CNSNews.com, like a good pro-Trump stenography operation, gushed over President Trump’s speech at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting last month. So much so, in fact, that it generated three “news” articles from that speech — two by Melanie Arter and one by Craig Bannister:
- Trump: ‘Democrats Are Obsessed with Hoaxes, Delusions and Witch Hunts’
- Trump: Dems Want to Disarm Law-Abiding Americans and Let Criminal Aliens ‘Operate with Impunity’
- Trump: ‘Faith and Family, Not Government and Bureaucracy, Are the Center of American Life’
By contrast, CNS has published exactly nothing about the behind-the-scenes drama and power struggle that boiled over at the meeting — accusations of financial misconduct by NRA officials, particularly in relation to millions of dollars paid to a public relations firm to run its TV operation, which resulted in the ouster of NRA president Oliver North.
This silence is doubly perplexing, since Allen West — a “senior fellow” for CNS’ parent, the Media Research Center, and a CNS columnist — is also an NRA board member. He didn’t have much to say either. His April 30 column, the first after the meeting began this way:
I just got back to our home in Garland, Texas from the 148th National Rifle Association Annual Meeting of the Members and Convention. Yesterday, we had our full board meeting. I have already made my comments about that.
He didn’t, however, make those comments at CNS. And he hasn’t make a peep about it at CNS since — though he has since called for (at his own website) the removal of NRA executive VP and CEO Wayne LaPierre, who won the power struggle with North at the annual meeting and has since been accused of questionable spending.
CNS has an in with West and could get all of his NRA musings if it wanted to — yet it refuses to report what he has to say about an issue CNS’ conservative audience would want to hear more about.
Apparently, censoring bad news about its conservative friends trumps reporting the news at CNS.