In the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the loss of 17 lives, reports emerged about the shooter, a 19-year-old former student of the school. For one, the Associated Press announced the gunman was affiliated with a white supremacist group out of the Tallahassee area, dubbed “Republic of Florida” (ROF).
Given this was news delivered by one of the nation’s major news organizations, the story received immediate widespread play. Many of our major journalism portals re-blasted the headline, regurgitated the content, and did little in the way of showing curiosity by looking into the story.
The staggering reality of a major shooting taking place within our state provokes many reactions. There is a paradox when these violent atrocities play out on our national landscape. As humans, we become torn between a paradox within our cognitive condition. At once we are repulsed at the violence and want nothing to do with the demonic individuals who cause torment to descend upon us; in abject contradiction, we also demand answers to what inspired or provoked the depravity. We want to both ostracize the emotions and demand answers.
In the mad rush to find those answers, the press invariably becomes inspired to root out details of these ghouls. While much of their inspiration has to do with finding those answers, there are also a pair of factors at play here that normally fuel the media: The desire for a “scoop” and the desire to find those elements that can forward their agenda. AP displayed those in banner fashion on Thursday.
The news syndicate scored an interview with Jordan Jereb, of Tallahassee. Jereb is a self-styled “Captain” of his ROF organization. Acting off of a hot tip from the Anti Defamation League, AP sought out Jereb. He declared the Parkland shooter belonged to their group, and that he trained with members in their version of paramilitary drills. AP ran the piece, and it spread quickly throughout news outlets and social media.
However, it turns out in the mad rush to release the story, AP failed basic journalistic protocol. Their story was based solely on the words of a deeply questionable source, with no supporting evidence and no authoritative corroboration.
Later that same afternoon, it was reported that law enforcement officials in the area of the state Capitol, who are very familiar with ROW and Jereb, had found no connection at all involving the Parkland shooter. The Leon County Sheriff’s Office stated, “We are still doing some work, but we have no known ties.”
Not much later the primary source of the AP story completely changed his stance. It would appear that in the zeal to break a major facet of the shooting story, the news outlet fell prey to a supremacist desperate for relevancy, and ended up giving him and his group notoriety.
In a social media post, before his account was suspended, Jereb altered his version of the story, and the events surrounding his interview. Sunshine State News captured his obscenity-laced screed in screenshot, but has chosen not to display it. Jereb alluded to his words being misconstrued because reporters “called me up to ask me yes-or-no questions. It’s easy for them to misrepresent what I say.”
Except, in his original comments on the shooter, Jereb spoke of intimate details. Beyond his assertion of the shooter actively training with his group, he mentioned he knew of him having “trouble with a girl”, and suggested the date of the shooting may have been intended to coincide with Valentine's Day, as a result. These are not details you likely reveal during standard yes-no questioning.
The Associated Press was perfectly clear on their intent. The rush to assess a characteristic onto the gunman without authoritative or evidentiary support exposes a desire. The story fit a narrative; there was no need to dig further for tangible proof.
The fact the news portal was manipulated by a troll -- a "nut job" who "never misses a photo op," says the Southern Poverty Law Center -- is secondary. There appears to be little need for the outlet to deliver a correction or retraction. That is a passe practice, one little seen these days from those journalists who are adamant in their opposition to “fake news.”
Brad Slager is a Fort Lauderdale freelance writer who wrote this commentary exclusively for Sunshine State News. He writes on politics and the entertainment industry and his stories appear in such publications as RedState and The Federalist.
