MSNBC Didn't Matter - Until He Came Along, Suggests Ed Schultz

November 8th, 2012 6:50 PM

This is a man whose ego has become so inflated, he needs crowbars to get his head through doorways.

On his radio show yesterday, Ed Schultz paused from his repeated spiking of the football in response to the election to make an unintentionally revealing remark about MSNBC, where he hosts a primetime cable show on weeknights (audio) --

SCHULTZ: I will, I guarantee you, that I will be looking back as my years in radio, moving forward, I will come back to 2012 and I will say, don't tell me it can't be done, it can be done. And all of you folks who stood in line, all of you folks that didn't give up, you taught America a lesson. That's right -- you taught the country a lesson. You workers -- you butcher, you baker, you candlestick maker, you teacher, you firefighter, you police officer, you nurse, public employee, you taught America a lesson, that your voice and your vote does count.

And I'm not, I'm not going to be, I don't want to sound too grandiose about this, but in 2000 there was no MSNBC. In 2004 there was no MSNBC. In 2008 there was a little bit. In 2010 there was -- and we lost! In 2012, it became more of a level playing field. And I'm very proud to say that I took the television show, I can't speak for any other host, but I know on "The Ed Show," we made sure that this country, or at least the people that were watching our show, knew exactly who Mitt Romney was and how dangerous he would be to America.

Let its own website show that MSNBC took to the airwaves on July 15, 1996 -- well before Schultz's revisionist history.

In 2000 and 2004, Schultz claims, "there was no MSNBC." As of 2008, "there was a little bit." What changed in the interim? Keith Olbermann kicked off his vitriolic "Special Comments," aka Precious Moments, in 2005 and the network began airing "The Rachel Maddow Show" in September 2008.

It wasn't until the following April, however, that "The Ed Show" debuted on MSNBC. And while its 18 months on the air until the 2010 midterms weren't enough to make a difference -- we lost!," Schultz laments -- the show had run more than three years by the time of the 2012 election. Clearly it made all the difference.

For those unfamiliar with the Schultz vernacular, allow me to translate. As far as Schultz is concerned, MSNBC didn't really exist -- until "The Ed Show" was created. How fortunate indeed for all concerned, seeing how this seismic decision in television programming changed the course of history.