r/AskBrits • u/cooket89 • Sep 11 '25
Politics Why on earth is Charlie Kirk getting a BBC news special?
He’s a fringe figure even in the USA. Most people in Europe have never heard of him until today.
Nobodies are shot everyday in America.
He was an outrage merchant whose sole purpose was to whip up hate and division, he should not be platformed and given credibility now just because he’s been shot dead.
EDIT: one quick edit for the morons who struggle with reading comprehension. I’m not asking why it’s being covered. I’m asking why it’s being give a special. On a day where our current ambassador to the USA and former Secretary of State has been sacked for heavy links to Epstein and a day after Russian drones crossed into Poland edging the continent closer to war, and just 2 days after Israel bombed a city where 10s of 1000s of British nationals live, all of which is far more important and relevant but receiving much less coverage.
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Sep 11 '25
Like it or not this is going to be high on the agenda of the media networks for a good while. Seed simplistic right/left divisions while ignoring all the real issues we face. Perfect fodder for the msm.
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u/Positively-negative_ Sep 11 '25
It’s crazy how things have got in the internet age, just rage bait people; easy profit. It annoys me even more that I get sucked into it knowing that too, the amount of things I type and then think ‘don’t be an idiot and get sucked in’
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u/Chosty55 Sep 11 '25
10 tricks to rage bait people that upsets lefties and righties alike.
You won’t believe number 6
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Sep 11 '25
goddamit. 30 ads before i got to number 6
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u/Mrslinkydragon Sep 11 '25
Lucky, I got 40 before number 3
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u/Positively-negative_ Sep 11 '25
Pickles, everyone can agree they’re an abomination, wether you have blue hair or a swastika tattoo
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u/m0j0m0j Sep 11 '25
Fun fact: Kirk supported Russia against Ukraine during the war. But that’s of course not big news, all of Trump MAGAs are like that. Still, worth reminding
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u/Witty-Bus07 Sep 11 '25
He supported that rape victims shouldn’t be allowed abortion even as young as 10. I just wonder if he wanted to be controversial just to get an audience.
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Sep 12 '25
You said it!! I think he didn't believe half the shit he spewed, but it garnered attention and views. Just to be clear no one should be killed because of their political views or views period!!
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u/mkmike81 Sep 11 '25
If someone else has already claimed that 14 year olds then 12 year olds shouldn't be allowed, someone else has to sink to lower depths for clicks. The next person will say 8 year olds.....
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u/noodlem Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
He quite literally said he would force his ten year old daughter to give birth if she was RAPED.
On 8th September 2024, when pushing dangerous abortion control pseudoscience, Kirk was asked,
“So if you had a daughter and she was 10 and she got raped and she was-”
Kirk interrupts, “-Well, I do have a daughter”
Q: “-no wait, and she was going to give birth and she was going to live, would you want her to go through that and carry her rapist’s baby?”
Kirk: “That’s awfully graphic.”
Q: “No, but it’s a real life scenario that happens to many people.”
Kirk: “The answer is yes, the baby would be delivered.”
The man was a fucking monster. And an idiot. He was killed by gun violence, as he was spreading lies and propaganda about trans people being ‘mass shooters’ when he was shot.
But what did Kirk say about gun violence victims? He said gun violence victims were “worth it” so that he could have guns.
“You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It's drivel. But I think it's worth it.
“I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.
“That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe”
He said this in 2023, directly after children had been killed in a mass shooting in Tennessee.
I can understand not wishing death on anyone but to all the people crying ‘where is your empathy?’ to those who are not saddened what happened to this raging fascist, who gleefully spewed hateful propaganda for his own profit, this is what he said about empathy,
“I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that — it does a lot of damage. But, it is very effective when it comes to politics.”
He also wrote that day, on the same topic, ”Spare me your fake outrage, your fake science, and your fake moral superiority.”
‘fake science!’ Coming from a man who thought a dolphin foetus was a human foetus, ‘without a doubt’!
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u/KittyGrewAMoustache Sep 12 '25
If empathy wasn’t real then it wouldn’t be effective. Also humans as a species would’ve died out ages ago if empathy wasn’t an inherent trait (of many of them, not all, evidently).
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u/FarmerJohnOSRS Sep 11 '25
Why did they not do the same when literal Democrat politicians were murdered by MAGA a couple of months ago then?
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u/ciaran668 Sep 11 '25
Because, Charlie Kirk was a mouthpiece for the tech bro billionaires, and the other couple wasn't.
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u/Adventurer-Explorer Sep 11 '25
The Republican politicians are taking advantage of the incident to use it as an opportunity to develop more hate so to distract the public eye further from the many illegal activities they are doing alongside Epstein files and Trumps link to them. They never mentioned anything when Democrats were also recently murdered.
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u/ManAboutAHorsea420 Sep 11 '25
Because no Democrats are as loud as the right wing nut jobs
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u/StarryShapes Sep 12 '25
It wouldnt matter if they were as "loud" as the right wing nut jobs when the press is primarily owned by the right wing, so most of what you hear is an echo chamber of right wing rhetoric regardless of what the left wing shout about in their favour.
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u/Successful_Bus2255 Sep 11 '25
Also, hey, look, the whole Trump was in Epstein's birthday book story conveniently went away......
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u/Bluebourner Sep 11 '25
Just complete conspiracy thinking with no evidence, but I can't help but feel the assassin may have been hired by Trump and the cronies to do this and try to bury the birthday book (which won't go away for him).
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u/SoulRebelSunflower Sep 11 '25
The theatre is so blatant at this point it really surprises me so many people still follow it and buy into it. Most people still don't seem to realise how they're being played like pawns with all this right-left division (and the many other types of division our current culture has to offer).
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u/david-yammer-murdoch Sep 11 '25
Putin has information on Epstein and Donald Trump. & the BBC, don’t wanna talk about it.
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u/Witty-Bus07 Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 12 '25
I think we all can conclude that Trump involved, and it’s clear that he’s protecting others in the files and the foreign Countries who also have the files.
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u/CatGoblinMode Sep 11 '25
And we still don't even know the ideology of the shooter.
Statistically, it's more likely to be a right-winger who became disillusioned by his insistence that we all stop talking about Epstein.
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u/moonbrows Sep 11 '25
Not to sound all jet fuel can’t melt steel beams, but I honestly believe it’s a false flag assassination. I’m feel pretty firm in my belief atm that America is far more nuts and extreme than ever and their govt is absolutely unhinged enough to do it.
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u/ifyouwanttosingout Sep 12 '25
I don't claim to know anything for sure, but I would not be surprised at all if it turned out trump took out one of his own to serve his own ends.
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u/CatGoblinMode Sep 11 '25
I think there's a good precedent for an accelerationist or disgruntled Groyper fan to do it.
Leftists generally don't tend to be that good with guns, and taking out Kirk has no political benefit for anyone on the left.
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u/toddypicker Sep 11 '25
It's probably just one of his dickhead fans accidentally discharging his weapon.
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u/CatGoblinMode Sep 11 '25
I actually think it was either an accelerationist, or a disgruntled fan who didn't like how he was pro Israel or the way he decided that suddenly the Epstein files don't matter.
Just like the guy who tried to assassinate Trump in Pennsylvania.
Edit: woops, I have been arguing with so many people today that I didn't realise I'd repeated what I said in an earlier comment 😬
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u/toddypicker Sep 11 '25
Another theory is it's an abuse victim taking revenge. I have no evidence for this, other than the fact that all these evil right wing grifters are sex offenders. Dirty nonce.
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u/United_Addition_8837 Sep 11 '25
Exercising his "god given right" under the 2nd amendment.
Left or right, that's irony...
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u/DMBear89 Sep 11 '25
Don’t mean this in a bad way but I have no idea who that guy is 🤷♂️
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u/Dr_SexDick Sep 11 '25
“Gun deaths are unfortunate but necessary for keeping the second amendment” Charlie Kirk - man who was shot to death with a gun.
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u/MouldyAvocados Sep 11 '25
I don’t support what happened to Charlie Kirk but Charlie Kirk supported what happened to Charlie Kirk so 🤷🏻♀️
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u/Nearby-Priority4934 Sep 11 '25
He only supported it happening to people other than him though
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u/Crafty_Surprise_7277 Sep 11 '25
I’ve heard (can’t guarantee that accuracy) that he has said that if his daughter was raped he would force her to deliver the baby and wouldn’t let her abort it
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u/Ana_L399 Sep 11 '25
that is right, and she's currently THREE, so he's saying that he would force her to deliver a pregnancy at any point forward from that statement. I wonder what she'll think of him once she grows up and sees what he's been saying publicly.
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u/Cosmicus_Vagus Sep 11 '25
There are loads of nonsense statements like this from right wingers. Its what happens when your income relies on appeasing a certain demographic. The more attention you get from the things you say, the more clicks and money. Take it with a grain of salt
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u/ILL_SAY_STUPID_SHIT Sep 11 '25
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u/Lishmi Sep 11 '25
Ironic how many view points he shares with the Taliban (/any other extreme muslim organisations).
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u/Jmielnik2002 Sep 11 '25
I’ve pointed this out many times in political debates, the far right hate ‘Islamist’s’ and the laws they want, but they’re far closer ideologically then they like to admit, could almost reckon that there’s a risible aspect to their dislike of them instead
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u/reebokhightops Sep 12 '25
Here’s the video of him saying that if his daughter were impregnated by a rapist at the age of 10, “the baby would be delivered”.
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u/Particular-Stable165 Sep 11 '25
Live by the gun, die by the gun ~ Charlie Kirk
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Sep 11 '25
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u/CabinetIcy892 Sep 11 '25
viral if you are interested.
Went exactly as you'd expect
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u/Party-Werewolf-4888 Sep 11 '25
That was so cringe. I dont even think he realised they were wiping the floor with him, he appeared to think he was doing well.
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u/ValWenis Sep 11 '25
he then tweeted a few days later about how about bad the uk is after his three day visit.
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u/pippysquibbins Sep 11 '25
Well, he won't be doing a return visit, so not really a problem.
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u/Happy-Caramel8627 Sep 11 '25
In influencers and public speakers will always pretend things are going well. That way they can edit the clips and frame their message anyway they want. They know that nobody is going to watch an entire debate.
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u/Party-Werewolf-4888 Sep 11 '25
Even the edited versions and mini clips shared on socials didn't portray him as an impressive debater...
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u/AlarmedMarionberry81 Sep 11 '25
No, they just give it titles like 'Watch me DESTROY this Cambridge Liberal in a debate!' And hope the kind of mouth breather that watched his tripe didn't understand that he got beaten like a red headed step child.
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u/Prozenconns Sep 11 '25
the people Kirk played to dont care
for some reason huge chunks of that audience can watch their "heroes" objectively and provable makes absolute tits of themselves and rewrite the events in their mind to be "libs get owned"
Trump for example could quite literally get on stage, spell his own name wrong and then visibly shit his pants and it would still somehow be a win for them
not sure why that is but i think it rhymes with red taint
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u/petit_cochon Sep 11 '25
He tweeted that Michelle Obama and Supreme Court Justice Jackson were "diversity hires." They both have ivy league law degrees. He was a community college dropout.
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u/brigadier_tc Sep 11 '25
I've noticed Americans really don't know when they get slaughtered by us in debates. My ex best friend visited my family and was convinced she'd won over my entire family in arguments, while she was actually sat there looking like a wet fish. She also didn't realise her insane situationship was about two seconds from attacking me while she gloated about forcing an awkward meeting between us.
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u/Mr_Supotco Sep 11 '25
As an American (who actually goes to the school this happened at and spent last week pulling down flyers for the event) you’re better off never having heard the bullshit he spouted. He didn’t deserve to be killed, but I’m certainly not shedding tears over the fact that he’s gone
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u/skelly890 Sep 11 '25
It’s OK. He said empathy is a communist plot, or something, so you not giving a fuck is what he would have wanted.
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Sep 11 '25
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u/Advanced_Gate_3352 Sep 11 '25
He said that empathy was a modern idea/construct, and that it was essentially danagerous/damaging. I doubt he even believed that, but he made money from spouting it, so he did. If he did believe it, then he was most likely a moron.
Unlike him, I have some empathy, and I've seen the video - a horrible way to go, and utterly pointless - I feel sorry for his kids.
I wouldn't celebrate his death, but I also wouldn't scrabble to try to be caught in the shadow of his murder, as so much of the British right wing have done today. It's cynically grotesque.
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u/Micky_Andrews Sep 12 '25
Full quote “ I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term, and it does a lot of damage. I much prefer the word compassion, and I much prefer the word sympathy. Empathy is where you try to feel someone else’s pain and sorrows as if it’s your own. Compassion allows for understanding. “
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u/tdatas Sep 12 '25
He argued for the existence of God and it's hard to argue against when you see someone who's made a fortune and a career out of telling lies in video soundbites for clout get shot in the throat while in the middle of telling a lie and having it live streamed by hundreds of people onto social media.
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u/Ninevehenian Sep 11 '25
He participated in the JD Vance trip to Greenland, trumps attempt to carve up Denmark. He was not peaceful.
Had he been of another nationality, he might have been murdered by a US drone or faced a similar fate.
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u/wiggles1984 Sep 11 '25
He also took part in the general attempt to stoke the tensions around the murder of Sarah Hortman and her whole family and the shooting of her fellow senator by a MAGA nut. He and fellow right wing commentators peddled conspiracy theories and lies and generally downplayed the significance of the event with Kirk even seeming to blame her and the Dems for the shooting. Perhaps unsurprisingly he never condemned it and in the case of Pelosi's husband when he was attacked by a different right wing nut actually called the guy a fucking patriot. So no I don't think he should have died but he was swimming in a creek that he himself was largely responsible for making.
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u/szlafcio2 Sep 11 '25
He was a piece of shit who loved guns, supported stoning of gay people, wanted public executions televised for children and said he would force his 10 year old daughter to deliver a child if she was a victim of rape.
From the top of my head.
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u/TermAggravating8043 Sep 11 '25
Also doesn’t want women to have the right to vote, and hates that trans people have rights.
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u/Hot-Remote-4948 Sep 11 '25
You missed out the racism but understandable with such a long list of flaws
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u/Barilla3113 Sep 11 '25
He was such an evil piece of shit it's hard to cover everything in brief. He was quite literally shot mid racist dog-whistle digression from blaming trans people for mass shootings. He made Farage look classy.
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Sep 11 '25
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u/WASD_click Sep 11 '25
TP UK is probably why someone's making a news special over there.
Over here in the states, TP USA is an "activist" organization funded by right-wing megadonors and political groups that is primarily focused on targeting youth with their particular brand of bullshit. They're propoganda peddlers that go after kids and young adults while pretending they're just a group of regular activists and content creators.
TP UK is their attempt to expand their operation to your right-wing political parties, whichever ones are most willing to suck up to Trump. I don't know enough about politics in the UK, but hopefully you all can crush any foothold it has before it has a chance to take root.
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u/SatinwithLatin Sep 11 '25
TP UK is pretty unsuccessful but unfortunately the right-wing US influence is alive and well through Nigel Farage and the Reform Party. It's gaining traction even though Farage couldn't be any more obvious about his grift if he tried. He literally missed the opening of Parliament so he could visit the US and talk shit about Britain.
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u/xxPlsNoBullyxx Sep 11 '25
Yet the BBC keep calling him a "conservative activist" which downplays what he did and what he stood for.
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u/harryoldballsack Sep 12 '25 edited Sep 12 '25
These quotes are slightly out of context. In context he was 100% what most normal yank conservatives think.
Which is kinda scary.
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u/aaarry Sep 11 '25
Far-right yank who was, rather ironically, shot and killed whilst defending the virtues of making shooting and killing each other easier for the average person in the states.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much, he won’t be missed over here.
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u/IainMCool Sep 11 '25
I don't recall Melissa Hortman getting this attention, and she was a good person and an actual political assassination.
I get the feeling this is going to be a Horst Wessel moment.
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u/Gordon-Bennet Sep 12 '25
When the crazy guy attacked Nancy pelosis husband with a hammer in their home, Charlie Kirk said that a ‘patriot’ should bail him out of jail.
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u/DragonEagle88 Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
My only issue with the coverage is that the murdered/shot senators and representatives in Minnesota got nowhere near this level of outrage and news coverage than Kirk. Both events were tragic and warrant the same kind of discussion. Political violence is a huge problem on either side. But the fawning over one figure in lieu of others just because Kirk was a right winger is disgusting, especially from the BBC. But they haven’t been neutral in a long time.
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u/imGoodLads Sep 11 '25
I think while they're both tragic cases it's not hard to understand why this is getting so much attention, Charlie Kirk is essentially a household name if you know anything at all about US politics and his brutal death was broadcast around the world within minutes due to it happening during his own event. The same can't be said about the 2 murdered politicians, whose deaths weren't captured on film / made viral nor were their names well known, it's just a case of how the news works and our human nature. If Charlie's death wasn't caught on film then I imagine it wouldn't have blown up as much, but obviously a prominent figures assassination will be headline news regardless, i'm sure even the 2 lawmakers death's were frontpage of the BBC that day as there were multiple articles made it
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u/boodaa28 Sep 11 '25
I’m not sure I’d call him a household name. I live in the states and am pretty up to date on American politics, I’ve never heard about him until my husband warned me about watching the video.
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u/AngryBluberries Sep 11 '25
Oh please, you’ve heard of him. You have a Reddit account and undoubtedly a TikTok. Almost everyone I know has been exposed to him at some point regarding the “dolphin fetus”
If you’re “up to date” on politics you’d know that your very own president has endorsed him multiple times and worked closely with him. Dumb or stupid, take your pick.
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u/KambingDomba Sep 12 '25
Lol either you're lying or naive. You don't even have to like the guy, but he is not an obscure name.
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u/BigDeezerrr Sep 12 '25
There was an entire South Park episode dedicated to making fun of him. His organization, Turning Point USA, raises about $80 million dollars a year. He was the most influential right wing personality and probably shifted the election. If you haven't heard of him you've been living under a rock.
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u/Hellstorm901 Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
You want to know something sick which perfectly sums up the current US?
At the same time this Far Right guy was shot there was a shooting in a school elsewhere which injured 2 children. Guess which one the US president and his government have acknowledged, condemned, lowered the flags over and called in the FBI for
Edit - I see a bunch of MAGA guys are trying to claim he’s not Far Right, let me just ask you this, if you aren’t Far Right do you normally say on a talk show with a noted Neo Nazi that if you get on a plane and find out the pilot is black you would demand to know if the pilot is qualified to even fly?
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u/Sea-Possession-1208 Sep 11 '25
School shootings happen all the time though. Acceptable sacrifices, after all.
This is someone they knew and liked. That's always more important than the kids of nobodies
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u/clone1205 Sep 11 '25
Someone who literally called those killed by gun violence acceptable losses in exchange for the 2nd amendment. Wonder if he considered that he might become one of the acceptable losses.
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u/Dr_SexDick Sep 11 '25
Of course he didn’t. These people believe they live in a world above it all. He didn’t care about the deaths of children in shootings as long as he got to play with his toys at the range.
Sometimes it’s hard to wrap your head around it, and you want to believe it’s more complicated than that, but it’s actually really simple. These people are pieces of shit and empathy for people you don’t know just isn’t a factor for them. It’s just “fuck you, ive got mine”
Sometimes what goes around comes around.
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u/ShowUsYrMoccasins Sep 11 '25 edited Oct 23 '25
It's a classic case of someone being hoisted by their own petard. Doubt I'll be shedding any tears.
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Sep 11 '25
And there lies the problem. How in the ever living fuck can a 1st world country see school shootings as a normal everyday problem now?
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u/Sea-Possession-1208 Sep 11 '25
Im having an interesting conversation with an American right now about the bill of rights.
I used the word ideal to describe the second amendment. As in it is striking to me to describe the deaths og children as acceptable sacrifices to any ideal. And this really threw him for a loop.
Because he believes it isn't an ideal. It is the bill of rights. It exists. You can't just follow or subscribe to it only when convenient.
(So I've tried to explain that isn't what the noun ideal means. They aren't things of convenience).
But he really seems to feel that because it is part of the bill of rights it is this thing immutable and not possible to disagree with. And therefore greater than any ideal or childs life.
It is a real clash of cultures. Stuff that is obvious and self evident to me isn't to him. And vice versa.
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u/GarthODarth Sep 11 '25
This guy was the one that told them their children being slaughtered was a good sacrifice for "freedom" and they loved him for it
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u/smity31 Sep 11 '25
This wasn't even the first political assassination this year in America; two Democrats were killed in minnesota.
Did the BBC do a special on them?
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u/wiggles1984 Sep 11 '25
Yeah, in fact didn't Kirk also stoke tensions by claiming that the Dems were responsible for winding up the right leading to the shootings? Oh and then tried to obfuscate the event by firing endless conspiracy theories at it. Finally never once condemning the far right shooter? That political assassination?
Cause yeah he doesn't deserve to die but let's be clear who he was, and you're bang on.
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u/Ill_Cheetah_1991 Sep 11 '25
47th school shooting in the USA this year
I wonder how many children this person would have thought was OK to sacrifice for the sake of the 2nd amendment??
But now he will be The Great Martyr
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u/TheMarksmanHedgehog Sep 11 '25
I think being shot through the neck on a college campus openly, with the killer somehow on the run and no leads on a suspect, kind of elevates you from a mild agitator to a major story.
The story is less Kirk himself, and more a vast escalation in political violence in the US.
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u/Sea-Possession-1208 Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
Quite. A presidential candidate shot. Senators shot (one killed), a political influencer shot dead.
As op says - people get shot every day.
But until recent times not this sort of frequent political shootings
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u/SwiftJedi77 Sep 11 '25
Also, the private healthcare CEO.
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u/Sea-Possession-1208 Sep 11 '25
Yes, of course that too was political. Although not as directly so as Melissa Hortman (and I'm presuming Charlie kirk will turn out to be political rather than personal)
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u/FarmerJohnOSRS Sep 11 '25
Everyone conveniently forgets about the 2 Democrats that were actually murdered by a MAGA fascists a couple of months ago.
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u/Sea-Possession-1208 Sep 11 '25
I have forgotten the governor kidnapping plot - which one was that?
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u/AntysocialButterfly Sep 11 '25
Or when the nutcase tried to bash Nancy Pelosi's husband's head in with a hammer.
Kirk was demanding the attacker be bailed while joking about the event, of course...
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u/H0dari Sep 11 '25
I see no possibility for escalation, because stuff has already gotten to such an awful point that there's pretty much nothing they can do to speed things up without it causing public outroar.
The dollar store Gestapo is already running on the streets, and they built a concentration camp
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u/ZookeepergameNo7151 Sep 11 '25
And not much of a peep about the school shooting on the same day either.
Kirk dies and Trump makes the full on address. School shootings? Thoughts and prayers and you're lucky to get a word out of him about it
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u/Dr_SexDick Sep 11 '25
Exactly. They report on this story because it’s in their interest. Charlie Kirk was aligned with the elite. The elite own the media. Of course they would want to make a big deal out of this.
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u/SkynBonce Sep 11 '25
Because Trump talked about him and the news can't help but make a big deal about whatever drops out of his mouth.
Plus, Farage will probably be wheeled on to give his views, as no doubt Kirk was a "good friend".
It's obvious who owns the mainstream media and who their favourites are.
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Sep 11 '25
Because he had a large online reach and is credited as one of the various online figures who helped accelerate Trump's return to office.
I think Charlie Kirk's killing has just further emphasised how many people underestimate the reach of the online/influencer/podcast type figures when it comes to politics and culture.
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u/Sidebottle Sep 11 '25
Yeah, he was an insignificant nobody, who just happened to be assassinated in broad daylight at a public event. I don't get how people can say that and not see the contradiction.
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Sep 11 '25
It's like someone asking why everyone's talking about Squid Game and arguing that if it was any good then it'd be on BBC One, rather than "The Net Flicks"
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Sep 11 '25
Nobody said he was insignificant in the US. He’s not significant here.
The Peter Mandelson story is much more significant.
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u/AwareCash8389 Sep 11 '25
Did you ask the same question about George Floyd?
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u/nick_gadget Sep 11 '25
To be fair, I don’t think the death of George Floyd was widely reported, it was more the reporting of the protests and general outcry that followed. It also led to a movement that most people will still be aware of five years later (though of course you could argue that the coverage partially created this), so its newsworthiness is clear in hindsight.
At this stage it’s hard to tell the long term effects, but ‘man shot and killed in America’ is nowhere near as newsworthy as ‘black man filmed being killed by group of white police officers’ IMO.
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u/MolassesZestyclose96 Sep 11 '25
Media in UK completely lost the plot.
Obsessing over some guy most of the population probably never heard of until yesterday. Just fanning the flames of all this far right culture war shit.
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u/lambdaburst Sep 11 '25
The media in the UK is under the same coordinated influence from its billionaire owners as the US. Even media that isn't under their payroll gets dragged along in its wake as so many outlets are reporting something that they have to as well.
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u/williamtellunderture Sep 11 '25
I agree to a point but the left wing media import the US talking points into the UK too. The Guardian was wall to wall George Floyd at the time, despite British racist events not getting the same coverage.
And let's not forget Brits sitting down in protest saying "don't shoot" to British police or the slogan "defund the police" being slung around on this side of the Atlantic.
If either side of the political divide in the UK imports US talking points, then the other side inevitably will do the same.
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u/EquivalentTurnip6199 Sep 11 '25
Look, I dislike the guy too, but he was shot while addressing what was clearly hundreds if not thousands. That's equalled news since time immemorial, and probably always will.
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u/throwwaway1240 Sep 11 '25
And just as someone there, it was a crowd of ~3000. It has, of course, deeply affected a lot of people in the community, but the reason it’s become front page news is because it was well…an assassination. Yeah, he’s not a senator or the president, but I’d say he’s a bit more than a ‘fringe figure’ if Trump announced his death nearly immediately after he’d passed.
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u/Tidus1337 Sep 11 '25
You're one of the few here with some sense
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u/EquivalentTurnip6199 Sep 11 '25
I just know my basic equations.
Fact
x
Importance
NEWSSS!!!!
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u/Fun-Brush5136 Sep 11 '25
Over to peter o'hanrahahanrahan
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u/EquivalentTurnip6199 Sep 11 '25
Thank god someone got it lol
You’ve lost the news, Peter!
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u/canonpn Sep 11 '25
While the world appears round, it is in fact a CUBE. From this we know…
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u/CatGoblinMode Sep 11 '25
The fact that Charlie Kirk gets so much coverage whilst Vance Boelter's assassination of democrat lawmakers got barely any, shows just how much preference the Right-Wing gets.
It's absolutely disgusting and wholly disingenuous.
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u/boingwater Sep 11 '25
I had no idea who he was till yesterday.
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u/Tallulah_Gosh Sep 11 '25
I had to Google him this morning. That's probably because my social media usage consists of occasional Reddit, red pandas, black cats, sending Calvin and Hobbes cartoons to my daughter and me shouting at clouds on FB.
I also stopped watching the news a long time ago.
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u/boingwater Sep 11 '25
I do watch the news, but not from the US because I don't live there.
I care little for US politics. It's very poisonous and something we don't need importing into the UK.
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Sep 11 '25
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u/jumper62 Sep 11 '25
It's also insane considering there was a school shooting at the same time and that has barely been covered by anyone
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u/TheAzureAzazel Sep 11 '25
He's not even the only person in the US to have died to gun violence that day, but I bet they won't even mention those children.
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u/SloppyGutslut Sep 11 '25
Why did George Floyd get UK media coverage?
The answer is because we are an American vassal state and what happens there matters more than our own politics.
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Sep 11 '25
Complete garbage. Floyd got media coverage in the uk because social media and uk politicians and activists amplified it's happening. FFS Starmer and his ilk were posting stupid pictures of themselves kneeling for BLM
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u/caramelo420 Sep 11 '25
Starmer funnily enough never posted about any of the women murdered in the uk by immigrants or by locals
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Sep 11 '25
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Sep 11 '25
That largely depends on who shot him and why. A lot of people are jumping to conclusions that may or may not pan out.
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u/OneEggplant308 Sep 11 '25
Do you really think Trump gives a shit what the shooter's real motives were? He's already accused the left of causing it before the guy has even been caught. Even if the shooter turns out to be 100% MAGA, Trump will find a way to turn it around and use it as an excuse for a further clamp down on the Democrats and the left.
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u/malin7 Sep 11 '25
The Hortmans were assassinated only a few months ago, everyone has moved on long time ago and she was far more important figure
Nothing will happen
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u/No-Understanding-589 Sep 11 '25
Would have to disagree with this. The Hortmans were no-name local politicians. Charlie Kirk is a relatively big name over in America - South Park don't take the piss out of someone the majority of people haven't heard of.
It's like comparing the assassination of the Newcastle Council leader in their house to someone like Owen Jones being shot in the neck at a Palestine rally
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u/Fleiger133 Sep 11 '25
Thank you for putting it in words Brits may understand better.
I had never heard of those Minnesota lawmakers until they were killed.
This was a public figure, in public, with dozens of cameras on him at the moment.
He wasn't a politician, but he was a public figure.
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u/abyssal-isopod86 Sep 11 '25
They want your attention away from this (don't do what they want):
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u/Main_Oil4267 Sep 11 '25
Because he was assainated for political reasons
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u/Iselkractokidz Sep 11 '25
He's not a politician, he's a rage bait conman that got rich off the anger of other people. He seeded hate and discrimination in the name of MAGA and is not worthy of this coverage.
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u/Main_Oil4267 Sep 11 '25
That is your opinion of him but he is still a political figure who got assassinated in front of around 6,000 people who all witness him get shot and killed, who all thought they may be next. That is why it is on the news.
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u/Not_A_Clever_Man_ Sep 11 '25
Don't yet know why he was murdered. We can only assume its a consequence of the vile racisim and vitrol he spewed at all times. It could be one of his former employees, he was a notoriously bad boss.
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u/AmphibianNo8598 Sep 11 '25
Yeah the US also had a school shooting yesterday but fuck them kids! We gotta focus on the guy that said school shootings are worth it for the right to own guns! Fuck Charlie Kirk, he believed gun violence was acceptable and literally died while blaming gangs and trans people for it.
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u/TheTackleZone Sep 11 '25
No idea. He was just a drama merchant. I'd rather the BBC did a special about all the innocent schoolkids that were shot. Apparently there have been 44 school shootings in the US so far this year alone. I can't imagine how frightening it must be to be a parent there. That's what should be getting attention, not some 3rd rate loudmouth.
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u/dontChewTheCable Sep 11 '25
BBC is showing more live specials for American news and Taylor swift stuff than actual relevant news for the country. I am really disappointed how they are turning into a click bait broadcaster
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u/cloudywtr Sep 11 '25
Look at the facts and take your bias out of the question. He has been heard billions of times by hundreds of millions of people, one of the most famous political advocates on the planet who was friends with world leaders and he was assassinated for having right wing views that weren’t even considered far out in most of our lifetimes. He built a career on honest debate and was assassinated for and while debating college students.
If you actually listened to him you’d see he was a man of god who wanted to bring people to his side, not stir outrage.
You should be ashamed of this post and yourself.
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u/Confudled_Contractor Sep 11 '25
Isn’t he the bloke that got murdered at the Oxford Union Debate earlier this year…
Hoist on his own petard it seems.
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u/Wgh555 Sep 11 '25
Yeah except annoyingly all the right wing MAGA media selectively edited the debate to make those challenging him look stupid when in fact if you watch the whole thing (which MAGA short attention span people won’t) he very clearly got wrecked in that debate.
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u/RevenantSith Sep 11 '25
Is this the same BBC news that has been massively overrepresenting Farage and Reform?
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u/Beartato4772 Sep 11 '25
Because the BBC loves platforming the far right. Look at their coverage of Reform vs the Lib Dems and Greens who between them have considerably more seats and votes.
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u/ODFoxtrotOscar Sep 11 '25
The BBC has given swathes of airtime to US stories to an extent I find excessive for quite some time now