Donald Trump has spent most of the first six months of his presidency at war with the media. Like clockwork, nearly every time he goes on one of his patented 140-character rants, he takes a swipe at major newspapers and television outlets because they haven’t been willing to fawn over him. After all, as far as this White House is concerned, anything less is fake news.
Well, it hasn’t worked. Despite Trump and his acolytes putting the media on notice that they should keep their mouths shut, warning them that they endanger democracy by actually telling the truth, and that they are enemies of the American people, the media is more than holding its own. Public Policy Polling recently found that Trump’s three favorite whipping boys in the press–The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN–are all seen as being far more trustworthy than him.
Apparently that doesn’t sit well with Trump’s buddies at the National Rifle Association. Earlier this week, Wayne LaPierre and friends announced they were going after The Times.
The NRA commenced hostilities with a Twitter video featuring right-wing radio host and NRA life member Dana Loesch.
.@DLoesch has a message for the @nytimes: “We're coming for you.” One
non-#fakenews story is not enough. #NRA #ClenchedFistofTruth pic.twitter.com/Hm1QkJi5Tp— NRATV (@NRATV) August 3, 2017
The video is clipped from a fuller rant by Loesch at NRATV that originally ran in April. Watch here.
It’s essentially a new twist on an old right-wing shibboleth–the Old Grey Lady is a left-wing rag. For instance, Loesch claims that since The Times initially reported that the Benghazi attack was triggered by a movie that insulted the Prophet Muhammad, it was clear beyond any doubt that it wasn’t committed to reporting the news in “deep, rich detail,” but was instead “an ever-dutiful shill for the left.”
Um, Dana? The situation down there was extremely fluid, and facts can change quickly. Once it was clear that it was indeed a terrorist attack, The Times reported it. That’s what real news organizations are supposed to do.
Loesch also claimed that The Times blamed the proliferation of guns in Chicago for its increased crime rate, while giving short shrift to violent offenders being put back on the street. She forgets, though, that those violent offenders were able to get their hands on guns because of loopholes blown open by the NRA. Many of those guns were on the streets because of the gun show loophole, and others made it into Illinois from states with more lenient gun laws–the so-called “Iron Pipeline.” Those loopholes were jackhammered shut in 2016 when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms required anyone who sells a firearm in this country to register with the ATF and conduct background checks.
But those facts didn’t matter to Loesch, who put The Times on notice that it is about to feel the full wrath of the NRA.
“We the people have had it. We’ve had it with your narratives, your propaganda, your fake news. We’ve had it with your constant protection of your Democrat overlords, your refusal to acknowledge any truth that upsets the fragile construct that you believe is real life. And we’ve had it with your pretentious, tone-deaf assertion that you are in any way truth or fact-based journalism. Consider this the shot across your proverbial bow. We’re going to fisk The New York Times and find out just what ‘deep, rich’ means to this old gray hag, this untrustworthy, dishonest rag that has subsisted on the welfare of mediocrity for one, two, three more decades? We’re going to laser-focus on your so-called ‘honest pursuit of truth.’ In short, we’re coming for you.”
Loesch was being dishonest. She isn’t really speaking for “we the people.” For those who don’t know, the NRA is the trade association for the gun industry. This ad, for instance, was sponsored by Kimber Manufacturing. Most gun makers, including Kimber, are privately owned, and are thus not obligated to release their financial statements. So when Loesch speaks for the NRA, she’s actually speaking for a cabal of faceless men that, with few exceptions, are not accountable to anyone.
As bad as this ad was, a number of critics tried to make it sound even worse. A number of reporters initially thought Loesch said the NRA was going to “fist” The Times. That wasn’t an implausible assumption, given that Loesch previously voiced an NRA ad that was a call to arms against liberal protesters. But in truth, she actually said “fisk”–a common term used in the UK for thoroughly debunking something.
Well, Dana, if anything needs to be fisked, it’s your notion that you and the NRA are speaking for the people. When you, LaPierre, and Ted Nugent open your mouths, the faceless men who write your checks are the ones who are actually speaking. Perhaps it’s time that we held them to account for keeping common-sense reforms of our gun laws from going anywhere. Kimber would be a very good place to start. Let them have it on Facebook and on Twitter.
(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
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