The Media’s Marginalization of Kyle Kashuv Shows They Only Take Anti-Gun Parkland Students Seriously

It’s been over a month since the devastating shooting in Parkland, Florida, and because of the consistent activism from the students and families of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, actual change is being made — from gun reform measures being passed on the state level to bills like the Stop School Violence Act and the Fix Nics Act making their way through Congress.

A handful of pro-gun control students from the school have practically become celebrities overnight, including David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, and Emma González, who now has over 1.26 million Twitter followers. They make constant appearances on CNN and MSNBC, sat down with Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Maher, and will be joined by Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney at their March For Our Lives.

While they have made a lot of noise calling the NRA “child murderers” and politicians the association’s “b*tch,” there’s one student in particular who hasn’t gotten much attention from the media: Kyle Kashuv.

Kashuv, who survived the same massacre as Hogg, Kasky, and González, has emerged as a staunch supporter for the Second Amendment. But what’s so remarkable about this particular student is that he goes beyond partisan activism.

Since the massacre, he has met with dozens of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle from  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI). He’s also met with Vice President Mike Pence, First Lady Melania Trump, and President Donald Trump at the White House.

No matter how you feel about each individual Kashuv sat down with, he deserves praise for reaching across the aisle in pursuit of compromise and bipartisan solutions. He himself helped pass legislation in Florida and is currently advocating for the Stop School Violence Act. And when he’s not meeting with lawmakers, he is developing his own app called ReachOut, which is meant for students nationwide to be able to chat in an emotional support platform.

But despite with willingness of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to hear Kashuv out, the media has been unable to grant him the same respect. And often times, they’ve gone out of their way to make that obvious.

Twitter organized a live-stream Q&A session with six students of Stoneman Douglas, all who share a similar stance in the gun debate. Conservatives quickly noticed the lack of ideological diversity since Kashuv was not invited. And after coming under fire, Twitter announced that it was doing a separate live-stream session with Kashuv and Twitter Founder/CEO Jack Dorsey was set to meet with him to discuss his ReachOut app.

After weeks of appearing exclusively on Fox News, Kashuv was finally scheduled to make his first appearance on CNN. He claimed his interview with Brooke Baldwin was cancelled because he had retweeted a link that called her a “fake news hypocrite.”

Then Time magazine unveiled its latest cover Thursday, this one featuring five students from Stoneman Douglas.

TIME’s new cover: The school shooting generation has had enough https://t.co/4YI173gqTx pic.twitter.com/7yFEXuVjyb

— TIME (@TIME) March 22, 2018

Of course, they left Kashuv out, and conservatives took notice.

The media’s conscious decision to ignore Kashuv is wrong on many fronts. For starters, it’s clear that they’re suppressing students like him who vocally support the Second Amendment because they don’t push a gun control agenda. They’re creating a false narrative that everyone at Stoneman Douglas thinks uniformly, sharing the views of González, Hogg, and Kasky — when in reality they all have their own opinions. But even if you put Kashuv’s pro-gun stance aside, he’s one of the very few Stoneman Douglas students who was actively involved in passing legislation and was willing to meet with both Democrats and Republicans.

While the cameras may not be on Kashuv during the March For Our Lives, history will remember the positive change he has made since the Parkland shooting. Demonizing the NRA and making appearances at award shows is easy. Actually getting things done is hard. The media hasn’t taken Kashuv seriously, but millions of Americans have, including dozens of lawmakers and the President of the United States.

The media did the right thing by giving these Parkland students a platform and letting them have a voice, but what’s clear is that the only voices that matter to them are the ones that push a gun control agenda. Why else would the media ignore an articulate, intelligent, and admirable kid like Kashuv? He simply doesn’t fit their narrative despite his impressive — and perhaps unparalleled — accomplishments. It’s a shame that the media refuses to give Kashuv the respect he deserves.

[image via screengrab]

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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