![Before Charlie Kirk Was Shot, He Torched the Media, CNN’s Van Jones’ Zarutska Murder Coverage [WATCH]](https://www.lifezette.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2025.09.10-08.09-lifezette-68c1db141f2ed.jpg "Before Charlie Kirk Was Shot, He Torched the Media, CNN’s Van Jones’ Zarutska Murder Coverage [WATCH]")
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk criticized corporate media outlets Tuesday for their handling of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, arguing that the selective coverage of violent crime has exposed contradictions in the prevailing racial narrative.
During an appearance on Fox News’ The Will Cain Show, Kirk said the stabbing death of Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, initially received little coverage from major networks until public backlash forced a response.
He said this pattern revealed how race-centered reporting has distorted public perception of crime.
“We’re the least racist country ever to exist in the history of the world,” Kirk said.
“In fact, if you want to actually talk about race-focused activity, why is it that you then ignore all the race-focused activity of black on white crime? Will, I want to live in a race-neutral country. I don’t like talking about race all the time, but when I see it, and I see the left ignore it, and we try to make them live up to their own standard of rules that they force fed us during the chaos of 2020, it really goes to show the destruction that this can lead to the entire nation.”
Kirk accused left-leaning media outlets of emphasizing narratives of white-on-black violence while minimizing or ignoring black-on-white crimes.
“The media doesn’t care about this, and we should start asking why,” Kirk said.
“It doesn’t fit a narrative. This is my most charitable reading. The narrative that they have pushed forward in the last 10 years is that there is a relentless assault against black people on behalf of white people, and the data does not show that.”
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Kirk went on to say that the post-2020 emphasis on systemic racism has reshaped public institutions and corporate practices without aligning with statistical realities.
“White individuals are actually more likely to be attacked, especially even per capita, by black individuals in this country,” Kirk said.
“The narrative that they have tried to force feed this nation post 2020 is that we are a systemically racist country to our core. We started to say the word racist more. We started to redesign our corporations. We started to teach things in our classrooms that were from the 1619 project, and all of this has now been met with an appropriate backlash where people said we’re actually not nearly as racist as you say we are.”
Kirk added that the issue is not confined to rhetoric, but affects real-world decisions.
He pointed to policing policies and government payouts as examples of policies influenced by what he described as an unchallenged media-driven narrative.
“The final thing I’ll say is this is more than just a semantic argument. This is more than just whether or not it’s a race thing or not,” Kirk said.
“Bad policing practices, consent decrees, opening up the prisons. As you say, $3.3 million is an outgrowth of a media narrative lie. So it’s not just an innocent media narrative lie. Real policies get put into place when you don’t challenge this nonsense in the public schools.”
The discussion followed the release of footage showing bystanders rushing to assist Zarutska after she was stabbed on a Charlotte train in August. The video circulated widely online, drawing attention to the attack.
Axios published a report on Monday claiming that “MAGA influencers” were exploiting the incident to promote concerns about violent crime.
The piece drew criticism on social media, with opponents accusing the outlet of minimizing the lack of coverage from national outlets.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also shared multiple posts about the incident on X, highlighting what he described as a double standard in how media outlets cover crimes depending on the race of those involved.
Why is “white” always in lowercase, but Black is uppercase, @nytimes?
The NY Times is deliberate, precise and comprehensive in its anti-White racism. https://t.co/4edUTAWsjU
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2025
Time for MASSIVE change in America
pic.twitter.com/IyUpNRHB2e— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 10, 2025
F NYT https://t.co/mdXZ8EFLcA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 10, 2025
Critics of the muted response compared it to the extensive coverage of Jordan Neely’s death in 2023 after he was restrained by Marine veteran Daniel Penny on a New York subway.
The contrast, they argued, further demonstrated inconsistencies in how violent incidents are presented to the public depending on the narrative being advanced.
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“The attacker said, quote, ‘I got that white girl.’ The moment we make them live up to their own standard, they start to cry foul.” — @charliekirk11 pic.twitter.com/mAN4CCI1lH
— Real America’s Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) September 9, 2025
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