'This tweet is fake': Nashville news outlet flags counterfeit post summoning 'the end of the trans evil'

30 March 2023

A Nashville news organization, WSMV-TV News 4, was fraudulently credited with tweeting an anti-trans message in response to Monday's mass shooting at a Nashville Christian school.

The full fake tweet read, "Father of murderer girl, 9, at Covenant school shooting, calls for 'an end to tolerance' in family statement to the press, vowing 'to fight with every fiber of my being for the end of the trans evil. the evil that took my daughter. there must be a solution to this evil in America.'"

Journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh retweeted the message, writing, "A fake tweet attributed to Nashville's WSMV-TV is being shared, supposedly containing a quote from the father of a Nashville school shooting victim calling for "the end of the trans evil". The image is fake. No such tweet was ever posted by @WSMV."

Another reporter, Matt Binder, shared Sardarizadeh's post, tweeting, "a Twitter Blue paid verified account is spreading a fake local news tweet calling for violence against trans people."

WSMV 4 Nashville confirmed the counterfeit post, saying, "This Tweet is fake. WSMV4 did not post this."

The sham anti-trans tweet comes as some right-wing lawmakers, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), blame the shooting on transgender people, rather than guns. The shooter was a transgender young woman.

For The Nation, Elie Mastel reports:

Guns are now the leading cause of death for children in the United States. Over 6,000 American children were either killed or injured by guns in 2022. One 2022 study examined the data for youth mortality in 12 rich countries, including the United States. American children accounted for 97 percent of the total gun deaths from all 12 countries.

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