An Open Letter to Fox News Correspondents

Dear Fox News Correspondents,

Aren't you supposed to be the adults in this situation? Frankly, I am astounded by your hateful and belittling speech that has been directed towards the Parkland students. It is ironic that you always talk about "Fake News" and the bias of the "liberal media," but when your precious guns are threatened, you lash out and verbally attack children.

Children.

And not just any children, but children who are survivors of a terrorist attack. You are so insecure and terrified of change that you have stooped to the level of attacking the GPAs, the ethnicities, and the ages of the people who are fighting for their lives.

Today, I would like to go through some of your statements to correct your misinformation. Although you attack these students for being too young to understand the issues, you do not seem to understand their argument. I would like to change that.

Let's start with Laura Ingraham. I have lots of issues with Laura Ingraham. For those of you who do not know, Ingraham hosts a one-hour television program on Fox News called "The Ingraham Angle," which is a opinion-based conservative talk show. I have never watched it, and hopefully never will, but I'm sure that it is just as awful as Ingraham herself.

Before we dive into Ingraham's hateful speech directed towards David Hogg, one of the survivors of the Parkland shooting, I think something about her past at Dartmouth College is worth noting.

During her time at Dartmouth, Ingraham became the editor of The Dartmouth Review, the college's conservative bi-weekly newspaper. Not only did she spew homophobic rhetoric, but she had a reporter go undercover into an LGBTQ+ meeting on campus to collect the names of the attendees. Then, she published them. She outed several students to the entire campus without their consent.

Later on, Ingraham wrote an op-ed about the experience. She admitted that in the published article, she had used the term "sodomites" to describe some of the gay students on campus. All of this was happening while her brother's same-sex partner was battling AIDS.

But, that was in the mid-1980s. So she could've changed right? Just maybe, she could've learned that her words have consequences?

Well, if you've been watching the news, you'll know that the answer to this question is a big fat no.

On March 28, 2018, Ingraham tweeted the following:

"David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.)"

As a college freshman, who has just gone through the emotional and challenging experience of applying to college, I can tell you that this is not okay. I'm a little confused on how Ingraham even obtained information about Hogg's GPA and college acceptances (perhaps she sent in an undercover reporter). Still, she had absolutely no right to publish that sensitive information. On top of reconciling with four college rejections, Hogg must help to manage this political revolution. It's hard enough to balance schoolwork, extracurriculars, and college applications. Now, he's shouldering a movement and PTSD from a shooting that should not have even happened.

Fortunately, as a result of Ingraham's insensitive words, TripAdviser, Nutrish, Wayfair, Nestlé, Hulu, Expedia, Johnson & Johnson, JoS A. Bank, and Stitch Fix have all discontinued advertising for her show.

Sorry, Laura! Maybe you should think before you tweet.

Now, let's move onto the Terrible Threesome that makes up Fox & Friends: Pete Hegseth, Ed Henry, and Abby Huntsman. I'm going to highlight some phrases of a particularly nails-on-the-chalkboard level conversation between the three of them.

"There are law-abiding citizens who own guns who are safe, who have never committed a crime, and yet they are being attacked as kid-killers." - Ed Henry

Of all people, gun owners especially should support commonsense gun reform. You know the power of these different types of assault weapons. You should know that they are no good for anything except to kill people. If you do not support commonsense gun reform, then you are a bystander. You are allowing mass crimes like this to happen. I've said this before in past posts, and I will say it again - the blood of the children is on the hands of anyone who does not advocate for commonsense gun reform.

"The only people who are killing children are these deranged individuals who get their hands on these guns who are mentally ill. And you have these extremes now. We can't talk about guns in a rational way in this country right now. Either you support the NRA and you support killing children, or everyone's taking all of our guns away." - Abby Huntsman

First off, the reason that "these deranged individuals" can get their hands on guns is because of loose gun regulations. Commonsense gun reform would prevent people, like the Parkland shooter, from obtaining weaponry that they should never own. The Parkland shooter purchased his weapon legally. For far too long, the NRA has valued sales over human lives, and that is not acceptable.

Also, this argument is only polarized because you think it is polarized. The reforms that the Parkland students have proposed WOULD NOT result in the removal of people's guns. The proposed reforms would make our nation safer. They would not take away guns. You can read about the actual proposed reforms here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2018/mar/23/parkland-students-manifesto-americas-gun-laws.

"Listen, I feel for these kids. They've obviously been affected and have a right to speak out and they should. But, forgive me if I don't want a lesson about the 2nd Amendment from a sixteen-year old. Forgive me if I don't want a nine-year old to tell me that her dream is a world without guns. My world, I want a world without Islamists. I wish that was true." - Pete Hegseth

Do you feel for these kids? Obviously you do not. Later on in this news segment, Hegseth proudly proclaimed that he donated to the NRA. So, in my opinion, I don't think you "feel for these kids." Consider this: if I, as an 18-year old, am too young to have an opinion on the 2nd Amendment, then I am certainly far too young to purchase an assault gun.

A nine year old shouldn't have to tell you her dream is a world without guns. A nine year wouldn't even have to worry about gun violence if we had established these commonsense gun reforms years ago when the first school shooting occurred.

Also, I know that this is unrelated to the notion of gun control, but it should still definitely be discussed. Clearly, Hegseth needs to be educated on the difference between Islam and Islamic terrorism. There are extremes in every religion. What you said could be equated to me saying "I want to live in a world without conservative Christians," when I would actually mean "I want to live in a world without alt-right terrorism." The inability to make this minor distinction is quite frightening, and reveals the repeated pattern of orientalism in this country.

"We should celebrate the fact that you can go out there and you have that freedom of speech. You can talk about things you're passionate about, whether you agree with it or not. Whether you agree with the 2nd Amendment or do not agree with the 2nd Amendment. And this is something you don't have in other countries." - Abby Huntsman

Ah, American exceptionalism. Newsflash, Abby, the United States is not the only country with the freedom of speech! According to a Pew Research Study, Poland, Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Canada, and Australia are among several countries that are very close to the U.S.A.'s tolerance of free speech. American exceptionalism has destroyed our relationship with other countries and is the basis of the "America First!" campaign. That's an Open Letter for another time.

The insensitivity and blatant disrespect of these, supposedly, esteemed adults is absolutely disgusting. When I read what some of these adults had said for the first time, my jaw literally dropped. They talk about the purity of this country and the sanctity of Christianity and how these kids have the right to speak up.

Yet they spew hate.

This Easter weekend, these Fox correspondents have A LOT to think about. Think about how you used a student's GPA against him. Think about how you, as an NRA supporter, have played a part in the uncountable number of mass shootings in America. Think about how you say that we are too young to have an opinion, but we are old enough to own an assault weapon. Think about your American exceptionalism.

Think about all of this, and know that the world is changing, and you're on the wrong side of history.

Yours truly,

P.S. Thought I would share my favorite sign from the March for Our Lives:

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