Skip to main content
  • Online media
  • Tariffs
  • Epstein
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • RSS
  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate

Media Matters for America

  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives

Media Matters for America

  • Nav
  • Search
  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives
  • Online media
  • Tariffs
  • Epstein
  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Media-billboard-threatens-four-minority-congresswomen-of-color

Melissa Joskow/Media Matters

Media shrugged off billboard’s implicit threat toward four congresswomen of color

Special Programs Guns & Public Safety

Written by Cydney Hargis

Published 08/01/19 2:31 PM EDT

Numerous online and cable news outlets dismissed a North Carolina gun store billboard that implicitly threatens four freshman Democratic congresswomen of color, either suggesting the image was simply “mocking” the women or ignoring it altogether.

Cherokee Guns in Murphy, NC, recently put up a billboard depicting Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) as “idiots” and referring to them as “the 4 horsemen,” a reference to the Bible’s apocalypse. The billboard was “signed” by “the Deplorables” -- a reference to supporters of President Donald Trump -- and it advertised that the gun store is “1 mile on right." 

The billboard was slammed by gun safety organizations and other advocacy groups as “dangerous” and “hateful rhetoric” that is “encouraging gun violence” against members of Congress. The ad was also criticized by two of the congresswomen themselves before the advertising company that operates the billboard reportedly promised to take it down. However, Cherokee Guns is standing by its message and has started offering bumper stickers of the image instead.

At least one outlet -- The Washington Post -- highlighted the billboard's inherent threat in its headline, but many online and print news outlets simply shrugged at the message. In headlines, CBS News, USA Today, Fox Business, Fox News as well as a host of local outlets characterized the billboard’s threat as merely “mock[ing]” the targeted representatives.

Cable news has so far ignored the story almost completely. A Media Matters search found no mention of the gun store’s billboard on CNN or Fox News during live programming between 5 a.m. on July 28 -- shortly after Cherokee Guns posted an image of the billboard to Facebook -- and the time of this publication on August 1. MSNBC mentioned the story only once during that same time period, discussing it briefly as part of a larger segment on Trump’s racist attacks against the congresswomen. 

The threatening billboard follows a long and well-established pattern of rhetoric from right-wing media harassing the four congresswomen -- often referred to collectively as “the Squad.” Fox News has spent months attacking Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib, and Pressley as “dangerous” and claiming they are fighting against the interests of America. The network’s hosts and contributors have also repeatedly defended Trump’s racist attacks against them.

The Latest

  1. Charlie Kirk complains about a lack of Epstein messaging from the Trump administration: “We're basically having to do the PR work of the administration”

    Video & Audio 07/16/25 1:36 PM EDT

  2. Charlie Kirk on the Trump administration and Epstein: “We're getting flooded with thousands, hundreds of thousands of comments that are very unhappy”

    Video & Audio 07/16/25 1:18 PM EDT

  3. How MAGA propagandists responded to Trump’s demand to shut up about Epstein

    Article 07/16/25 10:17 AM EDT

  4. Newsmax host: “You may have noticed the Epstein story was almost nowhere to be found, though, on Fox News these last couple of days”

    Video & Audio 07/16/25 8:03 AM EDT

  5. On MSNBC's The Weeknight, Angelo Carusone discusses the Epstein files story and why it's still simmering in MAGA media even as Fox News moves on

    Video & Audio 07/15/25 8:30 PM EDT

Pagination

  • Previous page ‹‹
  • …
  • Current page 4
  • …
  • Next page ››

In This Article

  • Fox News

    Fox-News-MMFA-Tag.png

Related

  1. Fox's Brit Hume points out that Pam Bondi, Dan Bongino, and Kash Patel brought on Epstein backlash by “trumpeting” conspiracy theories

    Video & Audio 07/16/25 7:43 PM EDT

  2. Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy: “Are we a nation of immigrants? Or are we a nation of settlers? ... We are the latter.”

    Video & Audio 07/16/25 6:07 PM EDT

  3. Fox News host Jesse Watters says Gov. Gavin Newsom has undergone “political sex change surgery”

    Video & Audio 07/16/25 1:46 PM EDT

Media Matters for America

Sign up for email updates
  • About
  • Contact
  • Corrections
  • Submissions
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • RSS

© 2025 Media Matters for America

RSS