NRA

Martin Bashir Politicizes Chicago Shootings While Ignoring True Cause of Gun Violence
By Nathan Roush | June 19, 2013 | 3:30 PM EDT

During his Monday afternoon show, MSNBC host Martin Bashir initiated a segment by reporting on the tragic shootings that took place over Father’s Day weekend in Chicago. Over the holiday weekend a total of 41 people were shot, 7 fatally. Bashir wasted no time politicizing these tragedies by using them as evidence that the “conversation is not over” on pushing new gun control legislation in Congress. He then went on to shamelessly advertise for Vice President Joe Biden’s White House event to support gun-restricting legislation as well as the No More Names bus tour which is a project paid for by Major Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns group to try to drum-up popular support for anti-gun legislation. [Link to the audio here]

It is curious that Bashir would use Chicago gun violence as an example of why there needs to be universal background checks prior to the purchase of legal firearms. Amid his own claims that the NRA was endorsing a “program of disinformation” and promulgating the “spreading of falsehood and lies” by “suggesting that there was going to be a registry for gun owners,” it seems that Bashir must not have done his homework to choose Chicago as his example for this platform.

Scarborough Fumes: Obama Was Shaded in NRA Ad to Make Him ‘Look More Ominous and Black’
By Paul Bremmer | June 14, 2013 | 5:06 PM EDT

Cole Sear from The Sixth Sense sees dead people, and Joe Scarborough, like pretty much everyone else at MSNBC, sees racism. That’s just the way it is. On Friday, the Morning Joe crew was chatting about a recent NRA attack ad against Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) when Scarborough took issue with the image of President Obama shown briefly in the ad:

"[P]eople called me up and said, what do you think of, do you think that they may have shaded that ad to make Barack Obama look more ominous and black?"
 

MSNBC's O'Donnell Again Ties NRA Rhetoric to Ricin Attacks
By Brad Wilmouth | May 31, 2013 | 4:32 PM EDT

For a second night on Thursday, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on his The Last Word show tried to blame NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre for inspiring the ricin-tainted letters recently sent to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama. The MSNBC host teased the show:

Despite Multiple Flip-Flops, Scarborough Says His '94 NRA Questionnaire 'Very Consistent' With Positions Today
By Mark Finkelstein | April 26, 2013 | 7:44 AM EDT

As per his 1994 NRA questionnaire, Joe Scarborough: Opposed an assault weapons ban.  Opposed expansion of background checks.  Opposed limitations on magazine sizes.  Today, he supports all such measures.  

So how would you describe his two very different sets of opinions?  Why, as being "very consistent," of course--if you're Joe Scarborough. On today's Morning Joe, responding to the NRA's promulgation of the NRA questionnaire he submitted in 1994 as an aspiring Republican congressman, Scarborough did indeed claim that his positions today, despite the multiple flip-flops, are "very consistent."  View the video after the jump.

After Gun Debate, Media Credibility Is Shot
By Matthew Sheffield | April 21, 2013 | 4:01 AM EDT

Normally, the people who cover the media industry try studiously to avoid mentioning the very obvious fact that America's elite journalists are overwhelmingly liberal and that one can discern this by reviewing their output. This is a logical response considering that said reporters probably do not wish to antagonize potential sources. It's hard to report on the media if no one in the media will speak to you.

In the case of the recent journalist meltdown over gun control, the bias was so overwhelming, even Politico's cautious media reporter Dylan Byers had to admit the obvious:

Enraged Scarborough and Brzezinski Whip Up Viewer Hatred With ‘Faces of Cowardice’ Posters of Senators
By Matthew Sheffield | April 18, 2013 | 6:42 PM EDT

Proving once again that MSNBC is less of a cable news channel and more of a platform for liberal activism, the “Morning Joe” crew today lashed out at members of the U.S. Senate who decided to vote against a gun bill backed by President Obama.

Taking his cue from the fiery and petulant speech the president delivered yesterday, self-described conservative Republican Joe Scarborough lashed out at the “pathetic” vote. His co-host Mika Brzezinski was even more hateful, repeatedly denouncing the senators who voted to support the NRA’s position on the bill as “cowards.” She then ordered producers for the show to put the names and faces of these senators on wanted-style posters in attempt to anger viewers against them.

Scarborough Accuses Former Republican Congressman Chris Cox Of 'Lying' As NRA Spokesman—But Has Wrong Chris Cox
By Mark Finkelstein | April 18, 2013 | 9:13 AM EDT

Oh irony, oh hypocrisy!  Joe Scarborough opened today's Morning Joe by singing the praises of NBC's Pete Williams for not jumping onto the story that other news outlets were reporting yesterday that an arrest had been made in the Boston Marathon bombing.  Scarborough condemned journalists "far more interested in getting it first than getting it right."

But mere minutes later, Scarborough rushed to accuse former Republican congressman Chris Cox of "lying" in his role as NRA spokesman, and said he was ashamed of him. If Scarborough had taken a moment to research the matter and get it right, he would have realized he had the wrong Chris Cox.  The NRA spokesman is not the former congressman. Scarborough grudgingly admitted his mistake about an hour later in the show.  View the video after the jump.

WashPost Waits Until 12th Paragraph of Story to Note Newtown Father Backs NRA Plan for School Safety
By Ken Shepherd | April 3, 2013 | 5:25 PM EDT

In his 19-paragraph page A4 story headlined "NRA-backed study urges armed staff at schools," staff writer Peter Finn waited until the 12th paragraph to mention that a father of a slain student at Sandy Hook was at the NRA's April 2 news conference in which former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) unveiled a "National School Shield Program" that detailed how school districts might arm security guards and/or teachers to thwart potential attacks by shooters.

Of course Finn made sure to quote the scathing attack of a liberal critic a few paragraphs earlier. "Today's report is nothing more than a continuation of the NRA's attempts to prey on America's fears, saturate our schools with more guns and turn them into armed fortresses," Finn quoted Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund, who added that the NRA's plan "must be soundly rejected."

MSNBC Showcases Democratic Senator Trying to Silence NRA with Cease and Desist Letter
By Ken Shepherd | March 26, 2013 | 4:30 PM EDT

The liberal media's push for gun control has long included the tactic of attempting to shame the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun rights activists into silence. That tactic was once again deployed by MSNBC's Thomas Roberts this morning in his interview with liberal Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), who is calling on the nation's oldest civil rights organization to cease and desist robocalls to phone numbers in the Newtown, Connecticut, area.

At no point in the softball interview, however, was it mentioned that some Newtown parents like Mark Mattioli and Bill Stevens have testified in opposition to fresh gun control laws nor that there's been a spike in applications for gun permits in Newtown following the mass shooting, perhaps because those facts cut against the notion that the entire Newtown area is anti-NRA as a result of December's tragedy.

‘Office’ Actor and Michael Moore Cite Fake Onion Article About NRA as Fact
By Joe Newby | March 21, 2013 | 10:24 AM EDT

Wealthy filmmaker Michael Moore and Rainn Wilson, an actor best known for his role in the American version of “The Office,” referenced a parody article at The Onion in tweets on Wednesday, duping a number of their followers, Twitchy reported.

“NRA Sets 1,000 Killed In School Shooting As Amount It Would Take For Them To Reconsider Much Of Anything,” Wilson tweeted, without mentioning the source of the article. He did provide a link to it, however.

Andrea Mitchell Scolds Fellow Reporters: 'You Guys Let the Assault Weapons Ban Die!'
By Geoffrey Dickens | March 20, 2013 | 4:48 PM EDT

Like a concerned parent on a business trip checking in on her unsupervised children, an exasperated Andrea Mitchell whined to fellow Washington reporters Susan Page and Chris Cillizza, that they had "let the assault weapons ban...die!"

Mitchell, who is currently traveling with the President in Israel, delivered a long range lecture from Jerusalem, on Wednesday's Andrea Mitchell Reports, to Page and Cillizza: "Well, while I'm away you guys let the assault weapons ban, you know, die." (video after the jump)

Bloomberg’s Own Media Outlet Targets NRA
By Mike Ciandella | March 18, 2013 | 4:59 PM EDT

Bloomberg Businessweek ran a front-page attack on the NRA for its March 18-25 edition. Much of the story was spent interviewing the owners of the Mossberg gun factory from New Haven, Conn., who find the NRA’s position “ill timed and graceless.”

According to the article, not all gun makers take as strong of a position on gun control regulation as the NRA does, but those who disagree are afraid of speaking up. Businessweek claims that fear of NRA instigated consumer boycotts and the prospect of sales from those concerned about stricter gun control laws keep gun manufacturers in line.

“Who’s afraid of the NRA? Gun makers, that’s who,” the Businessweek article, written by Assistant Managing Editor and Senior Writer Paul M. Barrett, declared. The cover reads “DON’T TREAD ON THE NRA” with pictures of bullet holes tearing through it.