What word alternative to 'weapon' could I use here?

Question

Here is my context,

BECU is a non profit organisation, set up to protect the interests of their customers. But news media is using it as their weapon to score political point.

Weapon is a violent word, and I would like to use an alternative word here.

Could somebody recommend me an alternative word?

Answer 1

You can just cut the sentence a little:

But news media is using it to score political points.

If you want to keep the original structure you can call it a tool:

But news media is using it as a tool to score political points.

Tool itself is neutral here. The force of the sentences above comes from "to score political points". Using a instead of their just sounds more natural to me. And it's not idiomatic to use the singular "score point" so the plural is required.

Answer 2

You could say "But news media is using it as their puppet to score political point".