NBC Sports Network under fire for elephant killing on NRA show

NBC Sports Network is facing a flurry of criticism over an episode of the outdoor sports program “Under Wild Skies” in which a National Rifle Assn. strategist shoots and kills an African elephant.

In the episode, which aired Sunday night (a highlight reel is posted above), host Tony Makris and a guide stalk an elephant in the Okavango Delta of Botswana — “a mecca for elephant hunting,” according to a narrator.

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The episode has sparked an online petition calling for NBC Sports to cancel the NRA-sponsored “Under Wild Skies.” The series is not produced by the network but is what’s known as a “time buy,” in which outside producers pay to air content — not unlike an infomercial.

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As detailed by the Washington Post earlier this year, Makris is a public relations strategist who has helped manage the NRA’s image for the last 30 years. In the 1990s, he helped install Charlton Heston as president of the lobbying group. More recently, his firm, Mercury Group, a subsidiary of the advertising and public relations agency Ackerman McQueen, was behind a highly controversial NRA ad accusing President Obama of hypocrisy for his skepticism over the group’s proposal to put armed guards in schools across the country. It was produced shortly after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

BuzzFeed describes the episode:
buzzfeed.com

In the episode, which aired Sunday night, NRA strategist Tony Makris and a hunting guide track an elephant in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Makris spots an elephant and shoots it in the face twice, causing the injured elephant to trumpet and run away. “Somebody got a little cheeky there,” Makris chuckles as the animal attempts to escape. He and his guide eventually catch up to the elephant and Makris delivers the fatal blow. After posing next to the elephant’s body with his his “lethal” Tyrannosaur rifle and .577 ammunition, Makris and his guide return to their lodge to celebrate with champagne.