Axios took the "Republicans Pounce" mantra of biased media reporting to an absurd new low on Monday, portraying the murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a political football being used by conservatives as a talking point on crime.
Not a grisly murder, which it was. Not a murder that was wholly preventable because a career criminal roaming the streets perpetrated it, having been released without bail earlier in the year.
Nay, the message reporter Marc Caputo derived from the story was a case of the sads that Zarutska's death might validate messaging from people concerned about crime.
Every ounce of Caputo's trash assessment focuses on the "MAGA" movement and how they might capitalize on the story. Imagine if he were equally as mad at the actual murderer.
"MAGA influencers are drawing repeated attention to violent attacks to elevate the issue of urban crime — and accuse mainstream media of under-covering shocking cases," he writes.
Caputo swiftly laments that the horrific murder "dominated weekend conversation on Trump-friendly social media" and whines that "the rising number of surveillance cameras in public spaces ... has become a big accelerant in these cases."
Ah, if only her violent murder weren't captured on video for the world to see. Fewer cameras in public spaces is undoubtedly the answer. Then conservatives might never be able to link an emotional angle, a level of disgust for Democrats' soft-on-crime policies that allowed this man to be on the streets to carry out this gruesome act.
The media tries to bury it, and Republicans keep on bringing it up. They're the real problem here. What a soulless ghoul.
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Perhaps the best line in the Axios piece is this: "The video (of Zarutska's murder) is easily shared or leaked, and can instantly pollinate across social media — a visual counterpoint to statistics showing crime decreases."
That sounds an awful lot like a "cheap fakes" angle from a reporter who has little to offer due to a severe lack of coherent thoughts "pollinating" his little head.
Don't believe your eyes, folks. MAGA is lying about crime because statistics say otherwise. Statistics that blue cities have massaged by letting hardened criminals escape severe punishment for their crimes through cashless bail systems, and have turned a blind eye to an entire segment of crime perpetrated by "undocumented" people, who therefore cannot have their "undocumented" crimes reported.
Nobody is buying the stats.
"The real story here isn't the horrific, unprovoked attack and murder of a Ukrainian refugee on her way home from work or the disturbingly lengthy rap sheet of the alleged murderer," writes RedState Deputy Managing Editor Susie Moore. "It's not about safety on mass transit or the failures of the criminal justice system."
"It's about that infernal MAGA crime message."
Caputo might have done well to research his own site, which reported back in July that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's Central Division, where Zarutska's murder took place (at the East/West Boulevard station on Camden Road), saw an uptick in crime.
"Violent crime is up 9.1%, with 156 offenses recorded in the first two quarters of this year compared to 143 in 2024," Axios reporter Alexandria Sands wrote.
Sands likely was unaware she was spreading MAGA propaganda at the time. Why would she pounce like that?
Just cheap fakes, people. Nothing to see here. Even if there is a graphic video of the murder.
It's hardly a surprise, though. Caputo is just one of a handful of reporters at Axios who like to fancy themselves as legitimate journalists, but whose bias rears its ugly head in the form of silly little articles like "Stabbing video fuels MAGA's crime message."
Axios reporter Alex Thompson went on a book tour with CNN's Jake Tapper earlier this summer, where the duo pretended President Biden's team totally hoodwinked them into thinking he was not, in fact, the cognitive equivalent of a bowl of porridge.
This is also the same outlet that, as millions and millions of illegals were entering the country during President Porridge's failed term, said that such a reality was actually a "myth" and blamed conservatives for spreading the lie.
Caputo apparently took a look at that and told his colleagues to hold his beer.
Sands, to her credit, did a more reasonable report on the Iryna Zarutska murder, noting the case "is exposing the cracks in Mecklenburg County's mental health and justice systems."
"Zarutska's death raises questions about the effectiveness of the judicial system and the community's failures to address mental health," she wrote. "Even Brown's mother has blamed the courts for allowing her son to be out in the community."
The man accused of her murder, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, had been arrested roughly fourteen times and managed to avoid punishment for most, with the exception of a single five-year sentence for armed robbery in 2014.
A violent criminal who, unprovoked, stabbed a young woman seeking refuge from her war-torn country of Ukraine. But the real bad guys here are the "MAGA" influencers on social media.
Axios is an absolute disgrace.
"Forgive me if this is uncharitable of me," Moore wrote in response, "but I hope the writer(s) and/or editor(s) who settled upon that headline and framing are haunted by Iryna Zarutska's face for the remainder of their time on this plane of existence."
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