The stricken father of Alison Parker, the WDBJ reporter who was shot and killed on the air yesterday, appeared on The Kelly File last night where he talked about Alison and vowed, “I’m gonna do something, whatever it takes, to get gun legislation.”
This would not be so remarkable were it not for the fact that if any Democratic figure said it, Fox would be howling about “politicizing tragedy.” But since it was the victim’s father, and I’m sure Fox wanted the get, they let him speak.
Appearing with Alison’s father, Andy Parker, was her boyfriend and WDBJ’s evening anchor, Chris Hurst. He said about the murderer, who had a long record of behavior issues before he was fired from the station, “Clearly, something went wrong here between him leaving our station and being able to purchase a gun and commit a premeditated act. What happened behind us was clearly wrong but there had been ample time before him where many, many other things went wrong.”
Parker and Hurst took offense at one of Kelly’s questions, about the cameraman, who was also murdered, having reportedly filmed the killer to put it on record. “I was told that this was gonna be about Alison’s life and what she meant and, you know, frankly she was – I had reservations coming here. You know, if it were any other situation, I wouldn’t have,” Parker said. But he also said he had joked with his daughter that she was “the perfect Fox News girl: She was pretty, she was blonde and she was extremely smart.”
It was near the end of the 11-minute interview that Parker addressed guns.
PARKER: I’m not gonna let this issue drop. We’ve got to do something about crazy people getting guns. And the problem that you guys have is that – and I know it’s the news business and this is a big story but next week, it isn’t going to be a story any more and everybody’s going to forget it.
But you mark my words, my mission in life – and I talked to the governor today, he called me… and I told him, I said, I’m gonna do something, whatever it takes, to get gun legislation, to shame people, to shame legislators into doing something about closing loopholes and background checks and making sure crazy people don’t get guns. And he said, "You go. I’m right there with you." So this is not the last you’ve heard of me. This is something that is Alison’s legacy that I want to make happen.
…She was one of you. Don’t let this go. Don’t let it slide.
The interview, from the August 26 The Kelly File is below. If you can watch it with a dry eye, then you’re a stronger person than I.
If you'd like to donate to Everytown for Gun Safety, you can do so here. I did.
You comment is one of the most offensive, heartless, and hateful imaginable. It’s so awful, I frankly think you are just trolling. But that wouldn’t make it any better. I’m only leaving it up so that the whole world can see what kind of a despicable person you are. But you have been banned. You will never be welcome back here.
I’ve been a poster here at Newshounds for many years, and I’ve seen some amazing stupidity, hatred and racism from trolls over the years. However, your words of ‘wisdom’ rank among the very pinnacle of those that I have witnessed. I’m just not certain if the category is stupidity, or hatred, or both.
In any case, congratulations!
EDITOR’S NOTE: This comment has been edited because of objections from Google. But the general thrust that has been removed was racist and heartless toward the daughter. Personally, I think it’s better to let the comment stand and be ridiculed and denounced, especially since there were no objectionable words, per se. But this site relies on advertising revenue and I have decided to compromise. However, the comment has been saved and if anyone wants to read it, contact the site and I will forward it.
Ellen
And, it should be noted that, even when WHITE gunman have killed WHITE people, it rarely changes the overall thinking. I’m guessing it would take something on the level of the families of Wayne LaPierre and the other NRA top brass to be gunned down by one or two “law-abiding” white men (and those men would’ve had to have purchased their guns legally and passed background checks) before the NRA would even begin to think about supporting stronger gun laws. And even then, I’m not really sure the NRA would change their policies on opposing any sort of gun control. (Reagan was actually injured after being shot at, and it still took years before any sort of sensible laws were passed—and even those were watered down.)
Well, then. I don’t want to offend Mr Parker in his time of grief, but, obviously, he was a little crazy before his daughter was killed. If he said was “the perfect Fox News girl” because she was “extremely smart,” she would’ve slapped her father at that insult. “Extremely smart” women do NOT work for FoxNoise. A woman at that network is nothing more than Don Henley’s proverbial “bubble-headed bleached blonde.”
You’d think that, since this immediately followed the pleas of a man who had just lost his daughter that morning, Kelly would have been willing to step in and tell Leosch that her crap was not only highly inappropriate, but more than a little heartless… But she looked like she was more ready to pounce on Burton- Who was saying the same things as Parker.
I got nothing bad to say about the Parker interview. As I’ve said already, it hit all the right notes. But the fact that Kelly was biting her tongue to not tell Burton to shut up for the same things on the same episode lets me know exactly what would have happened if he was anyone but Allison Parker’s father.