Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow described survivors of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting “human shields for CNN” on Tuesday.
Marlow’s remarks on Breitbart’s SiriusXM radio show come as conservatives complain that CNN has been too eager to highlight Parkland survivors who have become vocal proponents of gun control in the aftermath of the shooting that left 17 dead.
“You’re trying to be polite and this is the debate we’re having right now, which is that most people calling on the show are whether or not we should be polite to these 17-year-old pawns, these human shields for CNN and Jeff Zucker’s agenda, or whether or not we should rip them a new one,” Marlow said.
{mosads}”Because my real-life godfather, and senior writer for Breitbart News, John Nolte, he’s fed up with it,” Marlow continued. “He’s saying that ‘Hey, if these kids are going to go out there, I’m going to pop them on the behind if they have to,’ and it’s hard to debate with them.”
“Being polite is a huge disadvantage in any sort of debate like this,” concurred Washington Times opinion editor Charles Hurt. “I think that this is somewhat of a tempest in a teacup in terms of them being given a huge megaphone.”
“There’s a reason that every time politicians try to do something, like in this case banning the AR-15, why is it that you have this kind of collapse of the government to protect the people?” Hurt asked. “The first reaction of some people is to go out and ban one of the most popular tools people use to protect themselves. It’s monstrously arrogant and on top of that, also useless.”
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, CNN chief Jeff Zucker defended the town hall the network held last week with members of the Parkland community and their congressional representatives.
“We were there, we presented both sides,” Zucker told Hollywood Reporter writer Jeremy Barr. “People who want to criticize are looking to just criticize before they even think about it.”
“I think it was a really important milestone in this conversation because for one of the few times, people who have different points of view were together,” Zucker said. “And the problem is: all too often, whether it’s on blogs or websites or partisan television networks, people are just talking to themselves. And nothing will ever change if we don’t start talking to one another.”
Anchor and town hall moderator Jake Tapper also weighed in, saying he’s more focused on the victims’ families than those who criticized the event.