I happened to catch a jaw-dropping incident on the Fox News Channel air yesterday, as Shepard Smith’s breaking news coverage of the Baton Rouge police ambush brought on Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal for telephone comments.  In the course of attempting to heal the raw nerves, Gov. Jindal said “all lives matter” and was rebuked by the crew-cut newsman.  Kristinn Taylor of Gateway Pundit captured the exchange:

Jindal said:

“…Shepard I will say this, look, it, it is time for folks across party lines, across ideological lines to con–to condemn this violence, to condemn this insanity. We gotta come together. We’ve got to say that all lives matter. It doesn’t matter what color you are: Black, white, brown, red, it doesn’t matter. All lives matter. We’ve got to protect and value our belief…”

Smith cuts in to attack Jindal:

“Governor, you know, you know that that phrase you just used is is one that’s seen by many as, as derogatory, right? I, I just wonder why it is that you use that phrase when there’s a certain segment of the population that believes it’s a real dig on ’em.”

Jindal:

“Well, Shepard, it’s not meant to be. The point is we’ve got to move beyond race. Look these police officers, these are, are the men and women that run towards danger not away from it so that we can be safe. It is time for us to be unified as, as a country We’ve to look beyond race. I, I think that’s one, one of the dumbest ways for us to divide people. It’s one of the dumbest way to for us to classify people, or,or categorize people. We shouldn’t be divided, we do need to be united. These are police officers–they don’t care whether you’re Black or white they will run towards danger to protect you. That’s what they swear, that’s, that’s their duty, that’s what they do first. These are heroes.

Smith argues back at Jindal:

“This sounds like two different things to me, governor. I mean, we had, we had an incident involving a Black suspect who was shot and killed. But this is clearly, according to the mayor of Baton Rouge, this is an, this is an ambush of law enforcement officers that’s sending shock waves really across the nation at this moment having nothing to do with anything except innocent officers on patrol and shot dead at a B Quick store on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge.”

Here is video of the incident:

When the phrase “all lives matter” is seen as derogatory, the person holding that view is seriously in need of a course correction.  The idea behind the position seems to be that because of victim privilege, only black people have the right to say their lives matter.  Everyone else stands on a different moral plane, so that saying that their lives also matter is an affront to the priority that the victim-race must maintain.

Smith, of course, was almost certainly reacting to needling he has gotten from people he interacts with.  He saw himself standing up for good manners:

… I just wonder why it is that you use that phrase when there’s a certain segment of the population that believes it’s a real dig on ’em.

What about people who see the phrase “black lives matter” as excluding them, as if their non-black lives don’t matter?  Do they have moral standing in Shep Smith’s universe?  I suspect not, because such people are not anointed with the sacred status of victims.

Smith usually does a better job of hiding his political views.  He is obviously a liberal-left sort of guy, which doesn’t particularly offend me, as he is a news reader.  But in taking on “all lives matter” as offensive and to be avoided, Smith has chosen a losing hand to defend.  As has the left.  Bernie Sanders all but apologized for saying all lives matter.

I expect the GOP convention to take a strong stand in favor of “all lives matter” and hope that Hillary Clinton joins Smith in criticizing those who say so.