NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch Friday doubled down on her contention that "many in the media love mass shootings," arguing with CNN's Alisyn Camerota that the controversial statement she made during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference the day before was true.
"Many in the media do because they like the ratings aspect of it," Loesch argued on CNN's "New Day."
"It's true because it's wall-to-wall coverage. They put the murderer's face on loop, on televisions all across America more than they discuss the victims or survivors."
Loesch, who appeared this week in a CNN town hall with survivors and family members of last week's school shootings in Parkland, Florida, did laud moderator Jake Tapper for doing an "admirable job," but she also thought he lost control of the situation.
Camerota, though, told Loesch that it is "malicious" for her to say the media loves school shootings.
"I don't know anybody in the media who likes mass shootings, you're wrong on every single level," she told her. "We pray that there's never another one. The idea of them being ratings gold. . . guess what, they're not ratings gold. Americans have reached saturation level. They're so sick of it."
Loesch also argued that CNN has "allowed accusations against me and millions of law-abiding Americans to be indicted as child murderers."
"You've allowed the accusations to stand, Alisyn ... you've done nothing to correct it. That's malicious," Loesch said.
Camerota also told her that the NRA does not want to talk about gun violence or guns, which Loesch denied.
"We have the School Shield program," she said. "We've trained law enforcement officers. No other organization has trained more law enforcement officers across the country than the NRA, thousands across the country. We have members in the Broward County Sheriff's Department, by the way."
They did agree, though, that the Parkland school shooter should never have been able to buy a gun, and agreed there is an issue with point-of-purchase sales and background checks.
However, she said the NRA does not agree with raising the minimum age for buying guns.
"Raising the age is not going to stop psychosis," said Loesch.
"When I lived on my own, I was 20-years-old, I did not live at home with my parents. I was a young woman. I have had friends who have experienced pretty horrible things, some pretty brutal things and survived. And I know that they and I would never want them to be without the ability to defend themselves."
And as far as banning the AR-15, the weapon of choice for accused school shooter Nikolas Cruz, that weapon is the "most popular home defense rifle for women in the United States," Loesch said.
"I don't want anyone to have their right to be able to defend themselves denied," she said. "We are asking men and women to go and serve their country, we not will give them a firearm when they go to a theater of war but not let them defend themselves at home?"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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