After strong criticism from both the Left and the Right over his comment about student survivors of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, conservative documentary maker and author Dinesh D’Souza issued an apology for being “insensitive.”
D’Souza made his widely-criticized comment in response to BuzzFeed publishing a photo of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students reacting emotionally to Florida’s House voting, “in the presence of student protesters,” against opening a debate on legislation to ban the sale or possession of “assault” rifles.
D’Souza replied with a joke he later said he regretted.
“Worst news since their parents told them to get summer jobs,” he wrote.
The comment sparked backlash from both the Left and Right. A few examples:
As The Hill notes, about 15 hours later, D’Souza issued an apology in which he said he was attempting to highlight “media manipulation” but ended up being “insensitive” to the plight of the students.
“While it aimed at media manipulation, my tweet was insensitive to students who lost friends in a terrible tragedy. I’m truly sorry,” he wrote.
The argument that the media has been manipulating grieving students to promote an agenda has been leveled by many others, including The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, as well as a student survivor of the Parkland shooting, who criticized the media for being “more concerned about gun control at this moment rather than the fact that there were 17 people that were killed.”