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Congratulations to Tony Auth -- winner of journalism's highest honor

    by Will Bunch | Columnist
    Published 

Tony Auth, the former Inquirer Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Inquirer -- now with WHYY Newsworks -- can add another coveted honor to his long list of accolades. It was revealed this week that Auth was the only Philadelphia journalist to land a spot on the NRA's Enemies List.

You can scroll down (the NRA has a lot of enemies -- who knew?) to find Auth in the journalism section, alongside such luminaries of the craft as Jimmy Breslin, Frank Rich, E.J. Dionne, and Bob Herbert, among others.

Auth also spoke with Media Matters' Joe Strupp:

"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."

Honestly, there's not much more you can say about this. Does any other "lobbying" group -- be it the Cato Institute or Planned Parenthood or the Heritage Foundation or the Sierra Club -- have a published enemies list? This just proves that the NRA has more in common with a fringe group like the Oathkeepers or the John Birch Society than groups that deserve a place at the policy table.

Finally, a personal note: This list has certainly led to a fair amount of self-reflection. I've always considered myself a solid anti-gun-nut kind of guy, but my failure to make this list reminds me that I need to do so much more. Every morning before I go to work, I need to look in the mirror ask myself -- what am I going to do today to marginalize the NRA, to expose its hypocrisy and its small-mindedness, and to counteract the outsized impact its political influence has had in making America the gun-violence capital of the world?

No, I'm not on the NRA's enemies list...not yet. But there's always next year.