American news magazine Newsweek retracted a headline Tuesday that incorrectly claimed author and Daily Wire host Candace Owens said transgender surgery turned the Nashville shooter into a monster.
As the nation mourned the murder of three children and three adults at the hands of a 28-year-old mass shooter inside the Covenant School, a Presbyterian preschool through 6th-grade institution in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville, the news outlet published an article early Tuesday morning smearing Owens in the headline.
Newsweek originally published the headline: “Candace Owens Says Transgender Surgery Made Nashville Shooter Into Monster.” By Tuesday afternoon, Newsweek issued a retraction, admitting the inaccuracy of the headline.
“Great news! @Newsweek has issued a retraction and changed the hideous lie of a headline which was written by one of their many lying LGBTQ activists, @shannonjpower,” Owens said in a tweet. “I will not tolerate blatant smears against me meant to inspire violence against my family. ”
Great news! @Newsweek has issued a retraction and changed the hideous lie of a headline which was written by one of their many lying LGBTQ activists, @shannonjpower.
I will not tolerate blatant smears against me meant to inspire violence against my family. pic.twitter.com/elU9HEMEiZ
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 28, 2023
Newsweek crafted the false headline based on a quote tweet Owens posted that showed transgender activists assaulting right-wing YouTube personality Alex Stein at a rally, which made no mention of the Nashville shooter in the tweet.
“When you play Frankenstein with people’s body’s parts, you can’t be surprised when they behave like monsters,” Owens said in the quote tweet from filmmaker Mike Cernovich. “A person willing to execute violence upon his/her own body will not hesitate to impart violence onto someone else’s.”
When you play Frankenstein with people’s body’s parts, you can’t be surprised when they behave like monsters.
A person willing to execute violence upon his/her own body will not hesitate to impart violence onto someone else’s. https://t.co/e1kMt73XCu
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 28, 2023
Owens later called out pop culture and entertainment reporter Shannon Power, warning her to look out for her lawyer’s cease and desist letter regarding the “FLAGRANT LIE of a headline.”
“You wrote this headline intentionally to send an army of trans people to send death threats to me— which they are doing,” Owens said. “An impossible conclusion for me to have made because NO ONE KNOWS IF THE SHOOTER HAD SURGERY. You are a lying piece of filth.”
Hey Shannon! Be sure to look out for the cease and desist letter from my lawyer regarding this FLAGRANT LIE of a headline of something that I NEVER ONCE asáis about the Nashville shooter, ever. @Newsweek @shannonjpower —lying psychopath. pic.twitter.com/zD1zJg5YAC
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 28, 2023
The shooter, whom the Daily Wire will not name per company policy, was a white 28-year-old Nashville woman who recently identified as a man. Just before 10:30 a.m. on Monday, the shooter entered the school “armed with two assault-type rifles and a handgun,” police said until law enforcement fatally shot her.
Police identified the six victims, including three 9-year-old children and three adults 60 years old and above. According to the Metro Nashville Police Department, the victims are “Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9, Cynthia Peak, age 61, Katherine Koonce, age 60, and Mike Hill, age 61.” Koonce was the head of the Covenant School.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake said the shooting was a “targeted attack,” later revealing authorities found maps of the school drawn in detail, including points of entry, and a “manifesto” indicating the shooter planned on attacking multiple locations. The police chief said authorities have a theory on the shooter’s motive but have not disclosed further information.
It remains unconfirmed if the shooter had undergone transgender surgery or had started using testosterone.
Owens later tweeted that the public deserves to know if the shooter had started taking such drugs to transition from female to male, accusing the pharmaceutical industry of contributing to gun violence.
“No one talks about big pharma’s contribution to shootings,” Owens said. “Virtually all of these psychopaths are on anti-depressants, hormones (trans), anti-psychotics, etc. Hold Pharma execs responsible for their human experiments.”
We deserve to know exactly what drugs Audrey Hale was on.
No one talks about big pharma’s contribution to shootings. Virtually all of these psychopaths are on anti-depressants, hormones (trans), anti-psychotics, etc.
Hold Pharma execs responsible for their human experiments.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 28, 2023
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The unethical move from Newsweek comes weeks after left-wing publications, including Rolling Stone, Yahoo News, Huffington Post, and The Daily Beast, falsely framed Daily Wire host Michael Knowles’ controversial statement at the Conservative Political Action Conference in which he called for an end to transgenderism ideology.
Knowles told a crowd at the conservative event that men cannot become women, and women cannot become men, adding that society must help gender dysphoric people, not encourage them to seek sex changes.
However, the mentioned news outlets caused listening comprehension-challenged leftists to interpret Knowles’ words as a call for ‘genocide’ to eradicate transgender people, not an ideology.
The Daily Beast edited its original headline, which stated Knowles called for the “transgender community” to be eradicated to reflect that the podcast host called for eradicating “transgenderism,” not people who believe they are transgender.
Rolling Stone made a similar update.
Greg Wilson contributed to this report.
