Two members of the West Virginia National Guard were shot while on duty in Washington, D.C., last week. One of them died. Our analysts rated media coverage about the shooting in our Topic of the Week.

The most fact-based and balanced coverage from our content set came from an article on the Army Times website. The reporting focuses on the two National Guard members who were shot and the response from their communities in West Virginia. The story includes several comments from their families and friends. Analysts found the article, which was reported by the Associated Press, to be “simple fact reporting” with a “middle/balanced” bias.

The Washington Post published an article that focused on the shooter, an Afghan national who came to the United States in 2021 after working with the CIA in Afghanistan. The story looks at the background of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who was shot during the incident, and reports on the possible charges he will face. Analysts noted a slight bias in language when the article discusses the National Guard deployment in D.C. and the Trump administration’s investigation. The analysts found the article to be a “mix of fact reporting and analysis” with a “skews left” bias.

An opinion article written by Jonathan Turley on the Fox News website focuses on comments made by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida. Turley writes that Wasserman Schultz “set a new low in American politics” when she partially blamed the shootings on President Trump. In a media interview, she stated that Trump should not be sending the military into U.S. cities to handle “law enforcement responsibilities.” Turley criticizes her for assuming the shooter’s motive before the investigation is complete and for using the “tragedy” for political purposes. Analysts rated the article as “opinion” with a “strong right” bias.

In a video from the Harry Sisson YouTube channel, the host criticizes President Trump and his “regime” for their response to the shootings. He calls the West Virginia governor “irresponsible” and “gross” for initially stating that both National Guard members had died before later correcting that statement. Sisson criticizes Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for sending even more troops into D.C., predicting that “they are using this as a launching pad for what they’ve always wanted, which is having National Guard troops in every single city.” He quotes a couple of right-wing influencers and accuses them of trying to “politicize the tragedy” by pointing fingers at Democrats and spreading conspiracy theories. Analysts found the video to be “opinion” with a “strong left” bias.

A video from the Ben Shaprio YouTube channel scored a bit lower; analysts found it to be “selective or incomplete/unfair persuasion” with a “hyper-partisan right” bias. Shapiro calls the shooting a “terrorist attack” and “the wages of Joe Biden’s awful foreign policy combined with his awful immigration policy.” He blames Biden for his “cowardice” and “failure” of withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan and then bringing “unvetted” Afghan “terrorists” to the United States. He concludes: “When you bring in huge numbers of people from countries that do not like the United States and whose cultures are in fact not assimilative to American values, then you can’t be surprised when stuff like this happens, you cannot. And this one is on Joe Biden, pure and simple. I don’t know who else to blame.”

The lowest-rated reporting from our content set this week came from an article published by Alternet. It focuses on a comment made by Trump during a press conference when he announced the death of one of the National Guard members, Sarah Beckstrom. When asked if he would attend the funeral, Trump “boasted that he won Beckstrom’s home state by a significant margin in the 2024 election.” The article includes comments from many journalists and left-leaning commentators who call Trump’s remark “disgusting” and “vile,” and say Trump is “the most demented malignant narcissist alive” who “couldn’t, even for one moment, just be a decent person and not make it about himself.” Due to the number of insults and because the article focuses on only one very small part of a larger news story, analysts rated it as “selective or incomplete/unfair persuasion” with a “hyper-partisan left” bias.

New Topics of the Week are posted on the website each Monday. Read the articles and watch the videos yourself, then come back on Wednesday to compare your scores with those of our analysts. Learn more here.