“Media Matters works daily to notify activists, journalists, pundits, and the general public about instances of misinformation,” their About Us webpage proclaims, “providing them with the resources to rebut false claims and to take direct action against offending media institutions.” Direct action, eh? How the hell did they get 501(c)(3) charitable status? Oh wait, Obama’s IRS. Anyway, Media Matters reckons the NRA is racist . . .

In the October edition of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) magazine America’s 1st Freedom, NRA executive vice president and CEO Wayne LaPierre takes on what he calls the “false notion” from the “gun-ban media” that “somehow the NRA is racist.” Outlets covering the NRA and race should consider these examples — starting with LaPierre himself — in evaluating his claims:

Click here to examine 23 pieces of “evidence” that the NRA is racist, collated by Timothy Johnson, art history grad and former worker bee for The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence Legal Action Project and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. [NB: Media Matters is not advertiser supported, so your visit won’t raise their revenue (although it might please their benefactors).]

Suffice it to say, there is no “smoking gun” amongst the examples provided. It really is weak sauce: a litany of innuendo connecting supposedly racist dots that have no more relation to each other than Media Matters and the truth about, well, anything. Here’s an example:

During a 2014 speech, LaPierre adopted conservative media’s racially charged claims about the (nonexistent) “knockout game” phenomenon — in which black youths supposedly assault unsuspecting, mostly white, victims on the street for fun — to hype gun ownership.

Mr. Johnson’s claim that Mr. LaPierre’s comments on the “knockout game” show that the NRA is racist depends on the writer’s claim that the “game” was imagined by racists. It wasn’t. (Ask Al Sharpton.) More to the point, LaPierre didn’t mention the race of thugs engaging in the “game.” He simply condemned the violence.

Mr. Johnson offers seven “reasons” relating to Ted Nugent, including one asserting that the NRA is racist because members re-elected Mr. Nugent, and the civil right org’s leadership didn’t condemn their Board Member’s comments.

The final “reason” the NRA is racist: the gun rights group supported Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Proof so incontrovertible Media Matters put the picture above at the top of their post.

This writer has constantly urged the NRA to reach out to minority communities. But the idea that the NRA suffers from “institutional racism” is both mendacious and malicious. You might even say intentionally divisive. What are the odds?

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64 COMMENTS

  1. Slander has always been the tool of the Democratic party. Sadly for them it doesn’t work so well when everyone has access to instant information thanks to the internet. That’s why Facebook and Google do their level best to hammer us with propaganda 24/7 in the vein hope that they can influence people.

  2. “Click here to examine 23 pieces of “evidence” that the NRA is racist,…”

    Does TTAG really want to give them the page clicks?

    • In the article, I point out that MM is not advertiser supported. Raising their page views (by a marginal amount) may please their donors but it won’t raise their direct revenue.

  3. The NRA is not racist.

    However our PR could be better. Sometimes the NRAs picks sides in the culture war and clouds the issue. Putting people like Bill Whittle up there doesn’t help. The organization should be about gun rights and not by default espouse all the other so called “conservative” conventional wisdom. We don’t need videos conflating faith in God with support of the American constitution. I know plenty of gun owners who are great people and fierce defenders of the constitution, but who are basically atheists. I don’t know if we have a video up there criticizing NFL players kneeling in protest, but it would not surprise me. In short, more Colion and less OFWGs.

    • My thoughts exactly Achmed. Stick to gun rights and get your fingers out of “social issues” which the NRA tends to be on the loosing side of anyways and only serves to alienate more young people from gun ownership.

      • I agree that the NRA should leave off the other issues, and I don’t remember some non-gun issue that I don’t agree with them on. It’s gun issues that I often disagree with them on. They’re often too soft.

    • Grass-roots progressive/leftist activists may actually care about gun control and the NRA, and see racism everywhere they look, but mostly unconsciously, as a way of signaling their loyalty to their group. Meanwhile, the NRA is a convenient bogeyman for the people at the top (e.g., Soros, Bloomberg et al) who simply want left-wing politicians elected and cannot stand the political clout of the NRA. Why else would they tout gun safety as their cause, but discredit and mock the leading proponent and training organization nationally that teaches people exactly that?

      Politics, pretending to be about guns. And a convenient way to get their base all worked up.

      NB: The NRA could do a lot more to reach out to minorities, and watch out for anything that could be used against them. And they should rein Ted in, ‘cuz he ain’t helping.

  4. The NRA is a fearmongering institution and little more these days with those stupid videos from Raso and Loesch repeating Trump talking points.

    • It isn’t fear mongering if it’s true.

      And every President since Reagan has enacted gun control in one form or another. Obama signed lots of import bans which are violations of the 2nd Amendment as well as tried to reenact AWB 2.0, universal background checks, and ban “evil” M855 surplus ammo nevermind the fact it isn’t armor piercing ammo to begin with even under their own statutes.

      Just because they haven’t said they are outright banning guns doesn’t mean they aren’t trying. The slippery slope isn’t a fallacy when there is documented proof not just here but worldwide with gun control particularly the U.K. and Australia.

      • Reagan: Hughes Amendment
        Bush: GFSZ Act
        Clinton: AWB
        Bush: ?
        Obama: phone and pen like crazy

        (And this is an actual question as to what W. did).

        • “(And this is an actual question as to what W. did).”

          ‘W’ allowed the Clinton AWB to sunset.

          You can bet your ass if Gore had gotten about 500 more votes in Florida than ‘W’ in 2000, he would have not only renewed it, but likely done far more draconian things.

          That cold December day in 2000, when SCOTUS announced their decision on Bush v. Gore, was the day we dodged another *massive* Leftist bullet aimed at the 2A…

        • W’s biggest action was banning the import of “assault weapon” barrels, which is why parts kits have torch cut barrels today (losing roughly 1/3 the kits intrinsic value). He was aggressively-passive on the AWB (supported it, but did not ask congress to send him a bill to sign). Given his rabidly antigun CIA daddy, it’s amazing W was as neutral as he was. Mostly he just wasn’t interested in domestic policy.

          Totes pro-gun.

  5. I guess I’ve internalized the white supremacy, because I love Don Raso and Dana Loesch, and am delighted with most everything the NRA has said recently.

  6. You know what’s REALLY racist? Constantly railing against “black guns”, that’s what’s really racist.

  7. Did they cover their endorsement of the NFA (which put no requirements for approval in the law itself and thus meant the ATF’s predecessors would discriminate against minorities), the GCA (which required firearms owners disclose their race and prohibits felons, who are more likely to be black, from owning guns), the NICS (requires a government issued ID to purchase a gun which as we all know is racist because blacks don’t have drivers licenses), or shall inform clauses (which will be used against blacks more than whites)? I’m guessing no.

  8. 23 (more) Examples that Media Matters is Fake News (As If We Needed More.)

    Asserting non-facts as true, stretching the truth to reach somewhere it doesn’t, opinion masquerading as fact, there ought to be a word for that. Wait. It’ll come to me…

  9. Anyone who pays any attention to the growing state of Smear merchant based news pays absolutely zero attention to media matters.

    Mad magazine is more reputable.

    • Until the 1960s, the Democrats openly endorsed the KKK and were openly their political wing.

      FDR refused to support an “anti-lynching” bill because he needed the support of southern democrats.

      • Except that then, Democrats were the conservative party. Republicans today are the Democrats back then, hence why Lincoln was a Republican…he was progressive. The parties changed. In fact the biggest change came after LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act in 1965, and conservative Democrats became Republicans.

      • Who gives a hoot about the history of a political party. What is important is what is happening today. The Democrat Party has initiated a full out assault on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The 2nd Amendment gives the people the means to protect all other rights, which makes it the most important right for protecting the republic. We who are in the NRA will stand up for the 2nd Amendment no matter who the players are. If the Democrat Party supported the 2nd Amendment, and the Republicans were against the 2nd Amendment, Hillary would likely be the president and the Democrat Party would not have lost so many seats across the US. It so happens that Republicans support the 2nd Amendment so we are aligned with them.

        • Sadly, only some of the Republican politicans support the 2nd. It has become policy that the Dems do not, but there are many Republican politicans that would gladly keep “those people”(usually the working poor) from firearms.

      • The Dems are still racists.
        Their constant demands for concessions to minorities are nothing other than thinly veiled complaints that they need to be looked after because they are such children.
        They actively encourage violence by blacks, claiming it’s justified because of “racism” they see everywhere.
        Is there racism? Absolutely. Is it systemic? Yes. Affirmative action, acceptance practices by colleges/universities are but two examples.
        Racism by individuals will always be with us, because ignorance is encouraged by the government (both parties). Without some sort of turmoil, the government can’t expand its control over us, so they will encourage it all the time.

        • “Is there racism? Absolutely. Is it systemic? Yes. Affirmative action, acceptance practices by colleges/universities are but two examples.” Is it racist when you are harming everyone involved regardless of race. “White” students don’t get in the school they wanted to, and “minority” students get into a school they can’t hack, eventually dropping or flunking out. The university eventually has to lower standards or be “racist.” Then everyone who gets in loses out.

        • You ask: “Is it racist when you are harming everyone involved regardless of race.”
          The intent is to treat people differently because of their race, so, yes, it’s racist. The result is not the deciding factor.

  11. Hey, look! More Bloomie-Ganda. “23 (More) Reasons why Media Matters is Fake News — As If You Needed More Evidence.” There, FIFY.

    This one dirties up the Bloomie — excues me “Brady” — center for manufactured agitprop, and Media Matters at the same time. It’s a two-fer.

    /What’s Gong On
    Nobody reads the article; they see the pic while they scan the headline. The point is to associate “NRA” with “Raaaa-cist!”, and The Orange Crush with both. Make a different association. (They’ll also associate your demeanor as you hear the accusation, or reply with those things as well. So, crack a smile & have fun with it — makes them nuts.)

    You have to earn the right to have a discussion on the merits. Get past the superficial diss, first. Some people will just stalk off in a huff. Ignore them; play to the audience: “Well, they don’t seem to be interested when they’re not flinging insults. “OK, your mother!” — Nope, still lame and boring.”

    Occasionally someone will pause and think when you don’t accept the baseless diss. The discussion is for them, once they’re interested. For extra fun, you can point out that you have reasons why you believe what you believe, while those other folks don’t so much.

    — Diss them back.

    — Have your arguments at hand.

    — Be admirable — just, honest, truthful — as you do that.

    — Have fun, it infuriates them.

  13. Media doesn’t Matter. Although they are helping to expose their own hypocrisy and lies. So I guess in some ways they are useful. It’s always best to know and understand ones enemies. Keep Your Powder Dry…

  14. Meh, “Racist” really lost its meaning circa 2008 when it became Prog slang for “anyone who disagrees with me”.

  15.  Should we look at evidence the gun control movement is racist?

    – Early gun control laws prohibiting the arming of black slaves in the South.

    -Laws against arming Indian tribes in the Northeast.

    -The Dredd Scott decision dicta, rejecting citizenship for blacks in part because it would imply they could go about armed.

    – Michigan’s handgun registry, enacted after Dr. Ossian Sweet, a black physician, used guns to defend his new home in a white neighborhood from an angry mob.

    – Of all the jurisdictions in the US, only two (DC and Arkansas) consider it a form of provocation – negating the right to self-defense – for a person merely to be in a place where someone is likely to attack them. Both of these exceptions stem from case law where the defendant was black. In Laney v. US (1923) the defendant was attacked by a white mob.

    – California’s ban on open carry, after the Black Panthers took to openly carrying firearms during protests.

    – In 1941, the Florida Supreme Court said of that state’s 1893 gun control statute: “The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population, and in practice has never been so applied.”

    – In a 2015 speech to the Aspen Institute, gun control capo Michael Bloomberg opined that cities needed to get guns out of the hands of young minority males.

    • You forgot NICS, which is openly racist, because blacks are too, um, something, to get a government-issued ID in order to vote or buy a gun.

  16. The NRA is doing a really bad job of being racist. I mean, the idiots armed and trained those uppity [southern gentlemen] who were doing all that marching back in the 50’s and 60’s.

    An enemy of the NRA would be better off with an article titled “23 Reasons the NRA Is Soft on Gun Rights” or “23 Reasons the NRA Are Too Close to Republican Party Leadership.” They could even use true facts.

  17. MouseGun says:
    September 28, 2017 at 16:16
    Meh, “Racist” really lost its meaning circa 2008 when it became Prog slang for “anyone who disagrees with me”.

    This !

  18. This NRA member who happens to be Native-American says that Media Matter is full of it. I am deeply offended that Media Matter thinks that belonging to the NRA, a civil rights organization created in 1867, makes me a racist. Really, I do not need some alt-left, pseudo fascist organization like Media Matters warning me that exercising my first and second amendment rights is some how an act of racism. If they really want to play the stupid genetics game, then perhaps the employees of Media Matters ought to jump on a plane and get hell off the land of my forefathers. Geez.

  19. The Left has raped the word racist just like they raped the word rape. Just ask all the dudes in the college kangaroo courts.

  20. Yeah… Whatever.

    And for the trolls in this group, I just made another donation to the NRA today. Just because I love you! 😘

      • Pretty much. And he’s been here such a short time. It just shows.

        We’ll be able to thank him for helping to re-elect Trump. And like the msm he’s too dumb to realize the part he’s playing in The Donalds onward march.

        Fucking priceless.

        • Russians have done more to elect Trump than I ever have, and you’re a traitor for being complicit. Congratulations on that. Maybe go move to Moscow?

        • Priceless, jim. Do you also believe in Flat Earth and chemtrails?

          Man, you’re one of Trumps greatest assests in the coming winning of his second term. Thank you.

  22. Democrats, Republicans, wtf? They’re one in the same, good cop, bad cop. Election day false hopes of change, I ve noticed whomever gets elected, the poor remain poor and the rich take vacations. Nothing changes, poverty, ignorance and disease remain the same, the issue of racism remains the same, the powers that be propagate racism, what better way to split a nation and control the people. America is not the nation it once was and I’m fearful that one of these days a country with values will show us, I didn’t say moral values. The lies of the government’s will come to surface, wars make many people very wealthy, racism is a tool, gunbans sell guns, it’s one messed up bunch of messs and think what you will, but your vote DOES NOT MATTER , in a presidential election.

    • Actually, the people in the lowest quintile (the poor) and the highest quintile (the rich) manage to move in or out fairly well. The numbers remain the same, but the people move up and down the economic ladder.
      The Dems would have us believe the poor stay poor, ad the rich are all the same old white guys forever. It’s just not true.
      Some quick checking of census data will show this.

      • Back when I saw the numbers, people generally only moved one rung on the economics ladder. The people most likely to move more than one rung were the rich, and they only had one direction to go in.

    • The votes that matter are the votes of all the people not voting. You know, the majority*.

      *Depending on how and where you count.

  23. There’s a local libertarian in Boulder, CO named Jon Caldera, a real guns, cigars, and Scotch kind of guy. He was on the transit board and spent his entire term telling the taxpayers that light rail was a boondoggle that would only serve to further line the pockets of the fat cats. Well, that kind of honesty just won’t fly. Media Matters was all over him, every day.
    When the local branch of MM folded, Jon was quoted as saying “I feel like I just lost a stalker girlfriend.”

  24. Way to just pick out a few of the items on the list that aren’t obviously racist. Some of the comments made by NRA representatives are clearly racist. There really isn’t any denying that. Aside from those in the organization who are actually racist (just about every company has some of those morons), the NRA, like the Democrats and Republicans, are happy to use race when they think it will motivate their donors. Its all about the money. If race baiting sells, they will keep doing it. That is why the NRA weighs in on all kinds of issues that have nothing to do with gun rights, and why they don’t receive my money.

    • “Some of the comments made by NRA representatives are clearly racist.”

      Citations/examples, please?

      • Nugent: Real Americans Are “Working Hard, Playing Hard, White Motherfucking Shit Kickers Who Are Independent.” From a 1995 interview with Bob Mack of Grand Royal magazine:
        NUGENT: You know how many times I’ve watched MTV? Once in my fucking life.
        BOB MACK: You got to be on top of these things.
        NUGENT: I don’t have to. You know what I’m on top of? I’m on top of a real America with working hard, playing hard, white motherfucking shit kickers, who are independent and get up in the morning.
        MACK: Aren’t there any blacks?
        NUGENT: Show me one. Show me one
        https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/21/here-are-13-other-repugnant-comments-ted-nugent/198174

        You of course have Wayne LaPierre “eight years of one demographically symbolic president is enough” comments.

  26. The very picture of irony is that Media Matters holds itself out as dedicated to “correcting” misinformation misinformation in conservative media — particularly Fox News — but also runs such initiates as this boot camp that provides activists with training on how to use the media to advance progressive ideas. I don’t think Fox News does that.

    Who’s committed to neutrality in journalism again?

    Progressive Talent Initiative
    Media Matters hosts an annual media boot camp for mid-career liberal activists known as the “Progressive Talent Initiative.” Participants include think tank directors, Capitol Hill staffers, campaign aides and others. They receive intensive training on how to articulate progressive ideas via radio and television. By 2011 the program had trained more than 100 pundits who appeared on various news programs over 800 times.[2]

  28. John Crawford was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer inside a Wal-Mart because the officer thought the rifle he was holding sideways in his open palms made him a threat.

    Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a police officer in a moving vehicle-yes, a fucking drive by! By a cop!-for playing with a BB gun in the park.

    Philando Castile was shot and killed while following a police officer’s order to produce his ID, just after informing the officer that he was legally carrying a concealed weapon.

    And the NRA had nothing to say about any of these completely avoidable, heinous miscarriages-no, ABORTIONS of justice THAT’S what makes the NRA racist-it’s what they’re not saying.

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