Saturday, October 31, 2026Every claim sourced. Every source linked.
The record of what the American press got wrong, and who it helped
Memory Hole
Partly confirmed

The Covenant School Shooter's Writings: Three Years of Court Fights Over What the Public Could See

After a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at the Covenant School in Nashville, the shooter's journals were held back through years of litigation while pages leaked. Critics argued the secrecy suppressed an inconvenient motive. Police's final report in 2025 found the main motive was a desire for notoriety.

Mar 27, 2023
Screenshot of the source
Screenshot of the source page. Tap to open it.
Whose side it served: Neither party

Critics saw secrecy as shielding a progressive cause, but the sealing was driven by victims' families and the courts.

What the record shows

Audrey Hale, who appeared to identify as a transgender man, killed six people on March 27, 2023. In November 2023 commentator Steven Crowder published pages of the writings, and Nashville's police chief confirmed they were authentic. In 2024 a Davidson County chancellor sealed the writings, citing copyright (the shooter's parents had transferred ownership to the victims' families) and a school-safety exception; the FBI later released some pages in a Judicial Watch records case. The police final report of April 2, 2025 concluded Hale sought notoriety and rejected the idea that the attack grew out of ill will toward the school. On Feb. 4, 2026, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled the writings can be made public, sending the case back to the lower court. The leaks, the copyright ruling and the appeals decision were covered by AP, local Nashville stations and conservative outlets. No measured study of national coverage of the writings was found, so the 'buried' claim is not quantified here.

In their words

“MNPD final report (2025): "No single document, notebook, or digital device contains the answer to those questions."”— · source
The other side

The fight to keep the writings sealed was led by Covenant parents, who feared a copycat blueprint, not by newsrooms. The final police report found no single manifesto and said no document held the answer to the shooter's motive, which undercuts the claim that a hidden motive was being covered up.

Sources

Get the daily file.