Asked what he thinks of the NRA trying to intimidate journalists this way, Carlson called it "thuggish": "They are apparently good at intimidating public officials, why not journalists? It is time people spoke up and said enough of this crap. I don't feel any intimidation personally."
Tony Auth, former cartoonist at the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1971 to 2012 and now at WHYY Radio, called his place on the list an honor.
"If you believe that this country's relationship with guns is insane and you want to do something about it, of course you would want to be on the NRA's enemies list," he said. "If you want gun control and of course you would want to be on this list. The NRA is so wrong-headed and obtuse. It reminds me of Nixon's enemies list. It is not intimidating. Another reflection of the world we live in where people live in their own bubble and look at opinions they agree with."
For Tom Fiedler, former editor and columnist at The Miami Herald, now dean of the College of Communication at Boston University, being cited by the NRA is a point of pride.
"As for being on the NRA's 'enemies list,' which comes from my days as a columnist and editorial-page editor at The Miami Herald, I am tremendously proud! What great company to be among," he said. "One quibble, though: I don't consider myself an advocate of gun control, but rather an advocate for gun safety. My thing is that under a literal reading of the Second Amendment people should have the right to own a muzzle-loading gun of the kind that was in use when the Founding Fathers wrote the Bill of Rights, but they must also pass a competency test to obtain a license and they must purchase liability insurance -- just as law-abiding citizens do with automobiles. What's so radical about that?"
Then there is Jimmy Breslin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former columnist at Newsday and the New York Daily News and a current author, who reacted by stating: "Put me first on the list."
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