White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called out the mainstream media for turning a blind eye to the tragic death of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was fatally stabbed, allegedly by a repeat offender.
Zarutska's life was cut short after 34-year-old Decarlos Brown allegedly stabbed the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee on a train in North Carolina on August 22. Brown was later identified by local law enforcement and has since been charged with first-degree murder.
'Many journalists in this room spilled plenty of ink trying to smear Daniel Penny ... but none of those same reporters lift a finger to write stories about an actual murderer.'
This vicious stabbing was far from Brown's first alleged offense, having previously been arrested for over a dozen other crimes, including convictions for armed robbery and felony larceny.
"This is pure evil on full display," Leavitt said during Tuesday's press briefing. "The most enraging and unacceptable part of this story is that her death was entirely preventable. Decarlos Brown never should have been on that train that night."
RELATED: Mainstream media turns a blind eye to vicious stabbing of young Ukrainian woman
Press sec on the brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska: "Tragically, a public transportation system in a major American city was more dangerous than the active war zone that she left. Her death was entirely preventable." pic.twitter.com/pqPaB3k9Ap
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) September 9, 2025
In the aftermath of the vicious attack, most outlets "shamefully and intentionally failed to report" on the tragedy, which Leavitt argued was because Zarutska's death was politically inconvenient for the largely liberal media.
"Perhaps most shamefully of all, the majority of the media, many outlets in this room, decided that her murder was not worth reporting on originally because it does not fit a preferred narrative," Leavitt said.
RELATED: Horrific video sparks outrage after young Ukrainian woman is fatally stabbed, allegedly by repeat offender
"Many journalists in this room spilled plenty of ink trying to smear Daniel Penny for defending a subway car from New York City, but none of those same reporters lift a finger to write stories about an actual murderer," Leavitt added.
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The mainstream media made their bias known after refusing to cover the fatal stabbing of a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee.
Iryna Zarutska was brutally victimized on a train in North Carolina on August 22, suffering stab wounds in the throat before eventually being declared dead at the scene. Zarutska's alleged stabber was later identified as 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, who was charged with first-degree murder in relation to the case.
'This is a greater outrage than the death of every BLM martyr combined times a thousand.'
Records from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department show that Brown has repeatedly been arrested and convicted of serious offenses, including armed robbery and felony larceny.
News of Zarutska's death rapidly spread online and sparked outrage, yet mainstream media outlets outside of local news have continued to ignore the story entirely.
RELATED: Horrific video sparks outrage after young Ukrainian woman is fatally stabbed, allegedly by repeat offender
Critics have pointed to the media's double standard when it comes to covering politically convenient tragedies. Mainstream outlets amplified the death of George Floyd in 2020, writing tens of thousands of articles related to the incident. The same publications that gave wall-to-wall coverage of Floyd's death are now turning a blind eye to Zarutska's.
"Despite the release of an explosive video that has received massive public outcry, as of 4:45 pm eastern today, NONE of our major news outlets except @FoxNews have covered the murder of Iryna Zarutska," the Daily Wire's Megan Basham said in a post on X on Sunday. "Not one."
"This is a greater outrage than the death of every BLM martyr combined times a thousand," the Daily Wire's Matt Walsh said in a post on X.
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Other commentators like Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk have pointed to race as a predominant factor in the media's selective coverage. Kirk argues that the difference in coverage between Zarutska's murder and Floyd's death ultimately comes down to whether the narrative is politically convenient.
"Dear CNN, WaPo, NYT, ABC, NBC etc etc," Kirk said in a post on X Sunday. "If you want to know why your ratings are in the tank and no one likes you, look no further than the brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska who moved to US to escape war in Ukraine, a story you refuse to tell.
"Sadly she couldn’t survive the Democrats’ criminal justice system," Kirk added. "Yet you wouldn’t shut up or stop villainizing Daniel Penny, a hero, who probably stopped a murder just like [hers]. Why? Because he was a straight white American male and the perp was black. Shame on you. Genuinely."
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GiveSendGo founder Jacob Wells has come under fire for platforming Karmelo Anthony, whose family has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on the platform after Anthony allegedly stabbed and killed Austin Metcalf.
While the entire story of what really happened has yet to be told, Wells has defended his decision to platform Anthony from a position of Christian and conservative values.
“I’m sure you’re familiar with Kyle Rittenhouse,” Wells tells Jason Whitlock on “Jason Whitlock Harmony.” “When his campaign was kicked off of GoFundMe and every other platform, all the other crowdfunding platforms, Facebook shutting it down, whatever — it landed on our platform.”
“We saw massive amounts of hate from the left at that moment, massive amounts of information, misinformation, being posted throughout the media about the situation. And we said, ‘Well, you know what, there’s actually a principle here that people ought to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, not public opinion,’” Wells explains.
“It’s a biblical position,” he continues. “So we allowed that campaign. And then that kind of opened up the door where people said, ‘Well, here’s a platform that’s just not canceling people whenever, like GoFundMe has been and still does,’” he continues.
This reputation the platform has gained has attracted people who wanted to help people like the truckers in Canada and Daniel Penny.
“Daniel Penny’s campaign was another big one,” he says. “We’ve had many, many, legal defense funds for people that were accused of violent crimes, accused of murdering people by the prosecution.”
“And so we said, ‘You know what, this principle of presumption of innocence and not ruled by mobs really ought to be preserved in difficult circumstances,’ and that led us to where we are now,” he continues, noting that Karmelo Anthony’s family did not even start the campaign for him; it was someone else.
This was the same for Kyle Rittenhouse, as a stranger set up his GiveSendGo.
“So the Anthony family took over the campaign, and then in the process, a lot of fake news came out, as it does around all of these high-profile events, about the spending of funds, the use of funds being used for things like buying a Cadillac — fake news, not true — buying a house — fake news, not true — lots of fake news and a lot of racial tension narrative around it,” he explains.
“Pull race out of it; what the right really should be doing — and I would consider myself one, conservative, Christian, went to school to be a pastor, love people, understand that Jesus died for the worst of the worst, including myself,” he continues, “The right as being principled people ought to be saying, and this is what I didn’t see, is that ‘This is a horrible situation.’”
“The facts don’t look good for Karmelo Anthony, according to what we’ve seen so far,” he says, “But he ought to be given the same affording that was afforded to Daniel Penny and Kyle Rittenhouse.”
“Because as you begin to erode the principle for anyone, you begin to erode it for everyone,” he adds.
To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
The death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a track meet in Frisco, Texas, is every parent’s nightmare. The circumstances make the loss even more devastating. Metcalf, a student at Memorial High School, was stabbed in the chest by another teen, Karmelo Anthony, after a brief argument.
Anthony, a student at Centennial High School, was reportedly sitting under the tent reserved for Memorial High. A witness told police that Metcalf asked Anthony to move. When Anthony refused, Metcalf reportedly grabbed him. At that point, according to the witness, Anthony pulled out a knife, stabbed Metcalf once in the chest, and fled the scene.
The people pushing identity politics are long on hubris and short on wisdom.
Police later arrested Anthony and charged him with first-degree murder. His bail was set at $1 million.
Austin’s twin brother, Hunter Metcalf, held him during his final moments, making the situation even more tragic.
As often happens — especially online — the story of Austin Metcalf’s death quickly shifted from a tragedy about a young life lost and a grieving family to a debate about race.
Metcalf was white. The accused, Karmelo Anthony, is black. Social media users, particularly on X, widely claimed that the case would have drawn national headlines and sparked protests if their races were reversed.
But the facts don’t support claims of media silence. NBC News, ABC News, and Fox News all covered the incident.
Still, accusations of selective coverage illustrate a broader frustration with “outrage inequity” — the notion that moral outrage and condemnation often hinge on the racial identities of both the victim and the accused. The primary indication of this phenomenon is the uneven application of moral indignation and condemnation based on particular victim-perpetrator color combinations.
Critics argue that progressives frequently engage in this pattern, particularly when racially motivated hate crimes make headlines.
In 2022, for example, Payton Gendron drove three hours to a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, where he fatally shot 10 black people. That attack allowed liberal commentators to reinforce a familiar narrative: White violence against black Americans stems from “whiteness” and “white supremacy.”
Progressives often cite slavery, Jim Crow-era lynchings, and even verbal altercations between people of different races as proof of a persistent hatred embedded in white identity.
A growing number of conservatives use incidents like Austin Metcalf’s killing to support their preferred narratives. They see Karmelo Anthony’s actions as a reflection of a much broader pathology among blacks and cite violent crime statistics to prove their point.
Some attribute these outcomes to culture, specifically the breakdown of the nuclear family and fatherlessness. Others believe the dysfunction is a matter of blood and bone, citing lower IQ scores and genetics as the main culprit.
The increasing prevalence of this rhetoric among conservatives is a microcosm of a much bigger phenomenon: the rise of the race-conscious right. Some people use “woke right” to describe this ascendant ideology, but the specific terminology is less important than the reality it describes.
The political left is notorious for making everything about race. Any incident that involves a white person doing something negative to a black person is strained through a racial prism. Police shootings and incarceration statistics are the clearest examples. Disparities in education outcomes and household income are another.
The left’s overarching narrative is that black people in America face unique obstacles because our institutions are infected with anti-black racism. No amount of evidence to the contrary moves them from that position.
Conservatives historically responded to this narrative by promoting “colorblindness,” treating people as individuals, cautioning blacks to resist self-pity, and encouraging them to embrace personal responsibility. In fact, the right regularly chastises liberals for painting police with a broad brush based on the actions of a few “bad apples.” Their message was always clear and consistent: Don’t engage in hasty judgments or sweeping generalizations that tempt you into seeing entire groups as villains or yourself as a victim.
That is no longer the case, and the parallels between the race-obsessed left and right are becoming increasingly clear.
One is assuming racial animus is at play — often without sufficient evidence — when you feel attacked by public institutions. For instance, activists on the left saw George Floyd as the living embodiment of the historical oppression black men have faced in America at the hands of racist police. That idea persists to this day, even though prosecutors stated there was no evidence Derek Chauvin’s actions were racially motivated.
The right’s rhetoric during much of Daniel Penny’s criminal trial made it clear that for some, he was the embodiment of the current persecution of white males in American society. It wasn’t just that Penny was being punished for standing up to a mentally ill homeless man. They believed that Penny was being prosecuted because the black District Attorney Alvin Bragg was bent on weaponizing the justice system against a straight white male in New York City.
Another example of conservative race-consciousness is the tendency to individualize in-group misdeeds while collectivizing the sins of out-groups. This explains why conservative commentators would never think to insert a racial descriptor when discussing teachers who have sex with students, even though it feels like every week brings another incident involving white women engaging in inappropriate conduct with teens.
Likewise, for all their time spent fighting against trans ideology, influencers on the right don’t make a habit of describing its most vocal proponents in racial terms. White abusers and perverts only have to answer for their own behavior, while black people who misbehave in public are seen as representatives of a larger group.
Both sides also make a habit of turning isolated tragedies into existential crises. Progressive pundits stoking the flames of race explain why a black man living in Brooklyn comes to feel “white supremacists” are the real threat to his life even though every shooter in his neighborhood shares his complexion. Likewise, conservatives who live in all-white neighborhoods repost old videos of black criminals halfway across the country with captions claiming their children are under attack.
Even the quick expressions of forgiveness from Austin Metcalf’s father were ridiculed by some conservatives online. This mirrors the frustration black commentators expressed after family members of Dylann Roof’s victims forgave him two days after he shot nine black churchgoers at a church in South Carolina.
One of the worst parts about the rise in right-wing race consciousness is that it was completely predictable. Progressives spent years arguing that white people are the cause of all the country’s problems. Pundits who love to lecture conservatives about embracing Ibram X. Kendi-style “antiracism” regularly said the vilest things on TV about white people. Over the past few decades, the left went from fighting against racism to publicly waging war against “whiteness.”
The fact that most of the people running the institutions — from universities to Fortune 500 companies — are white doesn’t lessen the damage. Only a complete fool would think you can demonize the largest ethnic group in your country without some type of blowback.
Unfortunately, the people pushing identity politics are long on hubris and short on wisdom. Not only do they reduce Americans down to their immutable traits, but they also create the perfect breeding ground for extremist views. Simply put, when you “sow” Robin DiAngelo, you will “reap” David Duke. This is not unique to white people. Rejection of moderation almost always leads to radicalism.
It’s not entirely clear where we go from here as a nation, but I wish both liberals and conservatives alike would turn down the racial rhetoric. This is one reason Austin Metcalf’s father pleaded with people not to make his son’s death about race or politics. Through his grief, he intuitively understands that seeing victims of crime as pieces to be moved around a cultural chessboard is a sign of a sick society that places a higher value on political narratives than on preserving life. This applies equally to the left and right.
Murder is wrong because every person is made in the image of God. It shouldn’t be hard for pundits on either side of the aisle to say.Standing up for the First Amendment is easy when you agree with the speech that’s being threatened. However, it’s standing up for free speech when you hate the words being spoken that really counts.
That’s the difficult position Glenn Beck is taking when it comes to the vile things uttered by ex-Washington Post journalist Taylor Lorenz and BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome. While he loathes the violence both have celebrated in the wake of recent events, he nonetheless supports their First Amendment rights.
Taylor Lorenz has come under fire for her comments following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
While speaking to Piers Morgan, Lorenz said that she felt “joy” when she got the news of Thompson’s death.
When Piers pressed her on this heinous sentiment, she somewhat recanted it and replaced “joy” with the word “celebratory” — as if that was any better. She then justified her statement by claiming that “greedy health insurance executives like [Thompson] push policies of denying care to the most vulnerable people” and thus his death should be seen as “justice in the system.”
Newsome, angered by the acquittal of Daniel Penny, told a crowd, “We need some black vigilantes. People wanna jump up and choke us and kill us for being loud? How about we do the same when they attempt to oppress us?”
While Glenn is revolted by these two statements that unabashedly condone violence, he knows that they fall under speech that is protected by the Constitution.
He reads from a 1969 court case in which it was determined that speech must be evaluated according to a “two-prong” test: “Speech can be prohibited if it is directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action,” and it must be “likely to incite or produce such action.”
“Two standards — both of them have to be met,” says Glenn.
Neither statement meets both of these criteria, meaning that while they are reprehensible, they’re technically not illegal and therefore should be protected.
“I hate what these people have said,” Glenn admits, calling the statements from both Lorenz and Newsome “evil,” but “because I'm an American constitutionalist, I defend their right to say it.”
To hear more of Glenn’s analysis, watch the clip above.
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Daniel Penny was acquitted of all charges and deemed a hero in the eyes of Americans everywhere — but BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome fervently disagrees.
“We need some black vigilantes,” Newsome yelled after the verdict. “People want to jump up and choke us and kill us for being loud? How about we do the same when they attempt to oppress us. I’m tired.”
Jordan Neely’s father also called for something to be done after the verdict, which Rubin believes was another call for violence.
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” is rightfully disturbed by what he’s hearing from the both of them.
“That is, I would say, as close to calls for direct violence as you can get within the confines of the First Amendment,” Rubin says, adding, “You are not allowed to call for direct violence to people.”
“Then you wonder again, when we see these mobs, whether they’re the BLM mobs or the Hamas mobs or whatever, and they’re breaking into stores and they’re looting and they’re scaring kids and women on the streets and all these things, well, how did this happen?” he continues.
“Well, it’s what we just showed you here. The media kind of lies about the story, racializes something that shouldn’t be racialized, the governor of the state, pre-emptively, before there’s a trial, and all the evidence is out there, immediately says Daniel Penny is the bad guy,” Rubin explains.
“Then you wonder why we’re endlessly in this strange, toxic place that we find ourselves,” he adds.
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The same conditions that allowed rape gangs to run rampant in the U.K. are already in place in some U.S. jurisdictions.
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