If Cedric Anderson had claimed to be inspired by ISIS before opening fire in a classroom in San Bernardino, California, it would be a different story. Or, at least, it would be covered differently.

The killing of two adults and an eight-year-old boy on Monday afternoon, which led hundreds of children to flee North Park Elementary School, hasnt resulted in wall-to-wall coverage on cable news or front page treatment in leading U.S. newspapers. Journalists and commentators have framed Andersons shooting of his wife, teacher Karen Elaine Smith, and two children as a domestic tragedy, rather than an act of terror .

By comparison, the national media swarmed San Bernardino in December 2015 after a U.S.-born citizen and his Pakistani-born wife went on a shooting spree that left 14 dead. The higher number of fatalities in 2015 may account for some disparity in coverage, and not every mass shooting in America results in sustained national media attention. Yet a shooting at an elementary school might be expected to receive outsize coverage due to the shocking nature of the act, regardless of the number of fatalities.

The key difference is that the 2015 shooters were said to be motivated by Islamic extremism, which fed into broader debates about immigration and terrorism and kicked the networks into overdrive to cover every facet of the unfolding story.