Melissa Joskow / Media Matters Late Tuesday night, news broke that the National Rifle Association had canceled its media operation NRATV as it ended its relationship with Ackerman McQueen, the ad firm that the NRA had contracted to lead its messaging efforts over the last four decades. While it might seem unusual to contract work of that kind to an outside business, the two entities had become so enmeshed over the years that it was hard to see where one started and the other ended.