THEY ALL WERE WRONG

As most of us know, American conservative activist and Radio personality Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025.

It was a horrible shooting, especially due to the fact that Charlie was shot in the neck in public, and his two little kids will have to live with that fact for the rest of their lives. I wrote a short article about the killing just over a week ago. The alleged shooter, a young man named Tyler Robinson, was arrested on September 11th, around 11 p.m. Utah time, over 24 hours after the shooting occurred.

As we all saw the various video footage that was either posted by members of the crowd, or the footage posted by Law enforcement, it appeared that the shooter was fairly adept at jumping off a 15 foot ledge, and escaping from Law enforcement for over 24 hours.

RAMPANT SPECULATION, AND MORE RAMPANT SPECULATION

During the evening after the shooting, and through the next day, as law enforcement was still trying to find the shooter, there was a LOT of speculation on the internet -- not only concerning who or what might be behind the shooting, but also there was a LOT of speculation about the identification of the shooter himself. This speculation only increased after the pictures of the suspect (who we now know as Tyler Robinson) were posted online by Utah and Federal Law enforcement.

I noticed a lot of this speculation on such internet outlets as X/Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and even some on the liberal social media site BlueSky. There were liberals that thought that some conservative conspiracy was behind the shooting. There were conservatives that were convinced that it was some liberal cabal.

There was speculation that the shooter was a sniper in the military. There was speculation about a 'mystery' airplane (including the tail number being given out over social media) that supposedly turned off a transponder after it left the airport soon after the shooter disappeared.  Some ex-military men were insisting that the shooter wasn't really skilled, and definitely had no military training. Other people, who claimed to have extensive experience with firearms, said otherwise.

But that wasn't the worst of it. There were at least two or three different people who were ID'ed as the suspect -- not by law enforcement, but by internet sleuths. One victim of this speculation and finger pointing was a guy who had gotten into a heated debate with Charlie Kirk a year ago. There were numerous people who put his photo up, next to the pic of the suspect that was released by the FBI, and they claimed that the debater guy was the suspect.

Then there was a local Utah musician who apparently posted a negative song about Charlie Kirk (with a title I won't repeat here), who had a slight facial resemblance -- in some social media pics -- to the somewhat blurry, AI enhanced vid stills of the shooting suspect.

In fact, some were claiming that the Utah musician would be arrested. The musician was apparently involved in the LGBTQ+ scene. Their pic was now plastered over social media, in association with the Kirk shooting. The Utah musician took down their song, but people still were insisting that they would be arrested as the prime shooting suspect.

THEY ALL WERE WRONG.

All of the speculations were dead wrong. There has been no convincing evidence put forth that indicates a conspiracy -- either by right wing or left wing underground organizations. The 'mystery' airplane turned out to have absolutely nothing to do with the shooting, and it turns out that some small aircraft -- if they have transponders -- sometimes turn them off routinely when they are away from airports. 

The poor guy who was heatedly debating Charlie Kirk last year -- who some were saying just had to be the shooter -- was completely innocent. The Utah musician who was pointed out as someone who would 'soon be arrested' was completely innocent. Another person, possibly associated with that Utah musician, who posted a cryptic post that got taken down off social media -- he was also innocent.

INTERNET = GOOD; INTERNET ALSO CAN = BAD

The internet is a pretty big place, where there are a lot of smart people, and some insightful and analytical people as well. It also is a place where it's very easy to be swayed by information that may appear to be one thing, but is the exact opposite.

I hope that one thing most of us take away from this horrible event is that we should always be suspicious when others online insist they KNOW that ________ did _________.

There's an old saying that is about as accurate as it gets: CORRELATION DOES NOT ALWAYS EQUAL CAUSATION.

In fact, if often NEVER does.

Always be skeptical of 'facts' you see on the internet and social media, folks, especially when tempers are running high.

Whether one is right, center, or left on the political spectrum, a hefty dose of skepticism is one of the healthiest tendencies you can have.

My next posted article will be back to Radio, which is my happy place. :-)

Peace.

C.C. September 26th, 2025.