Caught in the whirlwind of adoring television interviews, newspaper profiles, rally speeches and teenage groupies, David Hogg has not had time to ruminate on one of the great truths of our media-driven age: The long arc of history doesn’t bend toward justice. For individuals, it bends toward obscurity.
In other words: David Hogg, meet Sandra Fluke.
Sandra, you may recall, was the coed with an active sex life. She caught the Obamacare wave at just the right time with her demand that Catholics be forced to foot the bill for her birth control pills. A nice-looking girl with no shame and a slightly ‘naughty librarian look’ is always newsworthy. The Opposition Media made her refusal to take her own precautions a cause celebre.
She evolved from sexual relations activist to martyr when Rush Limbaugh decided to dabble in an extremely crass reductio ad absurdum and unwisely called Fluke a “slut.” A genuine insult and beneath Rush. In spite of the fact Limbaugh had just tripled her speaking fees, Sandra joined the outrage parade and called for advertisers to boycott El Rushbo’s show.
The reason for this background on Fluke is five years after her nationwide notoriety peaked, Sandra has joined the Jackson Five in obscurity. Howard Stern can talk about sex for decades and still be current, but there comes a time when a civilian like Sandra just starts to sound obsessed. The Obamacare mandate is old news and so is Fluke.
She tried to capitalize on her fleeting fame by running for the California legislature. Evidently the free-pills vote wasn’t pivotal. She lost to a man (!) 60 to 40 percent. Now, in her rare news appearances, she’s just an activist, which as you can imagine in California includes a cast of thousands.
David Hogg, of Parkland, Fla. shooting fame and NRA hatred, is following an eerily similar media sensation career path. I imagine it will come as a shock to him when the arc is complete and he rejoins us mere mortals here on planet Earth. A bit over a month into his notoriety, Hogg isn’t wearing well. First, there’s his potty mouth. Turning an interview regarding school shootings into a bleep-fest might make the pencil-neck feel like a tough guy, but it makes interview bookers wary. Then there’s Hogg’s failure to grasp that objecting to using a free, clear backpack at the same time he’s attempting to limit other’s Constitutional rights is not a flattering juxtaposition.
And what claim to expertise does Hogg rally have? Fluke took birth control pills and presumably had sex, so there was first-hand experience. But Hogg? He’s only a proximitist. A creature of the 2nd Amendment-hating OpMedia. Reporters automatically label any sympathetic and photogenic individuals “survivors” if they were anywhere near a large-scale shooting. The media-determined circle inside which all people are instantly deemed survivors approximates the blast radius of an atomic bomb.
The term “survivor” is designed to convey an aura of importance, sympathy and immunity to criticism. In reality, the real “survivors” of the Parkland shooting are the students who were wounded and survived. I’m even willing to count bruises from the stampede.
If a student wasn’t shot, then the term for those closest to the action is witness, not survivor. Hogg can’t even claim that distinction. Depending on which reporter he’s talking to, Hogg was either at home and rushed to school when he heard about the shooting; or he was in science class and evacuated the building. He only heard firing in the distance.
This makes Hogg a “proximitist” from the word ‘proximity,’ which means near. Hogg is actively cashing in on his proximity to the shooting, but in truth if Hogg is a “survivor,” then so is Deputy Scott Peterson.
Blanket “survivorship” is a relatively new phenomenon. After Fort Hood only people who had been wounded were called “survivors.” People who happened to be on base remained anonymous.
In yet another interview Hogg complained that he was turned down for admission by a number of California colleges. Changing the world has delayed making a final college decision, but he’s still open to offers. This is the higher education equivalent of Amazon opening the bidding for its new headquarters.
And here Hogg really enters Fluke territory. Laura Ingraham tweeted that with the low acceptance rates for California colleges, Hogg shouldn’t be surprised that his 4.1 GPA didn’t make the cut.
Even pointing out the obvious is out of bounds if the facts concern a Gun Violence Icon.
PR agents masquerading as reporters claimed Ingraham was “mocking” a “massacre survivor.” Now Hogg is organizing a boycott of Ingraham’s advertisers. My advice for him is to enjoy it while it lasts, because it won’t last forever. The media will eventually move on without him.

Michael Shannon is a commentator and public relations consultant. He can be reached at mandate.mmpr@gmail.com.