CBS News Directs Its Journalists And Reporters Not To Use The Word “Transgender” In reference With The Nashville Shooter

According to a report by the New York Post, CBS News executive managers imposed a ban on their staffers by prohibiting them from using the word “transgender” while citing the Nashville shooting incident. 

On Tuesday last week, a letter was sent to all the employees and reporters from executives and ordered them not to use the “transgender” word along with the Nashville shooter.

However, the police department has already confirmed that the shooter was one. 

The letter was sent out by the senior VP of standards and practices, Claudia Milne, and Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, the executive VP of newsgathering.

The letter stated: 

“The shooter’s gender identity has not been confirmed by CBS News. As such, we should avoid any mention of it as it has no known relevance to the crime. Should that change, we can and will revisit.” 

The letter added: 

“Right now we advise saying: POLICE IDENTIFIED THE SUSPECT AS A 28-YEAR-OLD AUDREY HALE, WHO [sic] THEY SHOT AND KILLED AT THE SCENE. And move on to focus on other important points of the investigation, community and solutions.

As per the Post’s report, last Tuesday, the CBS executive members had a joint call with more or less 150 CBS journalists and reporters in which they prohibited them from using the word “transgender.” 

One anonymous employee of CBS informed the Post that the order was “absurd because the police identified Hale as transgender.”

The anonymous individual stated:

“If the cops didn’t address it, maybe you could avoid it, but withholding information is not journalism.”

The individual added:

“You need to look at all the facts of the case. Everyone should be invested in understanding what happened. I don’t know how you do that without understanding the full scope of the situation,” 

A CBS spokesperson told the Post: 

“We are waiting to see the manifesto [written by Hale] and any details about motive. As we say in our guidance, we will then review and revise our reporting.”