Both Blue Anon and MAGA keep asking why we know so little about Thomas Crooks compared to other mass shooters and attempted assassins. As someone who reported some of what we found out about him early on, it's simply because he had almost no on line footprint compared to the others. To find out/
A lot of those people haven’t read any of the many deep dives into Crooks. I agree we know about what you’d expect about a reclusive 20yo from a reclusive family.
We know enough about him to say it’s utterly far fetched that he was part of any conspiracy, let alone any kind of professional plot.
Seriously? Butler was absolutely a false flag to help Trump get elected.
We know where he got his weapons, we know how he went about planning the shooting online, we know he had mental health struggles. I think this is more of an existential hunger for meaning than a true lack of info about Crooks.
I would argue there's a bit of what I said as well mixed in. You see much more early, on the ground reporting on crime stories and things outside Manhattan and DC from right wing outlets, bc of those structural things I mention.
Absolutely
yes, there is also the evergreen problem that people insist what they haven't read doesn't exist lol
more about Crooks, reporters would need to really dig locally in his town, talk to family, neighbors and coworkers, and very little of our current media has any ability to talk to people outside DC feed-me laundered info circles. The few outlets that can do that reporting well tend to be right wing/
like Daily Mail and New York Post. I am decent at that reporting but it takes resources like outlets paying reporters to go to those places, and nothing is oriented that way or funded in non right wing media. That's it, it's simple and structural (and bad.)
Great insight! My friends/family here in Sicily were asking about this last night, and why there has been no additional coverage about him and the shooting. I'll relay this. Do his parents still live in PA? Also, there doesn't seem to be much reporting on the 2 injured & man who died.
What would the monthly stipend be from an outlet? How is it structured? Do you get 3 months then reevaluate for another 3 or what’s the time frame you’re usually allowed in a contract like that? You make money selling the story and then media? Does independent reporting have investors? Like bands?
i think it was staged
Did he scrub his online presence or just never have one? Can you tell?
He seemed to have almost none, unless we just can't find it. Not everything is findable, but the FBI didn't seem to find much either and prepTrump FBI probably wasn't part of some unlikely conspiracy either.
Sad that no local reporter has the time and willingness to dig in. Or maybe that there are no local reporters nearby anymore.
Local news is really decimated
And local reporting in rural areas — where there are baseline issues in establishing trust and good faith, and all kinds of subtle and opaque power structures — is hard work. There are maybe one or two people in rural WNC (west of Asheville) who remain and do it well.
Sounds like an opportunity for national media to support local everywhere, maybe through a clearing house, that would help bolster hometown reporting. I guess these use to be called syndicates?