Seattle Times Editorial page.
Fannie Flagg? Dr. Joyce Brothers? Sandy Duncan?
This can't be a National Rifle Association blacklist. It sounds like an old guest roster from "Match Game '75."
For something designed to be discriminatory, the NRA's 19-page e-raspberry is hardly discriminating.
Instead of putting the fear of God — or Moses, as portrayed by Charlton Heston — into people, the list is putting them into hysterics and has made the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action a momentary laughingstock.
Not only does the list lack firepower, but it also has started a new trend of Wanting On. Thousands of people have written to the pro-gun lobby, begging to be blacklisted.
Hooray for Hollywood.
One problem, though: For all the attention the list has brought them, NRA members I talked to said they knew nothing about it until a grass-roots group called "stoptheNRA.com" found it on the official NRA Web site.
One 30-year card-carrier named Max let me read the ledger to him over the phone.
I could have sworn I heard a shrug. "I think they just gave the anti-gun people money," he said of the catalog of names.
He's right. The list officially compiles the names of those who have "lent monetary, grass roots or some other type of direct support to anti-gun organizations."
It also includes celebrities who have "lent their names and notoriety" to anti-gun causes (hey, when Marla Maples talks, people listen), journalists who have written in favor of gun-control laws, and corporations that have supported gun-control initiatives.
If there's someone on the list who deserves scorn, it might be Rosie O'Donnell. Not only did she tactlessly broadside NRA supporter and "guest" Tom Selleck on her former feel-good show, she hasn't been funny for years. Every time you see O'Donnell, she's yelling at someone. Too bad it isn't her hairdresser.
NRA members were unimpressed.
"I don't feel especially threatened by those people or anyone," Max told me. "Unless they come at me with a hammer or something."
(Estelle Getty with a hammer? I'd pay to see that.)
NRA member Moe thinks the whole thing is a hoax.
"Maybe the list really doesn't exist," he said. "Maybe it's what anti-gunners put out.
"Why would the NRA have a blacklist?"
Others wonder what they belong to anymore. Why use some celebrities to define the enemy and others, like Heston, to define their purpose?
"When I joined 50-some years ago," one member told me, "the NRA agenda was basically marksmanship and hunting, and I enjoyed both.
"As soon as 'Moses' came on the scene, it became political."
The only bonus is that the sting of McCarthyism that Hollywood associates with the word "blacklist" may have faded a bit. Thanks to the NRA, the blacklist is the new A-list.
Even better, it's another way to play "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." My name would land 10 names away from his, and likely lose.
But it's worth a try, isn't it?
Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or [email protected].
More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.
What? No Wink Martindale?
Fannie Flagg? Dr. Joyce Brothers? Sandy Duncan?
This can't be a National Rifle Association blacklist. It sounds like an old guest roster from "Match Game '75."
For something designed to be discriminatory, the NRA's 19-page e-raspberry is hardly discriminating.
Instead of putting the fear of God — or Moses, as portrayed by Charlton Heston — into people, the list is putting them into hysterics and has made the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action a momentary laughingstock.
Not only does the list lack firepower, but it also has started a new trend of Wanting On. Thousands of people have written to the pro-gun lobby, begging to be blacklisted.
Hooray for Hollywood.
One problem, though: For all the attention the list has brought them, NRA members I talked to said they knew nothing about it until a grass-roots group called "stoptheNRA.com" found it on the official NRA Web site.
One 30-year card-carrier named Max let me read the ledger to him over the phone.
I could have sworn I heard a shrug. "I think they just gave the anti-gun people money," he said of the catalog of names.
He's right. The list officially compiles the names of those who have "lent monetary, grass roots or some other type of direct support to anti-gun organizations."
It also includes celebrities who have "lent their names and notoriety" to anti-gun causes (hey, when Marla Maples talks, people listen), journalists who have written in favor of gun-control laws, and corporations that have supported gun-control initiatives.
If there's someone on the list who deserves scorn, it might be Rosie O'Donnell. Not only did she tactlessly broadside NRA supporter and "guest" Tom Selleck on her former feel-good show, she hasn't been funny for years. Every time you see O'Donnell, she's yelling at someone. Too bad it isn't her hairdresser.
NRA members were unimpressed.
"I don't feel especially threatened by those people or anyone," Max told me. "Unless they come at me with a hammer or something."
(Estelle Getty with a hammer? I'd pay to see that.)
NRA member Moe thinks the whole thing is a hoax.
"Maybe the list really doesn't exist," he said. "Maybe it's what anti-gunners put out.
"Why would the NRA have a blacklist?"
Others wonder what they belong to anymore. Why use some celebrities to define the enemy and others, like Heston, to define their purpose?
"When I joined 50-some years ago," one member told me, "the NRA agenda was basically marksmanship and hunting, and I enjoyed both.
"As soon as 'Moses' came on the scene, it became political."
The only bonus is that the sting of McCarthyism that Hollywood associates with the word "blacklist" may have faded a bit. Thanks to the NRA, the blacklist is the new A-list.
Even better, it's another way to play "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." My name would land 10 names away from his, and likely lose.
But it's worth a try, isn't it?
Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or [email protected].
More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.
What? No Wink Martindale?
