The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has come under fire after falsely identifying the trans Canadian school shooter as a woman.
The public broadcaster wrote that the 18-year-old shooter who killed eight people in British Columbia was a “woman with mental health issues”.
Jesse Van Rootselaar identified as trans and had a long history of police visits.
However, the ABC failed to mention the fact that the killer was trans, neither in its post on X or its story online.
“The person who carried out a school massacre is an 18-year-old woman with mental health issues, but she did not give a motive for one of the worst mass shootings in Canada’s history,” the ABC wrote.
The post, which has been seen by one million people, quickly prompted a wave of criticism online and triggered a fact check on X.
“The shooter is a biological male who allegedly self-identifies as a transgender woman,” the fact check published underneath the post read.
The exchange highlights how the broadcaster presenting incomplete and misleading information.
Police in British Columbia, Canada, identified the attacker as Jesse Van Rootselaar, who died after the shooting in Tumbler Ridge.
Authorities confirmed nine people died, including the alleged killer.
“We have a history of police attendance at the family residence. Some of those calls are related to mental health issues,” Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
“We do believe the suspect acted alone … it would be too early to speculate on motive.”
Officials said the victims included a 39-year-old teacher and several students aged between 12 and 13.
Dozens were injured and two young victims remained in hospital with severe wounds after officers arrived within minutes of the first emergency call and encountered active gunfire.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described the attack as a “terrible” tragedy.
“We will get through this. We will learn from this,” he said.
“But right now, it’s a time to come together, as Canadians always do in these situations, these terrible situations, to support each other, to mourn together and to grow together.”
The latest incident of sharing false information comes after Australia’s spy agency questioned the accuracy of the ABC’s investigation into the Bondi Beach terror attack.
ASIO warned the ABC against “claims it cannot substantiate” amid concerns about the accuracy of its two-part Four Corners investigation.
ASIO said in a statement that the Four Corners’ claims contained “significant errors of fact”, relating to Bondi Beach gunmen, ASIO resourcing and intelligence sharing.
The spy agency also said that questions sent to ASIO by the ABC appeared to be based on “uncorroborated claims” from a “single, unreliable and disgruntled source”.
Late last year, the ABC’s Four Corners program had deceptively edited a clip of President Donald Trump in a manner resembling the infamous BBC doctored vision scandal.
It was proven that the ABC had used a “cutaway shot” to massage over a gap in Trump’s speech between the reference to him joining the walkers, and the need to show strength.
In a separate scandal the broadcaster doctored a photo of Liberal Senator Jane Hume.
In this case, the ABC’s talkfest Insiders opened with a backgrounding on the federal Coalition’s ongoing net zero debate.
A voice-over, broadcast over a picture of Ms Hume holding a front page of the Australian featuring conservative politicians, said the Coalition had “once again made itself the story”.
However, that image was a fake. The Australian never published the photo of the Coalition politicians and the ABC was eventually forced to apologise after a complaint by Ms Hume.
Read more on Sky News Australia
