A sad fact about gun control politics is that if you are cynical enough you can darn near see the future.
Consider this NRA-ILA item from November 8, titled, “NBC News Tattletale Alerts Secret Service to “Let’s go Brandon” AR-15 Receiver.” The piece concerned an NBC News reporter who contacted the U.S. Secret Service over the sale of an AR-15 lower receiver emblazoned with the popular “Let’s go Brandon” political slogan. NRA-ILA explained in the article,
As legacy press outlets have lost much of their ability to manipulate public opinion, these institutions have resorted to increasingly desperate tactics to shape public discourse. Enter tattletale “journalism.”
This genre of article consists of identifying something that offends the delicate sensibilities of the prestige press and the elites they cater to and then reporting the offensive conduct to various authorities under the guise of asking them for comment. The transparent goal of such pieces is to pressure those in authority to stamp out the behavior. This sometimes takes the form of a “journalist” alerting one of the tech oligopolies to material hosted on their platform that the reporter deems politically incorrect.
Less than a month after publishing the ridiculous “Let’s go Brandon” piece, NBC engaged in exactly the conduct described above.
According to an account from Ammoland.com, in recent weeks NBC News contributor Joshua Eaton contacted several firearms-related YouTube content producers to ask them about the material on their channels. The query focused on channels containing information on how people can exercise their Second Amendment right to build their own firearms.
NBC News then contacted YouTube with a list of channels containing this information, alerting the tech giant that these channels were supposedly not in compliance with the company’s “community guidelines.” This resulted in videos being deleted and demonetization of the channels. Ammoland.com obtained a letter from YouTube that explained,
All channels on YouTube must comply with our Community Guidelines, which prohibit content instructing viewers how to make firearms,” Jack Malon, YouTube spokesperson, told AmmoLand News. “After careful review, we have removed the videos in question for violation of our firearms policy, and we have also suspended the channels sent by NBC from the YouTube Partner Program for failure to follow our Advertiser-Friendly Guidelines.
For more information on this vital story see the Ammoland.com article by clicking here.
With its recent behavior, NBC News has abandoned any pretense of objectivity and is now engaged in partisan activism.
On his personal website, Eaton notes that prior to “going freelance” he wrote for ThinkProgress. That outlet was a project of the left-wing Center for American Progress – Action Fund. The Center for American Progress is a radical anti-gun organization. The group supports a ban on commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms and their magazines and background checks for ammunition sales. At present, the outfit opposes the NRA-supported New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen U.S. Supreme Court case that would ensure the Second Amendment right of New Yorkers to carry a firearm for self-defense outside the home.
NBCUniversal would do well to keep this sort of rank advocacy to MSNBC, lest the public get wise to their broader propaganda campaign.