Liberal MSNBC anchor Ed Schultz on Tuesday cheered Barack Obama's veto threat for the Keystone XL pipeline. However, the cable host failed to mention his own previous support for construction. Schultz breathlessly opened his show by announcing, "We start tonight with very important breaking news. President Obama will veto the Keystone XL pipeline. If you voted for this president and you care about climate change, you have to be proud tonight." [MP3 audio here.]
Dialing up the hyperbole, the anchor cheerleaded, "We still have a lot of power, the progressives do. The President has just cemented his legacy as one of the most pro-environmental presidents in American history." Schultz promoted his own coverage of Keystone, hyping, "We have followed this project nearly every step of the way for almost a year."
Carefully left of Schultz's liberal self promotion? His past support for building Keystone. On February 5, 2014, he lectured viewers, "...The hard cold truth is the United States is an oil and gas dependent country and we're going to be for the foreseeable future." [See link for video of the host's original position.]
On that day, fighting back against liberal anger directed towards him, Schultz decried left-wing rage as simplistic: "I think it really is a disservice to the conversation and the debate to take an all-or-nothing approach to this." In a jab at his critics, Schultz concluded, "We're not really confronting reality here."
On March 04, 2014, the anchor went from supporting Keystone to comparing it to "Vietnam." After noting that only 400 people in Washington D.C. came out to rally against the pipeline, Schultz connected, "I don't know what it's going to take to stop the pipeline and get the message to the President of the United States." With a picture of Vietnam protests behind him, he concluded, "But for reference, this is what we had to do to stop war."
A partial transcript of the January 6 segment is below:
5:01
ED SCHULTZ: We start tonight with very important breaking news. President Obama will veto the Keystone XL pipeline. If you voted for this president and you care about climate change, you have to be proud tonight. We still have a lot of power, the progressives do. The President has just cemented his legacy as one of the most pro-environmental presidents in American history. We hope so. Starting last February, we started talking about the Keystone XL pipeline and went to the middle of the country to get the real story. We have followed this project nearly every step of the way for almost a year. And after six years of environment studies, legislative wrangling and legal maneuvers, President Obama has taken a stand. Earlier today, Josh Earnest said the president would use the veto pen.
...
JOSH EARNEST: I can confirm for you that if this bill passes this Congress, the President wouldn't sign it either.
SCHULTZ: Oooh, that's a confirmation I like. Republicans probably going to be fuming mad over this veto threat.
...
SCHULTZ: So, the President, ahead of the permitting process, is saying "you bring me this turd and put it on my desk, I'm not going to sign it."
