Right-Wing Media Uses Parkland Shooting as Conspiracy Fodder<br />On Tuesday, the president’s son Donald J. Trump Jr. liked a pair of tweets<br />that accused David Hogg, a 17-year-old who is among the most outspoken of the Parkland students, of criticizing the Trump administration in an effort to protect his father, whom Mr. Hogg has described as a retired F. B.I.<br />In an on-air appearance, Jack Kingston, a former United States representative from Georgia<br />and a regular CNN commentator, asked, “Do we really think — and I say this sincerely — do we really think 17-year-olds on their own are going to plan a nationwide rally?” (He was quickly rebuked by the anchor Alyson Camerota.)<br />But in certain right-wing corners of the web — and, increasingly, from more mainstream voices like Rush Limbaugh and a commentator on CNN — the students are being portrayed not as grief-ridden survivors<br />but as pawns and conspiracists intent on exploiting a tragedy to undermine the nation’s laws.<br />In written posts and YouTube videos — one of which had more than 100,000 views as of Tuesday night — Gateway Pundit has argued<br />that Mr. Hogg had been coached on what to say during his interviews.<br />The teenagers of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., who a week ago lost 17 of their classmates<br />and school staff members in a mass shooting, have emerged as passionate advocates for reform, speaking openly of their anger in the hope of forcing a reckoning on guns.<br />Mr. Hogg, the high school’s student news director, has become a sensation among many liberals for his polished<br />and compelling television interviews, in which he has called on lawmakers to enact tougher restrictions on guns.<br />Just as quickly, Mr. Hogg attracted the disdain of right-wing provocateurs like The Gateway Pundit, a fringe website<br />that gained prominence in 2016 for pushing conspiracies about voter fraud and Hillary Clinton.
