Media Matters searched records in the Kinetiq video database for all initial software on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC and all original episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week, CBS ‘ Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation, and NBC’s Now, Nightly News, and Meet the Press for any versions of any of the words” transgender”,” trans”, “anti trans”, “gender identity”, “nonbinary”, or “gender nonconforming”, within 50 words of any variations of any of the term “murder”, “kill”,” shot”,” stabbed”, “dead”, “death”, “die”, or “homicide” from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023. The Human Rights Campaign and Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund both reported that they had identified 35 transgender and gender nonconforming people who had experienced fatal violence in 2023.
Finally, we searched transcripts in the Nexis database for all of the above terms and names, however, this double- check was limited to news shows airing between 5 p. m. and midnight on Fox News and MSNBC. We were able to search for both all broadcast news transcripts for ABC, CBS, and NBC as well as all cable news transcripts for CNN.
We timed segments, mentions, and teasers about anti- trans violence. We defined segments as those in which anti-trans violence was the main topic of discussion or when there was significant anti-trans violence discussion. We defined significant discussion as one in which two or more speakers in a multitopic discussion engage in anti-trans violence. Mentions were defined as situations where one speaker in a segment on a different subject made a comment about transgender violence without provoking another person to do so. Teasers were defined as instances where the anchor or host promoted a later-in-the-air segment about transgender violence.
We then examined all identified segments, mentions, and teasers to determine whether they included mentions of specific trans person-related violence, a trans guest, or other relevant contexts that relate to the national trend of more violent violence directed at trans people as a whole. Additionally, we asked if a transgender person was the one to bring up the issue of transgender violence in 2023. Every minute is the closest that we can get.
