MEDIA MUM ON IDENTITY OF VANCE’S VANDAL
Media coverage of the person who is accused of vandalizing the home of Vice President J.D. Vance failed to report that the suspect, William D. DeFoor, may have been transgender and requested the police call him “Julia.”
A search of TV news coverage found that none of the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS) mentioned that DeFoor wanted to be called “Julia,” and instead simply chose to refer to him as a man. In addition, CNN and MSNOW (formerly MSNBC) failed to mention these facts.
A search of the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and USA Today found that all of them referred to the suspect as a man, without any mention of him being called “Julia.” Similarly, the major news services (Associated Press and Reuters) also failed to mention this.
The only major mainstream media outlet that mentioned the suspect’s name was Newsweek. They hastened to say that it is “unclear whether DeFoor is transgender, non-binary or just using a different name.”
While the mainstream media failed to cover the suspect’s name change, several conservative news outlets made mention of it. Stories in the New York Post, Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart, the Daily Mail and The Telegraph all mentioned the name change to “Julia.”
One media source, gbnews.com, reports that the suspect “appears to have transitioned and now identifies on social media as a transgender woman named Julia.” Also, “A Facebook profile reflecting this new identity was established in December, with the first profile picture uploaded on 15 December.”
If reporters in Great Britian can figure this out, what is wrong with the American media?
This is hardly the first time the media have decided to downplay or ignore the role that transgender persons play in violent crimes. Yet if the suspect is a former altar boy, everyone learns of it. This is politics, plain and simple—the politics that is sympathetic to the LGBT crowd.