David Hogg Rips USA Today: They’re One of the Best at ‘Making Mass Shooters Famous’ – By Ken Meyer (Mediaite) Feb 12 2019
David Hogg Rips USA Today: They’re One of the Best at ‘Making Mass Shooters Famous’
Parkland shooting survivor and gun control advocate David Hogg went on a tear against USA Today on Tuesday by accusing the newspaper of giving mass shooters too much publicity.
Hogg appeared with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell to talk about what change he has seen throughout America in the year that’s passed since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Hogg directly followed USA Today Washington Bureau chief Susan Page on Mitchell’s show Tuesday. As a result, Hogg went after Page’s outlet for “making mass shooters famous.”
“It was interesting you had the USA Today chief editor from Washington, D.C. on because they’re one of the worst offenders of that,” Hogg said. “They’re one of best news organizations at making mass shooters famous. They always plaster the shooter’s face everywhere. That’s what the shooter in my school asked for. He literally interviewed himself before the shooting and said ‘I’m going to be famous from this,’ and organizations like USA Today and others are responsible. They have to realize and be held accountable for these acts.”
Page returned to the program later on and responded to Hogg’s point by saying journalists constantly struggle with deciding where to draw the line in reporting on the background details of mass killers.
USA Today has also crafted a statement of its own (via The Wrap):
USA Today responds to @davidhogg111 criticismhttps://t.co/r6jmKlPVXy pic.twitter.com/Vs3Qcd8tYI
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 12, 2019