{"id":2570743,"date":"2026-02-17T15:36:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/corporate-media-give-trans-hockey-game-shooter-the-gunperson-treatment\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:41:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:41:37","slug":"corporate-media-give-trans-hockey-game-shooter-the-gunperson-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/corporate-media-give-trans-hockey-game-shooter-the-gunperson-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Give Trans RI Shooter The &#8216;Gunperson&#8217; Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcorporate-media-give-trans-hockey-game-shooter-the-gunperson-treatment%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2570743&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>This piece argues that <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >major media outlets largely obscured<\/a> or downplayed the shooter\u2019s transgender identity and ideology in reporting on the Rhode Island hockey rink attack carried out by Robert Dorgan, who also went by Roberta Esposito. It notes that Dorgan allegedly threatened to \u201cGo BERSERK\u201d in defense of transgender ideology and had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-debate-transgender-rules-expose-divisions-among-gop-candidates\/\" title=\"GOP candidates divided over ... rules in Republican debate\">undergone gender-affirming<\/a> changes, with pre-attack posts referencing his identity. Local and national outlets are described as treating his gender identity as irrelevant or as a secondary detail,often avoiding male pronouns or using passive language that omits agency,and sometimes referring to him mainly as \u201cthe shooter\u201d rather than a man. The account surveys coverage from outlets such as the New York Times,Associated Press,NBC News,CNN,ESPN,CBS News,The Guardian,Politico,and Reuters,highlighting inconsistencies in how each framed Dorgan\u2019s identity and its possible relevance to the violence. It draws a parallel to reporting on another trans-identified shooter in Canada, noting similar language patterns (e.g., \u201cgunperson,\u201d or references to his trans status) and argues this reflects a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/executive-producer-of-60-minutes-abruptly-quits-says-hes-no-longer-allowed-to-make-independent-decisions\/\" title=\"Executive Producer of &#039;60 Minutes&#039; Abruptly Quits, Says He&#039;s No Longer Allowed to &#039;Make Independent Decisions&#039;\">broader media bias<\/a> toward suppressing discussion of transgender ideology in violent incidents. The piece ends with a biographical note about Elle Purnell,assignment editor at The Federalist.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A man who left his family to live as a woman and <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/16\/us-news\/robert-dorgan-idd-as-rhode-island-hockey-shooter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">threatened<\/a> to &ldquo;Go BERSERK&rdquo; in defense of transgender ideology <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcvb.com\/article\/pawtucket-rink-shooting-mother-son-rhode-island\/70391807\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shot and killed<\/a> his son and the boy&rsquo;s mother at a Rhode Island hockey game on Monday, but the corporate media really don&rsquo;t want you to know he was a fanatical adherent of one of their pet ideologies.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Dorgan underwent surgery to mimic female body parts in 2020 and went by the name &ldquo;Roberta Esposito,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/17\/us-news\/ri-hockey-shooter-robert-dorgan-threatened-to-go-berserk-in-trans-rights-rant-day-before-mass-shooting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to the New York Post. Hours before the shooting, he posted &ldquo;Keep bashing us. But do not wonder why we Go BERSERK,&rdquo; in response to a post that accurately described a cross-dressing congressman as male. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpri.com\/target-12\/pawtucket-shooters-gender-identity-tied-to-past-family-disputes-court-records-show\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According<\/a> to local outlet WPRI, Dorgan&rsquo;s &ldquo;gender identity played a role in multiple family disputes over recent years,&rdquo; including his divorce, but that fact has been deemed unpublishable by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/border-patrol-arrests-two-illegal-immigrants-from-yemen-on-fbi-terror-watch-list\/\" title=\"Border Patrol Arrests Two Illegal Immigrants From Yemen On FBI Terror Watch List\">corporate media outlets<\/a>, which gloss over the killings as a &ldquo;family dispute.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Equally incurious is Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pB5zLaO5d-Q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> reporters that Dorgan&rsquo;s &ldquo;status&rdquo; as a trans-identifying man &ldquo;really doesn&rsquo;t have anything to do with the investigation.&rdquo; Goncalves paid respect to Dorgan&rsquo;s transgender identity by referring to him by a plural pronoun in the press conference.<\/p>\n<p>Major legacy news outlets have taken Goncalves at her word. In a New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/16\/us\/hockey-game-shooting-pawtucket-rhode-island.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> updated Tuesday morning,<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Neil Vigdor&nbsp;and&nbsp;Thomas Gibbons-Neff took time to include minor details about the neighborhood surrounding the hockey rink and the &ldquo;quote above the rink&rsquo;s high school hockey player entrance.&rdquo; But the only indication of the shooter&rsquo;s trans identity was the mention that Dorgan &ldquo;also went by the name Roberta Esposito.&rdquo; Vigdor and Gibbons-Neff shrugged that the chief &ldquo;did not provide further explanation.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Believe it or not, that line was an improvement from a previous version of the piece. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dagenmcdowell\/status\/2023704446807752749\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">screenshot<\/a> posted by Fox Business anchor Dagen McDowell, the Times previously euphemized Dorgan&rsquo;s trans identity by noting that he &ldquo;went by two different names.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">New York Times avoids any mention that the alleged murderer at the Rhode Island hockey rink shooting is transgender. <br \/>(5 reporters!)<br \/>Gender identity must be relentlessly shoved down the gullet but quickly hidden when linked to any horror exposing the depravity of the crusade. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WkuU2Fo640\">pic.twitter.com\/WkuU2Fo640<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dagen McDowell (@dagenmcdowell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dagenmcdowell\/status\/2023704446807752749?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Kimberlee Kruesi of the Associated Press merely <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/pawtucket-hockey-rink-shooting-rhode-island-c8ac3e8067ce2f2ce07e4d98009ecdaa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">referred<\/a> to Dorgan as the &ldquo;shooter&rdquo; in her headline and first several paragraphs, before simply noting that he &ldquo;also went by the name Roberta Esposito.&rdquo; No other details about Dorgan&rsquo;s history of trans radicalism were included, and she obliged his gender dysphoria by refusing to refer to him by male pronouns. A pop-up banner on the AP website promises to deliver &ldquo;news without an agenda.&rdquo; Kruesi&rsquo;s piece also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/sports\/2026\/02\/16\/pawtucket-hockey-rink-shooting-rhode-island\/b10d21d4-0b7a-11f1-8e91-6e1451aab67e_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">appeared<\/a> in The Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p>Over at NBC News, Doha Madani&nbsp;and&nbsp;Phil Helsel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/shooting-rhode-island-ice-rink-pawtucket-victims-rcna259266\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">did not identify<\/a> Dorgan until paragraph seven. The only indication of his trans identity is a line noting he &ldquo;also went by the first name Roberta and by the last name Esposito.&rdquo; The article was filed under the tag &ldquo;Guns in America.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Madani <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/sports\/soccer\/l-soccer-stars-blast-teammates-racist-transphobic-op-ed-calling-nwsl-g-rcna241873\">writes<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/nbc-out\/out-pop-culture\/pedro-pascal-jk-rowling-transgender-harry-potter-rcna202801\">frequently<\/a> about transgender affairs, such as how &ldquo;racist and transphobic&rdquo; it is to exclude men from girls&rsquo; sports or how &ldquo;heinous&rdquo; J.K. Rowling is for defending biological reality. When the transgender subject isn&rsquo;t the one shooting people, Madani <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/tech\/tech-news\/anti-lgbtq-threats-orchestrated-on-internet-shut-down-events-rcna33955\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">writes about<\/a> transgenderism and violence this way:<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>Helsel, too, has deemed a person&rsquo;s transgender identity newsworthy when it&rsquo;s politically useful, even falsely describing a man as a woman in a news report to do so. See if you can spot the difference between how Helsel writes about a transgender man who shot people versus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/transgender-woman-attacked-portland-what-police-say-may-be-hate-n1055686#\">on<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/transgender-woman-attacked-portland-what-police-say-may-be-hate-n1055686#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">e<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/transgender-woman-attacked-portland-what-police-say-may-be-hate-n1055686#\">  who claimed<\/a> to be the victim of a &ldquo;transphobic&rdquo; attack:<\/p>\n<figure>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In a quadruple-bylined report &mdash; by Elise Hammond,&nbsp;Mark Morales,&nbsp;Danya Gainor,&nbsp;and Amanda Musa &mdash; a CNN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/02\/16\/us\/pawtucket-rhode-island-shooting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">headline<\/a> removed not only Dorgan&rsquo;s identity but also his agency. &ldquo;Shooting at youth hockey game in Rhode Island leaves 2 dead, 3 injured,&rdquo; it says passively, with Dorgan left unidentified until the third paragraph. We&rsquo;re only told that the police chief said he &ldquo;went by the name of Roberta Esposito.&rdquo; Like other outlets, CNN conspicuously refused to refer to Dorgan with male pronouns, instead repeatedly calling him the &ldquo;shooter.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Under the headline &ldquo;Shooting in stands at R.I. rink leaves 3 dead, others injured,&rdquo; an ESPN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/espn\/story\/_\/id\/47950101\/shooting-stands-ri-rink-leaves-3-dead-others-injured\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> similarly avoided using male pronouns and refused to provide information about Dorgan&rsquo;s trans identity besides the fact that he &ldquo;also went by the name Roberta Esposito.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>At Bari Weiss&rsquo;s CBS News, News Editor Kiki Intarasuwan refused to identify Dorgan as male, even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/live-updates\/shooting-pawtucket-rhode-island-hockey-rink\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">using<\/a> the grammatically incorrect plural pronoun &ldquo;their&rdquo; when describing him. Last year, a CBS News correspondent <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/06\/media\/cbs-news-staff-clashed-over-transgender-language-in-internal-email-blow-up\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reportedly<\/a> faced backlash from coworkers when she suggested the network &ldquo;should refrain from adopting terminology&rdquo; pushed by transgender groups. Weiss said at the time that it was &ldquo;perfectly normal for a newsroom to discuss, debate and, yes, even disagree about language.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>An article by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/feb\/17\/rhode-island-shooting-hockey-game-dispute\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Guardian<\/a> declined even to mention Dorgan&rsquo;s &ldquo;Roberta&rdquo; alias, giving no indication of his transgender ideology, except for the publication&rsquo;s refusal to use any gendered pronouns to refer to him. The shooting received one write-up from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/02\/16\/3-killed-including-suspect-in-shooting-at-a-rhode-island-hockey-rink-00783348\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Politico<\/a> before Dorgan was identified, but the outlet does not appear to have updated its coverage or published further reports on the shooting since Dorgan&rsquo;s allegiance to transgender ideology was revealed.<\/p>\n<p>Dorgan&rsquo;s rampage occurred less than a week after Jesse Van Rootselaar, another trans-identifying man, shot up a school in Canada, in what has been <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/7377687\/canada-shooting-tumbler-ridge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">described<\/a> as the country&rsquo;s &ldquo;deadliest school shooting&rdquo; since 1989. After that attack, Canadian police risibly <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nicksortor\/status\/2021422026024681595\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">referred<\/a> to Van Rootselaar as a &ldquo;gunperson&rdquo; to show deference to his ideology. In an emergency alert, he was <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/11\/world-news\/tumbler-ridge-students-barricaded-themselves-in-classrooms-for-2-hours-as-suspect-launched-canadas-deadliest-mass-school-shooting-in-40-years\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">described<\/a> as a &ldquo;female in a dress.&rdquo; Media such as Reuters adopted the inaccurate terminology, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/canada-sending-top-minister-scene-school-shooting-says-carney-2026-02-11\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">referring<\/a> to the male shooter as an &ldquo;18-year-old woman.&rdquo; Not until the 11th paragraph of its report did Reuters mention that Van Rootselaar &ldquo;began identifying as a female six years ago.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Elle Purnell is the assignment editor at The Federalist. She has appeared on Fox Business and Newsmax, and her work has been featured by RealClearPolitics, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Independent Women&#8217;s Forum. She received her B.A. in government with a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @_ellepurnell.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trans-identified man killed son and mother; media mum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1353,"featured_media":2570744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-9.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,33651],"tags":[16596,56439,73463,73934,73968],"class_list":["post-2570743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","category-the-western-journal","tag-gun-control","tag-media-bias-2","tag-media-coverage-2","tag-rhode-island-2","tag-transgender-issues-2"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-9.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2570743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2570743"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2570743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2570747,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2570743\/revisions\/2570747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2570744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2570743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2570743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2570743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}