Once Again, CNN Engages in Pure, Unadulterated Activism to Push Gun Control

CNN is, without a doubt, less of a news channel and more of a left leaning advocacy network. The only people who seem to want to dispute this reside within CNN, and even then, it sometimes pushes too far for some of its more bright spots to tolerate.

Like that time Jake Tapper had to remind his own network not to praise North Korean leadership to get at Trump.

But the network too often veers into activist territory. Be it in the form of White House correspondent Jim Acosta who likes to shout pointed clown questions at Trump that paint him as a racist or a puppet, or supporting the idea that kids should be allowed to vote to help push gun control.

Their latest venture into activist territory comes with attempting to enrage people into the “NRA controls politics” narrative by giving away the names of politicians (as CNN notes, all Republicans) who voted against an “assault weapons” ban, alongside their NRA rating.

This is more than just reporting facts, this is blatant activism. By posting NRA grades alongside Republican names, CNN knows they’re carrying on the myth that Republicans are paid shills with no concern for people, and every concern for the money in their pocket. This is perfect outrage bait, and the left is only too willing to bite the hook.

But to prove it’s activism, here are some facts that CNN has failed to mention in their long tired history.

In terms of money spent in politics, the NRA is far from the largest spender, and Republicans are far from the largest recipient as Ben Shapiro details over at the Daily Wire.

According to the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, labor unions spent $1.713 billion on political activities and lobbying for the 2016 election cycle alone. That’s not unusual: they also spent $2.2 billion on political activities in 2008 and 2010, and $1.69 billion in 2012.

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading abortion mill, spent $33.9 million on outside spending from the 2012 through 2016 election cycles, according to OpenSecrets. EMILY’s List, another abortion group, spent $33.2 million on politics in 2016. NextGen Climate Action, a leftist group pushing climate change legislation, spent $22.9 million.

Okay, now compare that to the amount that the NRA has spent:

On the first question, between 1998 and 2016, the NRA spent approximately $13 million on all candidates, parties, and leadership political action committees, according to the Left’s favorite fact-checker, Politifact. The NRA also spends money on “outside expenditures,” meaning ads they cut themselves, for example, in the amount of $144.3 million, plus another $45.9 million on lobbying. That’s a grand total of $203.2 million on political activities over 18 years, or approximately $22.6 million per 2-year election cycle. The NRA spends far more in presidential years than non-presidential years — according to OpenSecrets, the NRA spent some $54.4 million in 2016 on politics.

Compared to the amount of money given to the left from organizations, the NRA is pretty tame. Meanwhile the left and abortion mills that exchange money with one another exclusively kill far more people (specifically children) than any gun rights organization can manage. By the way, the NRA has so far killed zero people. Over the course of Planned Parenthood’s history, they’ve killed 7 million.

Interestingly, these facts don’t make it on CNN whenever a leftist politicians begins throwing hissy fits over unions or abortion rights.

CNN needs to drop the facade, and admit that it’s a leftist propaganda channel.

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