ISIS’ surprising claim, without evidence, that it was responsible for the mass shooting in Las Vegas prompted very different news treatments from different outlets on Monday — with some perhaps unintentionally fueling the terrorist organization’s desire for publicity.

While standard-bearers like The New York Times and The Washington Post mentioned ISIS’ claims only in the text of their larger stories on the shooting — not running individual articles on them — other outlets blared big headlines. There was particular enthusiasm for reporting on the claims at some right-leaning sites, like the Daily Caller, which on Monday morning briefly streaked the banner headline “BREAKING NEWS: ISIS Claims Shooter Converted To Islam Before Attack.”


Further out on the spectrum, InfoWars ran a lead story with the claim. The Gateway Pundit also played it prominently. Hours after the FBI said Monday that, as of yet, it had found no evidence connecting the shooter to international terror groups, the site displayed a headline reading: “ISIS Doubles Down On Vegas Attack Responsibility After FBI Denial—Warn Those Who Reject Claim Will ‘Regret’ It.”

Treatments of the claims did not break down cleanly along ideological lines, however. Breitbart cast a skeptical eye, noting ISIS’ lack of evidence in the headline of its own story on the claim. Fox News was also more reserved in its online coverage, treating the claims much like the Times and Post.

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The Associated Press, Newsweek and the New York Daily News, among others, ran headlines along the lines of, “Islamic State claims Las Vegas mass shooting.” But they weren't played up as much as those on some more ideological sites, and they generally included crucial context about the lack of evidence.

Regardless of whether ISIS had any connection to the attack, some experts said the mere existence of all of the stories could represent a victory for the terrorist group. Given how headlines spread around social media and the internet — often finding audiences that want to believe ISIS’ claims — some people are now sure to believe that ISIS was in fact behind one of the deadliest shootings in American history.

“Their followers are going to believe it no matter what, because they’re not going to believe the Western media, and it keeps their name relevant,” said Colin Clarke, a political scientist and terrorism expert for Rand Corp. “And it scares the crap out of people like my mom and dad.”

Headlines reporting the claims are, strictly speaking, accurate. But, because of the way people scan through social media feeds, Clarke said he would have preferred that news outlets pointed out that ISIS provided no evidence to support its statements, or that the shooter, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, did not fit the normal pattern of ISIS-inspired militants.

“If I were a journalist, I would hesitate to make the ISIS claim a headline; the attack is the headline,” said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who has written a book on ISIS. “If it’s a false claim whose only purpose is (a) uphold ISIS’ internal support base and, (b), to continue this perception that ISIS might be this big enemy and big threat, then we would be playing into ISIS’ hands.”

A graphic released Monday by Amaq News Agency, a media arm of the Islamic State group, claiming responsibility for the mass shooting in Las Vegas, saying that the perpetrator was a soldier who had converted to Islam months ago. | Amaq News Agency via AP

In the past, ISIS’ claims have generally had truth to them, but lately the group has made two high-profile false claims — one for an attack on a hotel in the Philippines and the other for placing a bomb at Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. In the Las Vegas case, in addition to the FBI statements, veteran ISIS watchers like the Times’ Rukmini Callimachi have cast doubt on the ISIS claims.

Regardless of the truth behind those claims, Clarke believes that, as the group suffers territorial setbacks, it could be focusing more on influencing the media narrative. “I think frankly there’s a lot of people in this country that want to believe them and will use it for their own agenda,” Clarke said of the claims.

Geoffrey Ingersoll, editor in chief of The Daily Caller, defended his site’s coverage in an email. “ISIS claiming anything through official channels, like they did, is big news. As soon as the disputes came, we updated the story and wrote another post on the FBI.”

He added that the banner headline was up for only 30 minutes. “We had both ‘ISIS Claims’ and ‘FBI Disputes’ headlines on the front page within an hour of each other. As soon as the [intelligence community] disputed, we updated the ISIS claims post.”

Still, the existence of the headlines allowed stories to spread around social media. On Twitter, some questioned whether news outlets should be reporting it at all.

An AP spokesperson said the wire service’s story put the issue in proper context.

Regardless of whether ISIS had any connection to the attack, some experts said the mere existence of all of the stories could represent a victory for the terrorist group. Given how headlines spread around social media and the internet — often finding audiences that want to believe ISIS’ claims — some people are now sure to believe that ISIS was in fact behind one of the deadliest shootings in American history.

“Their followers are going to believe it no matter what, because they’re not going to believe the Western media, and it keeps their name relevant,” said Colin Clarke, a political scientist and terrorism expert for Rand Corp. “And it scares the crap out of people like my mom and dad.”

Headlines reporting the claims are, strictly speaking, accurate. But, because of the way people scan through social media feeds, Clarke said he would have preferred that news outlets pointed out that ISIS provided no evidence to support its statements, or that the shooter, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, did not fit the normal pattern of ISIS-inspired militants.

“If I were a journalist, I would hesitate to make the ISIS claim a headline; the attack is the headline,” said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who has written a book on ISIS. “If it’s a false claim whose only purpose is (a) uphold ISIS’ internal support base and, (b), to continue this perception that ISIS might be this big enemy and big threat, then we would be playing into ISIS’ hands.”

