Rumors & Speculation

Opportunists use tragic UT knife attack to further agendas, and the public helps spread the word

The nation was shocked Monday by news of a knife attack at the University of Texas campus in Austin.

One person killed—a freshman named Harrison Brown—and three others wounded. Police arrested a suspect, a 21-year-old UT student named Kendrex J. White. So far authorities haven’t suggested a motive, though there have been reports that White has a history of mental health issues.

It’s a tragedy. For many parents of college students it was yet another example of a terrible nightmare coming true.

And for some it was an opportunity to advance an agenda.

It wasn’t long before websites and blogs on both political extremes, as well as social media, were ablaze with rumors and speculation.

It was an Islamic terror attack. It was stopped by a student with a concealed carry permit. If the killer had used a gun instead of a knife, many more innocent victims would have perished. Radical Islam? No evidence of that so far. Stopped by a student legally carrying a gun? Inspired by a post on Twitter that has not been confirmed by anyone.

If a gun had been used instead of knife, more would have died? Speculation, nothing more.

All of these things sound plausible, especially if you are already inclined toward the view represented. None are fact as far as we know. But those who want to use such tragedies to their own ends don’t care about that. They know these stories will be swallowed whole and shared by thousands without so much as a perfunctory check to confirm accuracy. And that’s the purpose. Because once these things are out there, they will be believed. Even if proven to be totally false, they will be believed.

It really doesn’t matter where your fit on the political spectrum. Right, center, left—doesn’t matter at all. The willingness to accept and, even worse, share this kind of stuff, the trend of ideology over fact, is why “fake news” flourishes.