Sympathetic Coverage for Austin Bomber Mark Conditt

The media scrum outside Esperanza Herrera's home on March 12 (Photo by Jana Birchum)

For those trying to understand why 23-year-old Mark Conditt terrorized parts of Central Texas for three weeks, the national corporate media's sympathetic coverage of the killer hasn't helped provide much clarity.

A sampling: The New York Times described Conditt as "quiet, nerdy" and from a "tight-knit, godly family." CNN told us his grandmother "says he's a loving man," while NBC, talking to friends and family, characterized Conditt as a "very normal kid." Newsweek had relatives defend him as "low-key" and "peaceful." The most cringeworthy headline came from The Wall Street Journal: "Austin Bombing Suspect: Home-Schooled College Dropout Known for Dry Wit."

While national publications did produce some dogged reporting on the saga, those same outlets' narratives of Conditt's character echo the typically soft, infantilizing, and empathetic treatment of white male suspects as compared to their black counterparts, and even victims. Bringing up petty criminal histories or drug use of black suspects while noting academic achievements and religious backgrounds of white suspects are among the stories' hallmarks.

"When a white person behaves in a criminal way, it's too often that media seems to find his humanity first," said Nelson Linder, president of Austin's chapter of the NAACP. "It's sad and embarrassing how a young man can terrorize us and kill people and the media will see his whiteness before his deadly actions. But it reflects the deep systemic bias in the media and racism in America as well."

But among the sympathetic profiles that followed Con­ditt's death, other reports focused on his dark and dangerous views. At Austin Community College, he espoused ending the sex offender registry, spoke out against abortion, and called homosexuality "unnatural" and tantamount to pedophilia and bestiality. He's a self-described political conservative from a "strictly religious" household who was also part of a weapons-admiring Christian survivalist group that talked about dangerous chemicals.

Authorities have declined to cite an ideological motive (investigations are ongoing), and national outlets have followed suit. "If his first name was Muhammad or if he was a black man it would be a different story," said Linder. Meanwhile, Conditt's politics and the reality of his terror are clear: He attacked minority homes, killed a black teenager and black father, and injured an elderly Latina woman. Police have referenced a lengthy confession recording in which he expresses no remorse for his actions. But it appears as though "Domestic Terrorist Bomber an Anti-Abortion, Anti-LGBTQ Conservative Christian Survivalist" doesn't fit the tidy narrative of the dry-witted boy who was just facing life's big challenges.