The New Republic, a left-wing publication, has been slammed for highlighting the donations made to the US Republican Party by Stockton Rush, one of five people aboard the missing Titanic submersible.
Mr Rush is the CEO of OceanGate, the company that owns and operates the stricken craft that lost communication with its mothership last Sunday (June 18), triggering a massive search and rescue operation in the Atlantic Ocean.
Time is quickly running out for Mr Rush and the other four passengers on board Titan, with their oxygen supply predicted to run out at around midday in the UK on Thursday, giving rescuers only a few hours to find their whereabouts before it is too late.
But rather than focus on them being heroically rescued, the New Republic instead decided to run a story headlined: ‘OceanGate CEO Missing in Titanic Sub Had History of Donating to GOP Candidates’.
The magazine’s senior political correspondent Daniel Strauss wrote: “Public campaign finance records indicate that Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate currently stuck on the missing Titan submersible that was running a tourist expedition of the Titanic wreck, has been a consistent Republican donor over the years.
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“According to these public finance records, Rush was not a Republican mega donor, but his donations over the years leaned heavily toward Republican candidates.”
The report went on to list the various Republicans that Mr Rush has financially backed.
But the story caused a huge uproar on social media, with Nicholas Fondacaro, the associate editor for the Media Research Centre tweeting: “So, @DanielStrauss4 is the scumbag ‘journalist’ who thinks the guy deserves to suffocate to death on the bottom of the ocean because he supported Republicans.”
T. Becket Adams, a programme director at the National Journalism Centre, wrote: “Not sure which is more interesting: that this was published by a team, and not one person thought to say, ’this is extremely gross’, or the headline’s use of the past tense ‘had’, as if the New Republic knows something the rest of us don’t.”
Another angry social media user penned the following: “Who even thinks like this? ‘Hmmmm … this billionaire is trapped in a steel tube 12,500 feet below the surface of the Atlantic. Let’s see if he donated to any conservative candidates’. What’s the implication here? Karma’s a bitch?”
Fox News’ Janice Dean tweeted: “Wow. What if the missing CEO had donated to the other party? How disgusting and pathetic.”
Radio host Tony Katz added: “When you lose your humanity, this is what you write about.”
