Fox News Checked The Ideology Of The Capital Gazette After The Mass Shooting And People Are Pissed

"Glad Fox News checked to see if they deserved to be murdered or not."

At least five people were killed after a gunman opened fire in the office of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, on Thursday, and several others were left "gravely injured."

But while information was still scarce, Fox News' live coverage of the shooting drew immediate criticism when anchor Trace Gallagher announced on air that they had looked into the Capital Gazette's possible "ideological bent" as a potential motive for the shooting.

Fox News says they "checked in on the ideological bent" of the Capital Gazette but decided it was "very local" with no "major ideological bent" — then acknowledges they don't yet know if this is at all relevant to the motive. https://t.co/wEPI5w2FHC

"We checked in earlier ... with the ideological bent of the Capital, which is one of the oldest newspapers in the country," he said during the breaking news segment.

"This newspaper, we kind of looked into the editorial board, who's on it, what topics they covered," he went on, before concluding that they were "very much a local newspaper."

"They endorsed a moderate Democrat," Gallagher said, before concluding again that Fox News supposedly found the paper doesn't have "a major ideological bent" in case "that plays into the motive of it all."

Fox News commentator Neil Cavuto also speculated about the local paper's possible "polarizing coverage" in context of the shooting, saying he didn't "notice any rabid editorials."

This is an odd take from Fox News about the Capital Gazette shooting, focusing repeatedly on the paper's coverage "I don't notice any rabid editorials or polarizing coverage" https://t.co/Xh3tZmtNw3

But people took serious issue with Fox News' immediate discussion of the "ideological" leanings of the newspaper as to why the shooter may have opened fire.

Glad Fox News checked to see if they deserved to be murdered or not https://t.co/F2IIQSNEiO

Fox News checked and these are not the journalists that should be killed. Good to know. https://t.co/CcFI7BZroX

Fox News exploring whether they were journalists worth murdering. https://t.co/kde0j8gGEq

People were also shocked.

Read this shit and then read it 12 more times. Then read it another 12 more times. Fox news’ priority here is to figure out wether or not these people deserved to be shot based purely on their political leanings. https://t.co/v8kzQFMbza

BuzzFeed News has reached out to Fox News for comment in response to the criticism.

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