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Nation's Gun Lobby Creating News Company
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| Contributor | Gerald Farinas |
| Last Edited | Gerald Farinas Apr 15, 2004 04:11pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Thursday, April 15, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Nation's Gun Lobby Creating News Company
The Honolulu Advertiser
The nation's gun lobby is creating an "NRA news" company that will produce a daily talk show for the Internet, buy a radio station and seek a television deal to spread its gun-rights message nationwide. Looking for the same legal recognition as mainstream news organizations, the National Rifle Association says it has already hired its first reporter, a conservative talk radio host from Oklahoma. NRANews.com plans to start online broadcasts Friday.
Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, said the NRA is taking several steps to become a "legitimate packager of news" like newspapers and TV networks, including hiring Cam Edwards, a conservative talk-show host from Oklahoma City. Started with a $1 million investment, the Internet programming features news briefs in the morning and at noon, followed by a three-hour afternoon "news show/talk show" with Edwards as host. The group is setting up an NRA news corporation, possibly for profit, to run its new media operations. It is close to acquiring a radio station that will stream video of its NRA broadcasts to the Internet, LaPierre said. The NRA plans to own a news operation "just as Disney owns ABC, just as GE owns NBC, just as Time Warner AOL owns CNN, and be the broadcast journalist equivalent of those outlets," LaPierre said.
"Putting together a comprehensive news delivery package isn't an easy endeavor. It's people-intensive, which means it's expensive," Gordon "Mac" McKerral, national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, said. "And there's so much out there now that any kind of startup operation like that is a challenge. If the NRA is successful at it, my guess is they'll limit their scope."
The NRA has a huge potential audience. There are 4 million NRA members, 16 million licensed hunters and 80 million gun owners in the United States, LaPierre said. |
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