CNN’s Erin Burnett Faceplants Spectacularly, Dragged for Identifying NYC Shooter As ‘Possibly White’
CNN anchor Erin Burnett was the recipient of significant backlash for describing Shane Tamura, the gunman in a deadly Midtown Manhattan shooting rampage, as "possibly white" during a live broadcast.
Tamura killed four people, including an NYPD officer, before taking his own life.
Despite initial police descriptions suggesting the killer might be of Middle Eastern descent, as well as the release of security footage indicating very much the contrary, Burnett dove into her description of the man. It was a doozy.
"They do know what he looks like," Burnett relayed. "Sunglasses, moustache, male, possibly white."
Narrator: He was not, in fact, possibly white.
That racial framing, which was quite importantly incorrect (it's okay to describe a suspect's race when trying to get the public and witnesses to identify and locate him, but it's not okay to be completely, hopelessly wrong), was reiterated by CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller.
“They do not know who he is. They know he is a male, possibly white. He’s wearing sunglasses, he appears to have a mustache, and that picture has been distributed to every police officer in New York City," Miller told viewers.
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I'm going to play devil's advocate here a bit, and suggest that this very specific description is what they were fed from a law enforcement source, and they were regurgitating it.
But you know what helps correct that mistake, something that I like that they did here? The distributed photo Miller is referencing. One look at the image and you would know that Tamura is not "possibly white." Burnett and company could have switched the word "possibly" to "unlikely" and salvaged some shred of dignity.
The killer in that image clearly has, as the New York Post describes, a "possibly darker or ethnically mixed complexion."
Burnett and the network were dragged mercilessly on social media for their premature and ultimately false assessment of the shooter's description. Rightly so.
"Here's multiple pictures of the not white suspect," wrote Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk. "Gee, it's almost like they have an agenda."
Almost?
Social media influencer Jeffery Mead quickly pointed out the agenda.
"It primes the audience to view the story through a specific racial lens. One that aligns with their preferred narrative about race and violence in America," Mead explained. "If the suspect had been 'possibly black,' they would’ve waited. But saying 'possibly white' fits the narrative they want to push."
They would never, under any circumstances, identify the suspect as black unless they had locked down the evidence.
"I heard Jussie Smollett was CNN's source for this story," retired tech CEO Chris Putnam quipped.
This kind of mistake is a trend on one side of the political aisle. Remember when the media initially described George Zimmerman, the man who shot Trayvon Martin, as "white Hispanic"?
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was forced to delete a tweet in 2019 blaming “white supremacy” for a Jersey City shooting that left several people dead. The shooters in that case were black and, according to reports, linked to a group known as the “Black Hebrew Israelites.”
Maybe she would have been better off saying, "possible white supremacy."
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie.
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