 2025:
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
8/29/25
6:32 PM
RACHEL SCOTT: And we begin with the grief and anger after the horror that played out for school children targeted by a shooter as they prayed at church on the first week of classes at their Catholic school in Minneapolis. Two children killed, 18 students and adults wounded. Tonight, new video from a parent who raced to the scene, the first images of children running out of that church. Many in tears. Older students taking the hand of younger ones. Authorities say they recovered 116 rounds from a rifle at the scene, along with three shotgun shells. They are sifting through the evidence, the words and the videos the suspect left behind reflecting a descent into hate and madness. And late today, the father of 8-year-old Jesse Merkel who was killed, asking that his son be remembered for the person he was- not for the act that ended his life. ABC’s Alex Perez leads us off in Minneapolis tonight.
PARENT: Where’s the shooter? Where’s the shooter?
ALEX PEREZ: Tonight, the horrifying scene inside that church laid bare. Video taken by a parent who raced to the Annunciation School church shows students running through the church, cowering. Fear on their faces. A boy with his ears covered. One child in a wheelchair. In this shell-shocked community, investigators poring over a mountain of evidence, trying to figure out what drove a deranged shooter to slaughter children as they prayed in church.
JOSEPH THOMPSON: The shooter was obsessed with the idea of killing children.
PEREZ: Authorities say they recovered 116 rifle rounds at the scene, along with three shotgun shells.
Do you think along the way maybe some signs or red flags were missed, or —
BRIAN O’HARA: That is certainly a possibility. But again, we’re only 24 hours into this investigation.
JESSE MERKEL: A coward decided to take our 8-year-old son Fletcher away from us.
PEREZ: Jesse Merkel’s 8-year-old son Fletcher was one of two children killed in the shooting. Devastated, the grieving father remembering his little boy.
MERKEL: Fletcher loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking, and any sport that he was allowed to play. While the hole in our hearts and lives will never be filled…
PEREZ: 15 children and three parishioners in their 80s were hurt. One hospital treating eight children. First responders describing harrowing moments of bravery.
LAW ENFORCEMENT: I might be saying too much, but we had one kid that covered up another kid and took a shotgun blast to his back and things like that, and they were helping each other out.
PEREZ: ICU nurse Amy Forchas rushed to her job as a pediatric nurse in the same hospital, only to find the unthinkable.
So she checked into work, going to help- to do her job.
PRIEST: That’s all — that’s exactly how it was.
PEREZ: Without knowing at the time —
PRIEST: Without knowing that one of the patients would be her daughter.
PEREZ: Her daughter, Sophia, is out of surgery but still in critical condition. Overnight, thousands came out for a vigil. A community forever linked by a shared grief from a senseless attack that has changed the course of so many lives.
PRIEST: How is it that such a terrible tragedy could take place in a place that’s the House of God, and the Kingdom of Heaven? It’s unthinkable.
PEREZ: Authorities searching multiple residences connected to the shooter, finding a months-long descent into madness. A key piece of evidence? A YouTube video that was timed to be seen after the attack was carried out.
THOMPSON: The shooter expressed hate towards black people. The shooter expressed hate towards Mexican people. The shooter expressed hate towards Christian people. The shooter expressed hate towards Jewish people. In short, the shooter appeared to hate all of us.
PEREZ: Another video showing the suspect taking a knife and stabbing an image of church pews. And a four-page letter to the shooter’s family, warning them of the suspect’s plan to kill. The shooter also expressed hatred of President Donald Trump.
THOMPSON: There appears to be only one group that the shooter didn’t hate, one group of people who the shooter admired. The group were the school shooters and mass murderers that are notorious in this country.
PEREZ: Robin Westman, seen in this yearbook photo obtained by our affiliate KSTP, was a member of the class of 2017 at the very school they attacked. At age 17, they filed documents to change names from Robert to Robin. Those documents were signed by her mother, Mary Grace Westman, who also worked at the school, retiring in 2021. Authorities say the shooter had no criminal history and purchased a rifle, shotgun, and pistol legally. And Rachel, we just got word from the family of the other victim killed in all of this, that’s 10-year-old Harper Moyski, the family writing in a statement, “no family should ever have to endure this kind of pain. We urge our leaders and communities to take meaningful steps to address gun violence and the mental health crisis in this country”. Rachel?
SCOTT: Officials say there is no amount of evidence that can make sense of this unthinkable tragedy. All right. Alex Perez reporting on this tragedy for us. Alex, thank you.
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
8/29/25
6:32 PM
TOM LLAMAS: And tonight we are learning more about the shooter in this case, from extensive journal writings that delve into everything from a sickening desire to see children suffer to alarming calls for help. Shaquille Brewster has that part of the story.
SHAQUILLE BREWSTER: Tonight, law enforcement searching for a motive to a heinous mass shooting and finding evidence of hate toward nearly all people from a 23-year-old killer and a twisted desire for self-notoriety.
JOSEPH THOMPSON: More than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children. Defenseless children. (VIDEO SWIPE) In short, the shooter wanted to watch children suffer.
BREWSTER: Police poring through excerpts from the Minneapolis shooter’s journal, some posted online, written largely using Russian cyrillic alphabet as a way to code the entries.
How critical are those writings to your investigation?
BRIAN O’HARA: Well, as of this time, you know, we don’t have a motive, so they’re absolutely critical, trying to identify why this happened at this church.
BREWSTER: The journals, reviewed and deciphered by NBC News, show an obsession with mass shootings, glorifying school shootings in particular. The shooter writing of being suicidal since childhood and repeatedly used antisemitic and racist rhetoric. Back in July, journal entries show the shooter identified Annunciation Catholic school as a target, and mentioned doing reconnaissance trips past the school where authorities confirmed the shooter had once attended. Entries in the shooter’s journal made multiple references to having a supportive family, NBC News’ review of the writings showing her saying ”I am begging for help, I am screaming for help.”
Are the shooter’s parents and associates cooperating in your investigation?
O’HARA: Everyone that I am aware of has cooperated with the interviews that have been requested.
BREWSTER: A former Annunciation employee telling NBC news the shooter was often sent to the principal’s office for disciplinary discussions, adding the shooter’s mother, who had worked at Annunciation, talked about her child coming out as transgender and identifying as a girl. But tonight, law enforcement unable to declare a motive for a killer whose writings reveal a person filled with hatred.
LLAMAS: Shaq, in all these cases we always talk about the red flags, but tonight it is unclear if police knew about any of the things that were happening with this young person?
BREWSTER: That’s right, Tom. Officials saying that there is no record of any encounters with police that would have prevented this shooter from purchasing a firearm. The chief telling me this afternoon they’re still going through evidence, they have done dozens of interviews but have not yet made contact with the shooter’s mother. Tom.
LLAMAS: Shaquille Brewster, part of our team covering this terrible story there in Minneapolis. Shaq, thank you.
