A Colorado story is making national news because mainstream media headlines are intentionally misleading readers to draw erroneous conclusions of misinformation that is already spreading like wildfire across social media.

The story: A white dude crashed his car at 13th Avenue and Lincoln Street after 1 a.m. Tuesday, pointed a gun at the other driver involved in the crash then ran from the scene, according to the New York Times. 

The man used his weapon to shoot out the window of the nearby building, where an unarmed security guard found him trying to break into an internal door. The guard offered to help him but fumbled with the master key until the man took the key away from him. The security guard ran away and called 911, the Denver Post reported.

Or as the New York Times wrote the man “held one of the security guards at gunpoint.”

The man made his way to the building’s 7th floor where he fired at least two shots through windows and started a small fire in the stairwell.

The man was later identified as 44-year-old Brandon Olsen, who called police at 3 a.m. and surrendered. He is being held for robbery, burglary, and arson.

So why the Hell is this national news that was picked up by CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, the New York Times, and newspapers in London?

Because the building just so happened to be the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center, which houses state courts of appeals, offices, and the state’s supreme court, which is located on the 4th floor, not the 7th floor.

The headline should have been something like:

Denver car crash leads to stand off with police, gunman surrenders after two hours

But then how could readers deduce that Trump is somehow to blame?

Most articles are quick to point out the incident had nothing to do with Trump or the court’s decision two weeks ago on whether the Republican is qualified to be on Colorado’s ballot.

And yet still they go on about threats being made to the judges, and a recent swatting incident.

According to CNN:

The analysis obtained by CNN found no specific threats to the judges. But it warned that “there remains a risk of lone actor or small group violence or other illegal activities in response to the ruling.”

So again, police say it was a random incident not linked to the Trump ruling, and yet the media want to scare people into thinking that something like this could have maybe happened in a parallel universe.

To no one’s surprise, certainly not the headline writers, Trump haters aren’t bothering to actually read the articles, they’re just making assumptions from the headlines and this is an example of what we’re seeing across social media:

“Colorado’s Supreme Court justices have received a flood of threats since they ruled that former President Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s Republican primary ballot as a presidential candidate.”

Another Trump-inspired domestic terrorist attack. https://t.co/HkOPKY3Fp3

— Joseph M. Azam (@josephazam) January 2, 2024