Who put the Mess in MSNBC?

"Hi! MSNBC here. I was just going through our ratings."


This week's on air comment by MSNBC talking head, David Shuster about Hillary Clinton "pimping out" her daughter, Chelsea has stirred up outrage in the Clinton camp. Shuster has had to apologize and has been suspended. In the wake of the controversy, Hillary is weighing not participating in any future MSNBC debates. (Hey, Hillary, there is always Fox!) As usual, the incident and its reaction raises all kinds of thought-stimulating questions. For example, what would the reaction be if someone like Sean Hannity had made the remark? What if Shuster had made the remark about a Republican candidate "pimping out" his wife or daughter in the campaign? But we will never know, will we?

Seriously, Shuster's remark was offensive and even more unprofessional. That is not the kind of language we should expect from a TV reporter on air. But, then again, standards have declined drastically in recent years.

The remark comes soon after Chris Matthews, also of MSNBC, made his comment to the effect that the only reason Mrs Clinton was a senator and presidential candidate was because her husband had "messed around". (Matthews also had to apologize to Mrs Clinton.) When you couple Shuster and Matthews with MSNBC's other off-the-wall commentator, Keith Olbermann, one has to conclude that this network is pretty unprofessional, to say the least. Maybe that explains why their ratings are in the toilet.

Some defenders of Shuster are bringing up the point that Chelsea is now an adult and participating in the political process; therefore, she is fair game for all kinds of commentary. I would only take that so far. Sure she is open to criticism when appropriate, but using the word pimp as a metaphor is not right. One should not use metaphors that allude to prostitution unless the people concerned are, in fact, pimps or prostitutes. (But then, in that case, it wouldn't be a metaphor, would it?)

Regardless of one's politics, I hope this latest episode is not lost on the public. NBC News has become the farthest to the left of the major networks, and the out and out partisanship of Olbermann and Matthews is obvious. Remember in 2006, when Matthews was caught in the background yelling, "yeaaa!" when another Democrat was declared the winner in some state? Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" show is nothing more than a nightly condemnation of George W Bush, Bill O'Reilly, and anyone Republican or deemed conservative. Now Mr. Shuster adds his name to MSNBC's growing list of embarrassments.