Rantz: Moral obligation to question Parkland victims’ rhetoric

This is undoubtedly tricky. How should you respond to a handful of teens, all undeniable victims of a tragedy, when they say things that are, in many ways, extremely offensive? You need to respond with compassion and understanding, but you must do so quickly. And when they make dubious claims aimed at changing legislation? You have the moral obligation to correct the record.

Some victims of the Parkland shooting — Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, and Cameron Kasky — have used this shooting to inspire students and like-minded activists across the country to take on gun control and the National Rifle Association. Great. I have no problem with passionate folks taking policy positions I disagree with. But the media has been all too willing to give them airtime to make their case, completely unchallenged, with reporters and anchors nodding their heads along the way, without even a pertinent follow-up, because they mostly agree with the message and others think these kids are above reproach.

Both positions betray the moral obligation of the press. The press love to say they’re keeping President Donald Trump honest by calling him out on his rhetoric. These kids? They somehow get a pass to say outrageous things.

It’s not to say these kids don’t have the right to argue whatever points they want; their positions are informed by an experience most of us will, luckily, never experience. But let’s be clear: their experiences do not mean their positions are any more right or righteous than those of you who disagree with them. These are subjective points of view. The media should vet the rhetoric and policy prescriptions, rather than tiptoe around teenagers for fear they will seem insensitive.

You can conduct sensitive interviews while also telling Hogg, who recently announced NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch “…doesn’t care about these children’s lives,” that he is indeed a victim who deserves our sympathy and patience, but his position is also outrageous, immature, and deeply offensive. Loesch doesn’t care about innocent victims because, what, she has a different position than you do on guns? When left unchecked, you make others more comfortable leveling outrageous claims. What purpose does that kind of allegation serve?

I’ve heard these kids alleged five million Americans belong to a terrorist organization — which is how they characterize the NRA. I’ve heard them say the NRA, and by default, their members have blood on their hands. Loesch was called a child murderer. How is this acceptable to you? And how does anyone cheer on a media that just let this go unchallenged?

Here’s something potentially damaging: Hogg is going easy on the Broward County Sheriff’s Department for their undeniably subpar response to the mass shooting. He wants to wait until the ones who failed these students conducts an investigation into their own actions. Fair enough. Instead, Hogg would rather set his ire on the NRA, which had literally nothing to do with what happened at his school. Indeed, Hogg actually has the audacity to blame Republican Governor Rick Scott for Peterson not going into the school! This alone translates to Stephanie Ruhle, Chris Cuomo, and other activist-journalists sycophants keeping their focus on the NRA (and Republican politicians), rather than the law enforcement officials who let these kids down.

If, because we give deference to the opinions of these kids, the focus remains on the NRA and Republicans, I hope you realize we’ll take the focus away from the systems in place that helped Nikolas Cruz go through with his shooting in the first place.

Sheriff Scott Israel thinks his leadership has been “amazing” but note that he withheld information from the press about how his department interacted with the shooter (excuse me: didn’t interact), lied about how many times his officers visited the Cruz household, pretended to not to know about the case of Cruz holding a gun to someone’s head, and could have arrested Cruz, but chose not to. Israel, like Scott Peterseon, is a underserving of the badge.

Should we not focus on Israel and the law enforcement failures, and instead demonize the NRA? Journalists are using these kids to further their own agenda. And, with few exceptions, the actual people who failed these kids are going unscathed. Hell, virtually no one is even blaming Cruz for the mass murders. Somehow the NRA is worse than him? Michael Moore says they’re worse than ISIS!

These have not been responsible or helpful conversations. They sow division and push people apart. And something tells me if these kids didn’t take positions media members liked, they wouldn’t be getting as much unchecked airtime. After a Muslim commits an act of terror, some foolishly think all Muslims, then, are terrorists. If a victim of a terrorist attack makes that claim, do you think Brian Stelter or Katy Tur will invite them on to have a conversation that goes unchallenged? Do you think Ellen flies them to her show? Of course not: nor should they.

We should allow victims to grieve how they want, show them compassion, offer them up space to say their peace, and yes, offer them significant latitude in who they claim is responsible. We should support them however we can. But at some point, the rhetoric cannot go wholly unchecked, certainly not when constitutional rights are on the line.

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