In the wake of an attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a campaign rally on Saturday, July 13, many accusations of bias were made about how media outlets reported on the Trump Rally Shooting.

CNN (Lean Left bias), for example, received a lot of backlash online for originally reporting that “Secret Service rushes Trump off stage after he falls at rally.”

Nearly one week after the Trump rally shooting that claimed the life of a volunteer fire chief and injured three others – including Trump – the story has sparked misinformation, allegations of motives, and accusations of Secret Service and law enforcement failures before the assassination attempt.

To better understand how biased news media outlets covered the aftermath of the rally shooting, AllSides conducted an analysis of 20 national outlets covering the political spectrum between July 16-18 (see how AllSides did this). Here’s what we found.

Words and Phrases Used Most by Outlets

In the time period analyzed, many words were used at roughly similar rates across the political spectrum, such as “assassination” and “security,” as seen in the chart above.

AllSides also found that some words were used at different rates among left- and right-rated media outlets.

For example, the would-be assassin’s name – Thomas Crooks – was mentioned slightly more by outlets on the right than those in the center or on the left.

Many of the mentions focused on Crooks’ actions leading up to the assassination attempt, though outlets also mentioned his name in regards to the investigation into his personality and potential motives. 

Outlets on the right emphasized the identification of Crooks prior to the shooting. “Fox News’s Aishah Hasnie reported that Barrasso told her the Secret Service had identified Crooks, 20, as a ‘character of suspicion’ because of the range finder as well as a backpack ‘more than an hour’ before the shooting,” Breitbart (Right bias) said. 

The left tended to mention Crooks actions leading up to the shooting in more general terms than the right.

“Questions surrounding how Crooks was able to perch on a rooftop roughly 410 feet away from Trump after being spotted by both bystanders and the Secret Service before he took aim continue to swirl,” said Daily Beast (Left bias). 

However, CNN (Lean Left) was specific in detailing Crooks’ actions: “Around 11 p.m., Crooks’ father reported him missing, law enforcement officials told CNN. His father told agents that he believed his son had taken the rifle Saturday to go to the shooting range and thought he would be back by around 1:00 p.m., the sources said.

After the shooting, multiple law enforcement sources said investigators found a bulletproof vest, three fully-loaded magazines, and two remote-controlled explosive devices in Crooks’ car.

Investigators are uncertain as to whether Crooks had a plan to use the body armor, nearly 100 rounds of additional ammunition from those loaded magazines, and two remote-controlled bombs, had he escaped after the shooting.

Additionally, after a search of his residence, investigators discovered another bulletproof vest, another remote-controlled explosive device, and a 3D printer, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

In the last several months, Crooks received multiple packages, including some marked as possibly containing hazardous materials, according to a joint FBI and Department of Homeland Security bulletin obtained by CNN.”

Secret Service and its Director’s Name Mentioned More on the Right

Like mentions of the shooter’s name, outlets on the right mentioned the Secret Service at a higher rate, and mentioned its director – Kimberly Cheatle – at over double the rate as outlets on the left.

Some of the mentions pointed out that Cheatles reasoning for not securing the building Crooks shot from was due to the “sloped roof.”

Not only was the right concerned about the security lapse during the rally, but they often connected it to Cheatles emphasis on DEI programs. 

“Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022, has been clear about her intention to have women make up 30 percent of recruits by 2030,” said National Review (Right bias). 

Others on the right referred to Cheatle’s upcoming House hearing where she will answer questions about the security during the rally.

“The exigent question for Congress is whether Cheatle’s DEI initiatives have expanded the Secret Service’s talent pool or led to the hiring of weak applicants.” said the Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias). 

Outlets on the left mentioned Cheatle far less often, only referring to her comments or lack thereof on the shooting, the security of the rally, and her upcoming House appearance. While they did not focus on DEI, here is what Slate (Left bias) said about the comments: “Further reporting from the Associated Press defused the Secret Service DEI theory by confirming that a local police officer had noticed the shooter on the roof and backed away after Crooks had pointed a gun in his direction.”

Accusations and Assumptions Fly About Shooter’s Ideology

Outlets on the left were more likely to focus on Crooks’ personality profile and potential motives than those on the right. 

“When we learned that the shooter was Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old registered Republican and gun enthusiast, the right went into overdrive, either dismissing his ideological affiliations or pointing out that he’d appeared in a 2022 commercial from frequent conservative villain BlackRock,” Slate said about Crooks’ ideology. 

“...the more we learn about the shooter, the less it makes sense to analyze his actions in conventional ideological terms. Though details remain sparse, this appears to be a story less about fanatical partisanship than about the crisis of lonely and disconnected young men being radicalized into pure nihilism,” said New York Times Opinion (Left bias).

Fox News (Right bias) mentioned, “The high school loner was a registered Republican but donated to a progressive campaign in 2021.”

How AllSides Conducted This Analysis

AllSides analyzed 20 outlets for this analysis, including four Left-rated outlets (Daily Beast, HuffPost, MSNBC, Slate), four Lean Left-rated outlets (Associated Press, CNN, NBC News, New York Times), four Center-rated outlets (Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, BBC News, Reuters), four Lean Right-rated outlets (New York Post, National Review, Washington Examiner, Washington Times), and four Right-rated outlets (Fox News, Breitbart, Newsmax, Daily Wire). All outlets selected appear on the AllSides Media Bias Chart™.

The chart showing outlets “on the left” combines data from Left and Lean Left-rated outlets, and the same applies to Right and Lean Right-rated outlets appearing as “on the right.”

The story collection process involved collecting the top story (i.e. the story closest to the top of a page) mentioning an aspect of the Trump rally shooting in its headline, excluding stories that were labeled as updating live, on each outlet’s homepage on three separate dates: July 16, 17, and 18. Stories were always collected at 4:30pm ET on each respective day. 

There were 60 stories collected in total throughout this process. Stories used in the analysis included op-eds and excluded videos without accompanying written text.

In total, 20,814 words were analyzed from outlets rated on the left by AllSides, 8,362 from outlets rated Center, and 15,930 from outlets rated on the right.

This piece was written by Andrew Weinzierl (Lean Left bias) and Clare Ashcraft (Center bias). Andrew is the Bias Research Manager & Data Journalist at AllSides. Clare is the Bridging & Bias Specialist at AllSides.

This piece was reviewed by AllSides’ News & Bias Assistant Johnathon Held (Lean Right bias).