They were careful with the explicit imagery—as usual. But did it make any difference? Traditional news organizations were cautious in their midafternoon coverage of Charlie Kirk's assassination Wednesday not to depict the moment he was shot, instead showing video of him tossing a hat to his audience moments before, and panicked onlookers scattering wildly in the moments after. In practical terms, though, it mattered little. Gory video of the shooting was available almost instantly online, from several angles, in slow-motion and real-time speed. Millions of people watched, the AP reports.
Video was easy to find on X, on Facebook, on TikTok, on Instagram, on YouTube—even on Truth Social, where President Trump posted official word of the conservative activist's death. It illustrated how the "gatekeeping" role of news organizations has changed in the era of social media. Kirk was shot at a public event before hundreds of people at a Utah college campus, many of them holding up phones to record a celebrity in their midst and savvy about how to disseminate video evidence of a news event. On X, there was a video showing a direct view of Kirk being shot, his body recoiling and blood gushing from a wound. One video was a loop showing the moment of impact in slow-motion, stopping before blood is seen. Another, taken from Kirk's left, included audio that suggested Kirk was talking about gun violence at the moment he was shot.
For more than 150 years, news organizations like newspapers and television networks have long been accustomed to "gatekeeping" when it comes to explicit content—making editorial decisions around violent events to decide what images and words appear on their platforms for their readers or viewers. But in the fragmented era of social media, smartphones and instant video uploads, editorial decisions by legacy media are less impactful than ever. The videos were posted and reposted at lightning speed online. One person on X urged "stop the violence" but then included a clip of the shooting. Several people took to social media to plead for people not to spread the images. "For the love of God and Charlie's family," read one message, "just stop." (Click to read how companies are responding to the videos.)
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