Wayne's World
by digby
I continue to be a little bit surprised at the lack of attention being paid to the efforts of the NRA in the past election what part gun proliferation activism may have played. I guess that's an old story although I will be surprised if gun regulation is given the prominence Hillary Clinton gave it in any campaign going forward.
Guns are a cultural totem, particularly in rural white America and those voters all heard Trump and the NRA loud and clear. And they will continue to speak out.
Take, for instance this story from Media Matters about the NRA TV channel host who thinks criticizing Trump is a violation of the constitution:
Ostensibly a news organization, the National Rifle Association’s NRATV is actually a pro-Trump propaganda effort that routinely labels protected-speech reporting on the president-elect as a plot to destroy the United States, “anti-patriotic,” and an “assault against freedom and the Constitution.”
In fact, the opposite is true. Freedom of the press is enshrined in the First Amendment, which reads in part, “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”
The protections afforded to the press by the First Amendment are, of course, not absolute. The publication of defamatory material can have legal repercussions. But the type of press activity NRATV describes as oppositional to the U.S. Constitution is actually accurate and sourced reporting on important matters of public interest.
NRATV, a rebranding of NRA News, launched in October with the stated mission of providing “the most comprehensive video coverage of Second Amendment issues, events and culture anywhere in the world.” It brought on conservative radio's Grant Stinchfield to serve as a host, interjecting live hourly updates into a 24-hour video feed featuring archived material and other live programming...
Following Donald Trump’s victory, NRATV has adopted an even more authoritarian tone. During a November 29 broadcast about the “dishonest and downright dirty” mainstream media, Stinchfield argued that it is “anti-patriotic” to report on Trump and his transition team if those reports raise critical questions. Claiming that “the media needs to get on board,” Stinchfield said, “They talk about being anti-patriotic; when you call into question every single thing that this president-elect does and his transition team does, it’s the media that is trying to destroy our republic. They are trying to tear it down piece by piece by sending you false information.”
There's much more at the link.
One can discount these people as small potatoes so who cares what they think. But this is the most powerful single issue lobbying group in the US. And they are armed. That they are openly accusing the media of trying to destroy the republic if they don't "get on board" is concerning.
In too many ways it's Wayne LaPierre's world and we're just living in it.
Happy Hollandaise everyone.
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