I just got home from a long day of wrangling student registration and doing bureaucratic paperwork and not getting to play with spiders, and I was kind of dragging, and then I got the cheery news.
NRATV has been cancelled, and so has Dana Loesch!
…the NRA has officially shut down production of NRATV. (Though they may continue to air past content.) The organization has apparently felt the network and its operating company Ackerman McQueen have become too extreme and too far removed from their core values. Also, according to the New York Times, there’s some sort of legal dispute between the two, as the NRA began audits of their contractors in relation to its tax-exempt status, and accused Ackerman McQueen of refusing to comply.
And on top of all of that, NRATV kept their viewership numbers secret, but it’s now being reported that the site had a measly 49,000 unique visitors in January. And Ackerman McQueen has reportedly been receiving $40 million annually from the NRA.
So it’s no wonder that NRA is cutting ties with the advertising firm. And that includes Loesch, who was apparently an employee of Ackerman McQueen, not the NRA directly.
Now the worry is what vicious violent sewer will adopt her as their rat queen next.
NRA is tax-exempt?
It’s like a church?
Aw hell no. The Rat Queens might be a debauched pack of foul-mouthed mercenaries who appall even demons, and they might possibly be responsible for the coming squidpocalypse, but they do have some standards.
I hope my thoughts and prayers keep her warm at night.
“what vicious violent sewer will adopt her as their rat queen next”? Well, if she is “too extreme” (!) for the NRA, there will be many offers.
chigau @1: At least part of it is nonprofit. The same is true of the ACLU.
I see …
Many of these groups have sections that do not engage in lobbying or similar activities so that contributions to them are tax-deductible. There are literally dozens of categories of organizations that are tax-exempt.
eamick
I have now read the Wikipedia article.
That whole thing looks like a recipe for corruption on many, many levels.
I’m more worried about her “These glasses make me look smart” glasses. Maybe if things get hard they can go live with David Caruso’s retired CSI: Miami sunglasses.
” … too far removed from their core values …”
The NRA’s sole core value is to promote the sale of as many guns and rounds of ammo as possible. To that end, NRATV was surely holding up its end of the bargain. Something smells, and I don’t think it’s just the ideology.
chigau @ #8
Oh yeah. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Panama Papers. The Bahamas Leaks. How about “family foundations” with offshore tax shelters like the Trumps, Clintons, Koch brothers, and Mercers. One thing you can say about very rich global capitalists is they have a wealth of opportunities to make more money and pay less taxes than the average peon. And while they’re at it, they can “invest” a la the Mercers in political activities that fight “globalism”…in other words protect their scams from scrutiny and regulation.
Oh, and sometimes investigative journalists mysteriously get blown up: Daphne Caruana Galizia
vucodlak @2:
I’d be amused to see Braga’s response to meeting her, though.
Melania needs a new communications director.
Re: chigau @ #1…
It’s for gun worshipers.
Whew, they just filled Sarah H Sanders’ vacancy.
In other news, since Trump has bought, erm, I mean elected President, gun sales are dropping massively. Ammunition sales have cratered and overall, the industry is deep in the hurt locker.
@ microraptor, #12
Betty might be inclined to share her special candy.
@#1 and #14: Do they believe in Big Bangs? (I swear there is a joke in there, somewhere…)
Once upon a time, the NRA really was just an organization of marksmen and shooting enthusiasts. Heck there were times they promoted reasonable, responsible gun control laws. Then Wayne LaPierre and his merry crew of Republicans took over and turned it into the partisan, ideological, lobby for the firearms industry and every heavily armed whack job living in a tar-paper shack out in the woods, waiting for the inevitable Communist invasion.
Predates LaPierre (who became chief gunrunner in 1991). As one example, in the 1980s, San Jose (California) police chief Joe McNamara — an NRA member — irked the nutcases by appearing, in full(?) uniform, in an ad in the San Jose Mercury News (at least), saying (paraphrased from memory) “We need robust gun control”. The wackaloons went apeshite. This 1990 article mentions that 1987 incident, Police Chief vs Officer: Symbolic Rift on Guns:
More details at the link, including the murder lobny’s distribution of a provocative video. All this before LaPierre was officially in charge, albeit he’d, by then, been part of the gunrunners for many years.