The NRA used advertising agency Ackerman McQueen to transform itself from a pro-gun group into a right-wing media toilet, then fired the firm when it woke up to the consequences of spokespeople issuing shameless calls for violence against political enemies and the media in its name. Now a lawsuit is exposing all the dirty laundry: the NRA claims its executives found Dana Loesch's NRA TV antics "distasteful and racist", that they were lied to by Ackerman McQueen about traffic, and eventually realized they were being looted for "tens of millions of dollars."

… NRA officials believed the short-lived TV outlet—which featured shows from right-wing stars like Dana Loesch and Dan Bongino—"strayed from the Second Amendment to themes which some NRA leaders found distasteful and racist." As an example of a "damaging" segment, the NRA filing alludes to an instance on Loesch's show Relentless, in which an on-air graph featured a picture of kid's cartoon character Thomas the Tank Engine wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood. "Attempts by the NRA to 'rein in' AMc and its messaging were met with responses from AMc that ranged from evasive to hostile," the gun lobby further alleges.