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.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
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.
RELATED: Jasmine Crockett's jaw-dropping defense of criminals: 'They literally are trying to survive'
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."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
It’s not uncommon for the great one to get inquiries from his fans asking about how he prepares for his shows.
While Levin doesn’t reveal all the ingredients for his show-planning sauce, he does share one: “Sometimes if I go to our fabulous supermarket called Wegmans, they have all the newspapers there. So I might pick up two donuts and five newspapers.”
On a recent episode of “LevinTV,” he invited his audience to pull up a chair and witness the master at work.
He starts with the Washington Post, which he affectionately dubs “the Washington Compost.”
Holding up the hefty stack of pages, he quips, “All the trees that died for this.”
He flips through, headline by headline, tossing out zingers like “some lib wrote this,” “these guys are morons,” and “who cares?” — each delivered with the precision of a seasoned roast-master.
He doesn’t shy away from the paper’s darker history either, reminding viewers, “This is one of the newspapers that covered up the Holocaust.”
Then, he hits a front-page story titled “‘We’ll do what’s right’: Judge Resolute Amid U.S. pressure,” a glowing piece about Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes, portrayed as a stalwart defender of “democracy” despite U.S. sanctions, tariffs, and criticism from figures like Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.
“Now keep in mind the Washington Compost is thrilled when it's running stories attacking Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas, of course, Brett Kavanaugh ... but this judge [Moraes] is ‘steadfast’ in Brazil. He's not going to buckle,” Levin mocks. “That judge in Brazil is a left-wing kook hack like many of the writers for this newspaper.”
Levin eventually makes his way to the Post’s style section to an article titled “The Future of Book Reviews Looks Grim.”
“This book ‘On Power’ is a number one New York Times bestseller. I've had nine [best sellers] in a row. ... Do you know how many book reviews the New York Times has done for this book or any of the nine? Zero,” he says. “Now, I'm supposed to read an article that the future of book reviews looks grim? Well, when it comes to my books, they're nonexistent.”
For more of Levin’s sharp-witted takedown of “the New York Slimes,” check out the video above. It’s a masterclass in turning newsprint into comedic kindling.
To enjoy more of "the Great One" — Mark Levin as you've never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Two church shootings, a decade apart, received strikingly different treatment from America’s corporate media. The first occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. The second took place in Minneapolis just last week.
On June 18, 2015, CBS News reported:
A white man opened fire in a historic black church, in Charleston, South Carolina, the night of June 17, 2015, killing nine people, including a pastor, during a prayer meeting. The suspect, Dylann Roof, was arrested in North Carolina and extradited to South Carolina June 18, 2015, for what authorities are calling a hate crime.
On June 28, 2025, CBS News reported:
Two young children were killed and 18 others were injured in a shooting during a Catholic Mass packed with young students in south Minneapolis Wednesday morning. The shooter is also dead.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooting triggered a massive law enforcement response to Annunciation Catholic Church at West 54th Street between Harriet and Garfield avenues around 8:30 a.m. The church is connected to a school building.
The shooter approached from the outside of the building and fired a rifle through the church windows toward children and worshippers. The shooter also used a shotgun and a pistol that he had legally purchased ‘recently,’ O’Hara said.
Both reports were written one day after the massacres. Both shooters were identified by that point. Yet the second account omitted key information about the shooter.
Establishment media needs to look at the facts — and report them. While they do, they should also look in the mirror.
What a shock when Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey used a press conference on the very day of the church massacre to pivot from murdered children to a lecture on transgender rights and gun control.
“I have heard about a whole lot of hate that’s being directed at our trans community,” Frey told reporters at an afternoon briefing.
He went on:
Anybody who is using this ... as an opportunity to villainize our trans community, or any other community out there, has lost their sense of common humanity. We should not be operating out of a place of hate for anyone.
In truth, no one should be shocked by Frey’s diversion. This is the same mayor who let Minneapolis burn in 2020, which included the torching of a police station. His record of weakness is already clear.
And this year, he’s locked in a tough re-election fight against Omar Fateh, a bona fide democratic socialist. To survive, Frey is racing leftward, stooping to whatever level he thinks will protect his job.
The real revelation from his comments wasn’t his tired blame-shifting but his admission that the shooter identified as transgender — a fact establishment media has rushed to bury.
The killer, born Robert Westman, legally changed his name to Robin Westman in January 2020 at age 17. The petition states that he “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
Such details were not hidden for anyone willing to look. Hours before the massacre, Westman posted videos that exposed both his planning and his hatred.
In one, he flipped through pages of a handwritten manifesto laying out why he chose Annunciation — the Catholic church and school he had graduated from in 2017:
I am feeling good about Annunciation. It seems like a good combo of easy attack form and devastating tragedy and I want to do more research. I have concerns about finding a large enough group. I want to avoid any parents, but pre and post school drop off.
In another, Westman showed off his arsenal. His gun magazines bore hand-scrawled taunts, including the chilling phrase: “Where is your God?”
Ten years ago, coverage of Charleston leaned heavily on words like “white” and “white supremacist.” Reporters stressed Dylann Roof’s race from the outset, and his racist motivations were treated as central to the story. That was fair. His ideology mattered, and his identity explained why he targeted a black church.
But why is the same standard not applied today?
RELATED: If ‘words are violence,’ why won’t the left own theirs?
Westman was transgender. Court filings documented his legal name change to “Robin” and the reasons behind it. His own videos revealed a deeply disturbed mind, with specific plans to attack Annunciation and taunts of his victims scrawled on his weapons. These are facts. They belong in basic reporting. Including them doesn’t equate “transgender” with “deranged” any more than “white” equates to “white supremacist.”
Yet the difference in coverage is glaring. In Charleston, identity was headline news. In Minneapolis, it was buried. Everyone knows why. Westman’s story doesn’t serve the establishment narrative, so the press ignored it.
Journalism once prided itself on covering the unexpected — the classic “man bites dog.” That’s over. News today is about reinforcing narratives, not reporting facts.
Americans see through it. They know why trust in media sits at historic lows. They see newspapers hemorrhaging readers, network news losing viewers, and MSNBC shrinking into a dumb rebrand. The bias is obvious, the omission blatant, and the public is done playing along.
People usually know when they’re being lied to. They also know that half-truths amount to half-lies at best. The press pushed the Russia hoax with glee. They buried Hunter Biden’s laptop. They shielded the public from Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline.
The left depends on this cocoon. It shelters them from the clash between their mistaken beliefs and stubborn reality. And the establishment media — blind to their own collapse in credibility — gladly supply the insulation.
In Minneapolis, the slaughter of Catholic schoolchildren should have shattered the narrative. Instead, the media treated it like an inconvenience. They will glance at it briefly before memory-holing what doesn’t fit.
If they have any integrity left, they’ll face the facts — and face themselves. Because the real scandal isn’t just what they cover. It’s what they refuse to see.
The entire article is an exercise in lazy propaganda slop, and they don't care if you notice. Just don't go around noticing any more crimes.
Politico's latest story about a potential Obamacare subsidy extension ignored sizable evidence of fraud, while including not a single quote from a critic or skeptic of such an extension.
www.theblaze.com