Report: TV News Coverage of Anti-Trans Violence Woefully Inadequate
Media Matters for America.Media Matters looked at news shows on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. It found that more than two-thirds of the 43 minutes came on MSNBC, with the other outlets having less than five minutes each.
A total of 19 segments covered the topic.The year saw at least 57 trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming Americans die by violent means — the most since activists and media have been keeping track, about 2013.
There are probably many more deaths that go unreported or are misreported due to deadnaming or misgendering.“In addition to lethal attacks, trans people faced alarming rates of violence in the past year: they were sexually assaulted while incarcerated, stabbed, beaten at work, and relentlessly attacked in public,” Media Matters reports. “Trans people are disproportionately vulnerable to violence due to discriminatory social factors, such as heightened barriers to accessing health care, stable housing, and jobs.
A 2021 Williams Institute study found that ‘transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization.’”The 43 minutes of coverage represented a decrease from the previous year, when these news sources had 54 minutes.
