How Low Can They Go? Right Wing Media and Blogs (With Help From Donald Trump Jr.) Now in Full Attack Mode Against Parkland Students

If you’ve watched any news programs in the past few days, you know that the students who survived the Parkland school shooting attack have been courageously speaking out, demanding action on gun control legislation.

So of course, the vile bottom-dwelling operatives of the right, including Gateway Pundit, Alex Jones and Donald Trump Jr., have now begun viciously smearing and attacking these students, spreading fake news and conspiracy theories and publishing personal information online. They always do this after a mass shooting attack, but in this case it’s even more disgusting because they’re directly targeting the students who lived through this atrocity and subjecting them to more trauma.

Melissa Ryanreports:

Dr. Kate Starbird, a professor at University of Washington, has done a lot of research on what she refers to as alternative narratives. She writes: “Over time, we noted that a similar kind of rumor kept showing up, over and over again, after each of the man-made crisis events — a conspiracy theory or ‘alternative narrative’ of the event that claimed it either didn’t happen or that it was perpetrated by someone other than the current suspects.” Starbird also highlights the role that botnets play in disseminating alternative narratives.

What Starbird describes has played out time and again. What’s different about the Parkland shooting is how quickly and powerfully survivors began speaking out. Some students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School immediately took to social media calling on President Donald Trump and Congress to do something about guns and calling out commentators like Fox’s Tomi Lahren for saying now wasn’t the time to talk about guns. David Hogg, a student journalist who interviewed students on lockdown during the shooting, made several TV appearances demanding leaders take action. Another student, Emma Gonzalez, called out the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the legislators who do its bidding. Melissa Falkowski, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, went on CNN calling on Congress to do more to “to end gun violence, to keep our kids safe.” Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed, screamed at President Trump on CNN to “do something.” Student survivors are organizing a march on Washington D.C..

And now, Parkland survivors are targets for fake news campaigns, conspiracy theories, harassment and doxxing. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has already suggested that the entire shooting is a false flag, which implies that all of the survivors are actors in an elaborate hoax. As survivors speak up, there are already attempts to attack and discredit them individually.

The most high-profile attacker is the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., who has “liked” two tweets attacking the students by right wing bloggers and news sources. For example:

#RT @GrahamLedger: Could it be that this student is running cover for his dad who Works as an FBI agent at the Miami field office Which botched tracking down the Man behind the Valentine day massacre? Just wondering. Just connecting some dots… https://t.co/eMFOepw0Me

— One America News (@OANN) February 20, 2018

DonaldJTrumpJr liked this tweet: https://t.co/CBk03EEFjo

— Trump Alert (@TrumpsAlert) February 20, 2018

Survivor David Hogg gave a statement to Buzzfeed News:

Hogg told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that Trump Jr.’s peddling of conspiracy theories was “immature, rude, and inhuman.”
“I just think it’s a testament to the sick immaturity and broken state of our government when these people feel the need to pedal conspiracy theories about people that were in a school shooting where 17 people died and it just makes me sick,” Hogg said.

“It’s immature, rude, and inhuman for these people to destroy the people trying to prevent the death of the future of America because they won’t,” he said.

Popular conservative sexual harasser Bill O’Reilly is now joining the attacks on the students, with a grotesque patronizing tweet:

The big question is: should the media be promoting opinions by teenagers who are in an emotional state and facing extreme peer pressure in some cases?

— Bill O’Reilly (@BillOReilly) February 20, 2018

And we all know it won’t be long before our so-called president joins in. I’m sure his advisers are telling him to keep quiet about this, but he won’t be able to resist the right wing feeding frenzy.

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