Just days before Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at a Utah Valley University speaking event, the feminist news website Jezebel published an article by a woman who claimed she hired witches on the online marketplace Etsy to invoke "multiple curses" against the conservative influencer. 

In the now-deleted Sept. 8 article, titled "We Paid Some Etsy Witches to Curse Charlie Kirk," a woman named Claire Guinan claimed to reach out to self-described “witches” on the online marketplace Etsy in late August, and said she chatted with a “priestess” who said the curse would take between two to three weeks.

Kirk, 31, was killed Sept. 10. 

After the assassination and ensuing backlash on social media, the outlet first appended an editor's note condemning political violence before deleting the article "on the recommendation of our lawyers," claiming it was intended to be satirical.

A CP review determined that in the weeks before Kirk’s assassination, multiple media outlets — including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and others — published articles detailing how one might go about soliciting witches for various purposes, including “casting spells” for anything from finding true love and career success to bringing harm upon one’s enemies.

Here are four media outlets that recently promoted the use of witchcraft.

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1. The Washington Post - June 18, 2025

With the headline “Want to get rid of a toxic ex? Or curse someone? Hire an Etsy witch,” a Washington Post story in June cited the rising popularity of “WitchTok,” where videos on soliciting witchcraft services have over 30 billion views. 

Claiming that “witchcraft has in some ways lost its taboo,” the article largely focuses on content creators identifying themselves as witches and their low-cost services on Etsy. “For $17, you can place an order for good luck. Repairing a relationship costs $5. To make someone feel guilty, you’ll need $9.99, and curses tend to start around $15,” the article states.

In addition to highlighting Lindsey Squire, a self-branded “witch of the forest” with over half a million followers on Instagram, the WaPo report shared a link to Squire’s books on “the history of witchcraft and the basics of spell-crafting.”