David Hogg, Child media star
By Michael R. Shannon
web posted April 9, 2018
Caught in the whirlwind of adoring television interviews,
newspaper
profiles, rally speeches and teenage groupies, David Hogg has not had
time to ruminate on one of the great truths of our media–driven age:
The long arc of history doesn’t bend toward justice. For individuals,
it bends toward obscurity.
In other words: David Hogg, meet Sandra Fluke.
Sandra, you may recall, was the coed with an active sex life. She
caught the Obamacare wave at just the right time with her demand that
Catholics be forced to foot the bill for her birth control pills. A
nice–looking girl with no shame and a slightly ‘naughty librarian look’
is always newsworthy. The Opposition Media made her refusal to take her
own precautions a cause célèbre.
She evolved from sexual relations activist to martyr when Rush Limbaugh
decided to dabble in an extremely crass reductio ad absurdum
and unwisely called Fluke a “slut.�? A genuine insult and beneath Rush.
In spite of the fact Limbaugh had just tripled her speaking fees,
Sandra joined the outrage parade and called for advertisers to boycott
El Rushbo’s show.
The reason for this background on Fluke is five years after
her
nationwide notoriety peaked, Sandra has joined the Jackson Five in
obscurity. Howard Stern can talk about sex for decades and still be
current, but there comes a time when a civilian like Sandra just starts
to sound obsessed.
The Obamacare mandate is old news and so is Fluke.
She tried to capitalize on her fleeting fame by running for
the
California legislature. Evidently the free–pills vote wasn’t pivotal.
She lost to a man (!) 60 to 40 percent. Now, in her rare news
appearances she’s just an activist, which as you can imagine in
California includes a cast of thousands.
David Hogg, of Parkland, FL shooting fame and NRA hatred, is following
an eerily similar media sensation career path. I imagine it will come
as a shock to him when the arc is complete and he rejoins us mere
mortals here on planet Earth. A bit over a month into his notoriety,
Hogg isn’t wearing well. First, there’s his potty mouth. Turning an
interview regarding school shootings into a bleep–fest might make the
pencil–neck feel like a tough guy, but it makes interview bookers wary.
Then there’s Hogg’s failure to grasp that objecting to using a free,
clear backpack at the same time he’s attempting to limit other’s
Constitutional rights is not a flattering juxtaposition.
And what claim to expertise does Hogg rally have? Fluke took
birth
control pills and presumably had sex, so there was first–hand
experience. But Hogg? He’s only a proximitist. A creature of the 2nd
Amendment–hating OpMedia. Reporters automatically label any sympathetic
and photogenic individuals “survivors�? if they were anywhere near a
large–scale shooting. The media–determined circle inside which all
people are instantly deemed survivors approximates the blast radius of
an atomic bomb.
The term “survivor�? is designed to convey an aura of
importance,
sympathy and immunity to criticism. In reality, the real “survivors�? of
the Parkland shooting are the students who were wounded and survived.
I’m even willing to count bruises from the stampede.
If a student wasn’t shot, then the term for those closest to
the action
is witness, not survivor. Hogg can’t even claim that distinction.
Depending on which reporter he’s talking to, Hogg was either at home
and rushed to school when he heard about the shooting; or he was in
science class and evacuated the building. He only heard firing in the
distance.
This makes Hogg a “proximitist�? from the word ‘proximity,’
which means
near. Hogg is actively cashing in on his proximity to the shooting, but
in truth if Hogg is a “survivor,�? then so is Deputy Scott Peterson.
Blanket “survivorship�? is a relatively new phenomenon. After
Fort Hood
only people who had been wounded were called “survivors.�? People who
happened to be on base remained anonymous.
In yet another interview Hogg complained that he was turned
down for
admission by a number of California colleges. Changing the world has
delayed making a final college decision, but he’s still open to offers.
This is the higher education equivalent of Amazon opening the bidding
for its new headquarters.
And here Hogg really enters Fluke territory. Laura Ingraham
tweeted
that with the low acceptance rates for California colleges, Hogg
shouldn’t be surprised that his 4.1 GPA didn’t make the cut.
Even pointing out the obvious is out of bounds if the facts concern a Gun Violence Icon.
PR agents masquerading as reporters claimed Ingraham was
“mocking�? a
“massacre survivor.�? Now Hogg is organizing a boycott of Ingraham’s
advertisers. My advice for him is to enjoy it while it lasts, because
it won’t last forever. The media will eventually move on without him. 
Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and
advertising consultant with corporate, government and political
experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote
speaker. He can be reached at mandate.mmpr (at) gmail.com. He is also
the author of Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular
Times (Now with added humor!).