The Democratic convention has featured a number of emotional speeches from grieving mothers, some who had lost their sons to police shootings, and another whose son was killed in the terrorist attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
These efforts to politicize tragedies—something President Obama has said “should” be done—received mostly positive coverage in the media.
Watch the #MothersoftheMovement 's poignant speech from last night's #DNCinPHL https://t.co/QTngezRClm pic.twitter.com/ZgjrCcTRZX
— VH1 (@VH1) July 27, 2016
The mother of an Orlando shooting victim gave a heartbreaking speech about gun control: https://t.co/s1G8bxjLHu pic.twitter.com/pgcsGcoxkI
— Fusion (@Fusion) July 28, 2016
Reactions to the Republican convention, which featured speeches from Patricia Smith, who lost her son in the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, and two former soldiers who survived the attack, weren’t as charitable.
MSNBC host Chris Matthews called Smith a liar and said her speech at the RNC had “ruined” the evening. “I don’t care what that woman up there, the mother, has felt,” he said.
MSNBC's Chris Matthews: GOP "ruined" evening by having "that woman" speak on Benghazihttps://t.co/4yNILlD7Ro pic.twitter.com/kmDzDoJjBr
— The Hill (@thehill) July 19, 2016
A writer for GQ magazine was forced to apologize after tweeting: “I don’t care how many children Pat Smith lost I would like to beat her to death.”
Maybe there is a difference between politicizing certain tragedies (police shootings, mass shootings) and others (Benghazi), but there is little interest in explaining what that difference is, beyond the fact that Democrats and many in the media are broadly supportive of tighter gun control, and largely opposed to questioning Hillary Clinton’s honesty and judgment.
