Before the shooter’s name was known, before a single image had surfaced from the scene, the MAGA outrage machine was already at full throttle.
Right-wing media influencers — from Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk (now also a guest Fox & Friends Weekend co-host) to Libs of TikTok — had found a partisan pressure point: CNN’s live coverage of the broad-daylight shooting at an office building in midtown Manhattan.
The supposed smoking gun was a fleeting report from CNN law enforcement analyst John Miller that the suspect was “possibly white,” which was reiterated a few minutes later by anchor Erin Burnett.
In the wake of the shooting, CNN went live with wall-to-wall coverage. Miller’s comment came early in the broadcast, during the fog-of-war period when information is scarce and tension is high. He reported, citing police sources, that the suspect was “possibly white.”
Shortly after, new information — including surveillance footage — showed the suspect was a person of color.
“Unreal,” bleated Benny Johnson. “You truly can’t hate the media enough.”
“When a criminal
The timeline here matters. The assailant entered the building around 6:40 p.m. CNN started covering the story live around 7:22 p.m. Miller noted the alleged gunman was “possibly white” at 7:31 p.m., and CNN first aired the security footage (seen above) at 8:03 p.m. This undermines the claim, made by those attacking CNN for shoddy reporting, that photos had already been circulating before Miller made that comment.
The clip of Miller’s comment was then ripped out of context, posted by partisan accounts, and shared with breathless outrage across X. That one phrase has since been turned into a cudgel by MAGA-world’s loudest avatars — people who spend half their time demanding the media cover crime more aggressively and the other half screaming bias when the media actually does.
Never mind that Miller is a highly-respected former NYPD deputy commissioner with decades of experience and deep sources in the department. Never mind that he was relaying early intel — exactly what live TV coverage is supposed to provide. Never mind that he identified the then still at-large shooter as “possibly” white. And never mind that no photos or suspect details had been released. To this crowd, facts are irrelevant. The only
Let’s get something straight: live breaking news isn’t polished journalism. It’s honestly barely even journalism by its strictest standards and, as a result, its often messy. It’s reactive. Sometimes it’s wrong. That’s the nature of real-time reporting on facts as they come in that cannot always be sourced live on television.
Anyone pretending to be scandalized by an early, incorrect descriptor of a breaking story — particularly one sourced from police — isn’t arguing in good faith. If this crowd held Newsmax, OAN, or even Fox News to the same standard, those entire networks would be off-air.
But outrage trends better than nuance.
The usual suspects lined up for their retweets. Tom Fitton. Jack Posobiec. Ian Miles Cheong. Benny Johnson. Libs of TikTok. And Kirk, newly empowered with the mainstreaming heft of Fox News behind him. “They wanted it to be a white guy,” one user sneered. “White until proven otherwise,” another declared.
To reiterate: John Miller is not some cable hack. He is a former ABC News reporter who once interviewed Osama bin Laden in a cave. He ran counterterrorism ops for the NYPD. If his sources say something on background during an active shooting, it’s worth airing — even if it doesn’t hold up 20 minutes later.
But the context and credentials didn’t matter to the rage
There’s a legitimate conversation to be had about how media outlets handle race during breaking news. But this performative fury isn’t about accountability. It’s not about journalism. And it’s certainly not about public safety.
It’s about grievance. It always is.