Fox, Talk Radio and Clear Channel have been around for sometime. Air America has just joined our side of the fight. Now the NRA is jumping into the partisan media game.
The National Rifle Association is creating a news corporation, starting an Internet talk show and preparing to buy a radio station to speak about candidates and gun rights at election time despite new political ad limits.
The 4 million-member gun lobby, looking for the same legal recognition as mainstream news organizations, says it has already hired its first reporter. NRANews.com was to start online broadcasts Friday.
The NRA is taking the step to operate free of political spending limits, hoping to use unlimited donations known as soft money to focus on gun issues and candidates' positions despite the law's restrictions on soft money-financed political ads close to elections.
"Someone needs to show the court and the politicians how absurd their speech gag on the American public is," Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, told The Associated Press. "This is an act of defiance. But it's also in 100 percent compliance with the law."
"The NRA is taking aim at a loophole in the campaign finance laws that will allow them to advertise their views, i.e., support for President Bush, in the last days of the campaign before November," said CBS News The Early Show political consultant Craig Crawford. "Campaign finance laws currently restrict advertising in the last days of the campaign by independent groups, By owning their own media outlets, the NRA has found a way to get around that law."
Full story here:
link. (Apologies if this has already been posted.)
Is this the beginning of the end of non-partisan news? And if so, is that a bad thing?