CNN's Erickson lashes out, doubles down on "shotgun" remark April 05, 2010 4:55 pm ET by Eric Hananoki
In response to criticism, CNN's Erick Erickson is claiming that liberals are "misconstruing" his remark about pulling out a shotgun if the government tries to arrest him for not filling out the American Community Survey. Erickson also lashed out at "people" who "linger on every word I say" by stating: "You people are nuts. Absolute nuts. Where do you get off misconstruing that I'm agitating for killing Census workers when you people are out there advocating for the killing of the unborn on a regular basis. You have no shame."
On April 1, Erickson said of the American Community Survey: "This is crazy. What gives the Commerce Department the right to ask me how often I flush my toilet? Or about going to work? I'm not filling out this form. I dare them to try and come throw me in jail. I dare them to. Pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door. They're not going on my property. They can't do that. They don't have the legal right, and yet they're trying."
That same day, Media Matters posted a seven-minute audio clip of Erickson's remarks, in context, along with transcript. The headline on Media Matters' post was, "CNN's Erickson: I'll '[p]ull out my wife's shotgun' if they try to arrest me for not filling out the American Community Survey."
On his radio show today, Erickson accused Media Matters of running "a story on their website saying I'm advocating shooting Census workers":
ERICKSON: I saw a report now -- it was an email and I've deleted the email, that now the word this year that everyone is using is narrative. The word narrative has been around for a long time but people are now paying attention to it in ways they didn't in the past. The media constructs the narrative of events. They do not set out to create it, but again, as I've discussed before, the world view -- the narrative is that conservatives are angry and are turning violent. And they have people in the New York Times and the Washington Post and even the Wall Street Journal and across the board throughout the traditional media building the narrative that conservatives are angry.
