Andrew Pollack, one of too many grieving parents in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, shooting massacre, is the only person who has so far hit the nail squarely on the head about the media’s depraved indifference towards schools security.
Instead of focusing on the kind of security-hardening that would end these shootings immediately, the media are instead politicizing the issue, hoping to capitalize on a tragedy by focusing on the bitterly divisive issue of gun control; which is practically a non sequitur within this context because there is no law that would have stopped this shooting, or any of the others.
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Pollack summoned equal parts wisdom and common sense to chastise host Chris Wallace (and the media in general) for focusing on the polarizing issue of gun control while ignoring the fact that most of our schools are wide open:
[The school shooting problem] is not going to be fixed because I just heard what you said, what you’re focusing on, polarizing this event, the murder of these kids, you’re talking about gun control. I just had to listen to you and Governor Scott talk about gun control. Gun control is a big issue. No one in America is going to come together on control, Chris.
You didn’t say one thing about fixing it. The American people can get together on school safety. But when you polarize it, this event and every other media [outlet]— we don’t care about gun control right now. That’s a big issue in the country and you’re not going to get everyone together on it. But we can get everyone together on [securing] our schools. I just listened to you — you didn’t ask one question of the Governor about “What are we going to do about the security of our children.” But you are just talking about gun control, which is about more ratings like every other media [outlet].
My daughter’s dead, my kid’s going to go to school in Kentucky on Monday, and what I want to know is how are those kids safe… How about bringing that up in the media? … My kid’s not here because the schools weren’t safe. You go into a courthouse, the judge is safe, the stenographer’s not worried someone’s coming in with a gun because they can’t get in with a gun. The American people — we just want our schools safe. We don’t want to talk about guns right now.
Later in the interview, Wallace asked Pollack: “Isn’t this issue of mental health and trying to make sure that sick people don’t have access to guns — isn’t that part of the problem?”
His answer was perfect:
Was that a big issue when we were protecting airports? I’m not saying it’s not an issue, Chris, but when we were protecting our federal buildings, was that a big issue? We have our children in these classrooms. Those other issues can be worked out. But right now our country just wants to come together to make our schools safer for our kids. … We gotta have metal detectors. Make our schools like a courthouse, like an airport.
Pollack is not just correct about the issue of school security. He also sees what the media are doing, which is twofold. First, the media’s politicizing a massacre to push an anti-gun/NRA agenda. Secondly, the media’s distracting us with this polarizing debate to keep us from talking about security, the only real solution to the problem.
Pollack understands that if we continue to focus on guns, the problem “is not going to be fixed.” Why doesn’t the media understand this?
You get the sense that the media — who screech against guns while safe within their own security-hardened facilities — are actively opposed to solving this problem.
Could it be that the media do not want to allow us to discuss security because it might actually work — because if increased security does put a stop to these school shootings, the media will lose these unspeakable tragedies as anti-gun talking points?
Are the media that wicked?
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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