On Saturday, two students at Brown University were killed and nine others were wounded in a shooting on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus. A “person of interest” was being held by authorities Sunday for a short time. A motive wasn’t known as of Sunday evening. However, that person was released later Sunday night and authorities said “that evidence now points in a different direction.”
In an interesting moment, CNN’s John Berman interviewed his son, Joe, who sheltered in place on the Brown University campus during the shooting. Berman told viewers, “Joe doesn’t go to Brown, but happened to pick last night to visit one of his best friends who does go here.”
Mediaite’s Sean James has more on that interview.
Also, from The Washington Post, it’s Gaya Gupta, Todd Wallack and Joanna Slater with “What happened inside the Brown University classroom the gunman stormed.”
And one more from the Post: Daniel Wu with “She survived a school shooting in high school. It happened again at Brown.”
During a Christmas event at the White House on Sunday, President Donald Trump said, “I want to just pay my respects to the people, unfortunately, two are no longer with us, Brown University, nine injured, and two are looking down on us right now from heaven. And likewise, in Australia, that was a terrible attack — 11 dead, 29 badly wounded, and that was an antisemitic attack, obviously. And I just want to pay my respects to everybody. It was a rough day.”
One more column
Xochitl Gonzalez — a Brown graduate and a current trustee at the school — has a powerful piece in The Atlantic: “America Is Failing Its Children.”
Gonzalez writes, “Every mass shooting in America fills me with sorrow, but this particular incident has been coupled with a dose of nihilism. Across the nation this week, students will be opening emails announcing their early-decision college acceptances. For many of America’s children, it’s the culmination of the zero-sum game of elite college admissions. They have been trained from their earliest years to pass exams and write essays so that they may one day be lucky enough to study for their finals in an Ivy League classroom where, randomly, at any moment, a shooter might open fire.”
Prayers … and action
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock discussed the Brown University shooting with moderator Kristen Welker.
Warnock said, “I can tell you that as a pastor who has presided over many funerals, I don't think that there's any pain deeper than when nature is violently reversed and rather than children burying their parents, the parent has to bury the child. And so we pray for these families. But we have to pray not only with our lips, but with our actions. Any nation that tolerates this kind of violence year after year, decade after decade in random places on our college and school campuses without doing all that we can to stop it is broken and in need of moral repair.”
CBS town hall with Erika Kirk
CBS News aired a town hall Saturday night with new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss interviewing Erika Kirk, the widow of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. It was Erika Kirk’s first non-cable interview since her husband was shot and killed at a campus event in September.
Salon’s CK Smith noted that the town hall was framed as a national conversation on political violence and antisemitism, adding, “While the town hall included moments of challenge, including references to controversial rhetoric associated with President Donald Trump, critics argue the broadcast leaned heavily into a singular ideological and religious framework. The discussion repeatedly invoked Christian faith, spiritual revival, and moral decline, language that went largely uncontextualized or unchallenged despite the program’s CBS News branding.”
Smith added, “That editorial approach has unsettled some advertisers, according to industry reporting, who expressed concern that the town hall blurred the line between journalism and advocacy. Several media critics questioned whether the format reflected traditional news standards or represented a shift toward values-driven programming under Weiss’s leadership.”
Puck’s Dylan Byers wrote last week, “Sources say Bari’s forthcoming vision for the network will put an emphasis on more town hall events and debates, which she hopes will be must-see TV.”
Maybe Saturday’s town hall with Erika Kirk is an example of that, although it should be noted that the town hall aired on a Saturday night — typically the worst night for TV ratings.
Variety’s Brian Steinberg wrote, “Big Advertisers Appear Wary of CBS News’ Bari Weiss Town Hall Format.”
Meanwhile, well before the town hall aired, The Guardian’s Justin Baragona wrote, “CBS News staffers rip ‘shallow’ Bari Weiss for moderating ‘absurd’ network town hall with Erika Kirk.”
A noticeable absence
