The Ed Show

Jon Stewart on Thursday marvelously lampooned Keith Olbermann and all his former colleagues that can't fill the "Olbermann-shaped hole" his departure has left at MSNBC.

The "Daily Show" host began the segment (video follows with partial transcript and commentary): 

Ed Schultz on Tuesday spent a great deal of time blaming the crisis in Egypt on rising food prices tying commodity inflation to former President George H.W. Bush and Wall Street speculators.

Not once in over fifteen minutes of air time were the name Bill Clinton or the two bills he signed into law that deregulated the financial services and commodity futures industries mentioned (videos follow with partial transcripts and commentary):

Last fall, Richard Dreyfuss launched a civics education program called the Dreyfuss Initiative that promised among other things to look at "a purposeful diverse variety of websites representing disparate political opinions... to foster a discussion related to the future of America." But the Academy Award-winning actor apparently thinks civil political discourse includes left-wing radio hosts wishing for Dick Cheney's death.

At a January 25 press conference at the National Press Club, CNSNews.com's* Nicholas Ballasy asked Dreyfuss about comments that liberal MSNBC host Ed Schultz had made on his March 11, 2009 radio program wherein he wished that "enemy of the country" former Vice President Dick Cheney would be taken by God to "the Promised Land."

"No, that’s not uncivil. That’s actually kind of a beautifully phrased way of saying something that could be uncivil," Dreyfuss told Ballasy.

[For the full video, click play on the embed that follows after the page break]

Howard Kurtz on Sunday pointed out a delicious irony involving MSNBC and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

After complaining about CNN's decision to air the Congresswoman's response to President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday, MSNBC spent the next several days giving far more attention to her than to the official GOP respondent (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Not to worry, Ed Schultz told his radio listeners on Jan. 11 -- the bellicose "Psycho Talk" segment of his MSNBC program would remain on the show.

Here's a clip of Schultz claiming that in the wake of the Tucson shooting, with liberals blaming an amorphous "climate of hate" for triggering the bloodshed, "Psycho Talk" would endure (audio) --

Let me just start it right out today, I am not toning it down. Because according to the conservatives, what Sarah Palin did and what Michele Bachmann says, that didn't have anything to do with what happened on Saturday, right? You know, this may be the biggest lie that Fox News has ever told. Roger Ailes says the network will tone down fiery rhetoric. And they defend Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin's now the victim, did you know that? Well, isn't her silence deafening? Why is Sarah Palin so silent? Is she feeling guilty these days? Why is it that she kept those crosshairs up there for months on end until the shooting? No guilt there at all, is there? Folks, let me tell you something, I'm making this announcement right away. We are not changing "The Ed Show" on MSNBC. As long as they open their mouths over there on the right, we will continue to have the segment called "Psycho Talk," because that's exactly what it is. And as soon as they say that they're not going to vote to repeal health care, then I'll make some changes.

Just how ignorant of politics and recent history is MSNBC's Ed Schultz?

Well, on Friday, he attacked Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) for giving a competing response to the upcoming State of the Union address even though presidential candidate Barack Obama did the same thing in 2008 (video follows with transcript and commentary):

During his (in)famous "Psycho Talk" segment of his Thursday evening MSNBC show, host Ed Schultz played the clip of Rick Santorum's interview with Terry Jeffrey of CNSNews.com where Santorum challenged President Obama's plea of ignorance on the question of when a person receives the right to life. Schultz, himself a loud-mouth liberal radio talk show host prone to crazy talk branded Santorum's comments as "psycho talk."

Rick Santorum said the following about Barack Obama and abortion in the interview: "The question is--and this is what Barack Obama didn't want to answer--is that human life a person under the Constitution? And Barack Obama says no. Well, if that person, human life, is not a person, then I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, no, we are going to decide who are people and who are not people."

He later followed up his comments with a statement comparing abortion with slavery, and said he is "disappointed that President Obama, who rightfully fights for civil rights, refuses to recognize the civil rights of the unborn in this country."
 

On MSNBC's Ed Show on Thursday, despite initially regretting his comparison of Republicans to Nazis, Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen later doubled down: "[Indiana Congressman] Mike Pence talked about government takeover of health care....he wants to be concise, careful, and consistent. Well, that's somebody...who lived in a previous century who worked for bad people, that's what he did." [Audio available here]

Host Ed Schultz offered no challenge to that statement as he wrapped up the segment, simply replying, "sure." In the question that preceded Cohen's attack on Pence, Schultz even tried to defend the Tennessee Congressman's Tuesday outburst on the House floor in which he claimed Republicans were using Nazi propaganda tactics in their opposition to ObamaCare: "I think a lot of liberals in this country admire you for calling them [Republicans] liars because the numbers are what they are....you're talking about a messaging machine that they definitely have followed to get their point across about health care, which you think is having an effect."

View video below

If Barack Obama is going to win re-election, he's going to have to count on massive, overwhelming, support from his base.  And what better way to gin up that base than by accusing Republicans of Jim Crow racism?

Rush Limbaugh played an amazing montage today of a series of Dems using the "discrimination" talking point in describing Republican opposition to ObamaCare.  Ed Schultz took the notion a giant step further on his MSNBC show this evening, flatly claiming that GOP opposition amounts to a "pre-civil rights attitude."  Got that, base?  Opposing ObamaCare = George Wallace at the schoolhouse door.  Welcome to the new era of civility!

View video after the jump.

During an impromptu reunion of CNN's "Crossfire" Friday, Pat Buchanan told his old sparring partner Bill Press, "You’ve got to get beyond being a fringe talk show host."

In the middle of a very heated debate on MSNBC's "The Ed Show," Buchanan strongly cautioned the host and his liberal guest, "I think this last week, there’s been a climate of hatred built up against [Sarah Palin] who did nothing and I tell you, if she does run for president of the United States, I pray to the lord she’s given secret service protection from day one" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Call it a libel squared . . .

Ed Schultz has suggested that Sarah Palin employed the term "blood libel" to describe the way her critics have tried to hold her responsible for the Arizona shootings "as an appeal to an extreme Christian conservative base for 2012."

Citing no evidence for his grotesque allegation, Schultz first floated it during his opening monologue on his MSNBC show this evening.  He raised it again with his first guest, Dem congressman Jan Schakowsky, and took things a despicable step further.  Schultz suggested that Palin "got help from the speech from somebody who knows exactly what 'blood libel' means."

Put up or shut up time, Schultz.  View video after the jump.

Two of the most toxic political commentators in the nation tried to make the case Monday that violent political rhetoric emanates far more from conservatives than liberals.

Fortunately for the small number of viewers watching MSNBC's "The Ed Show," Tony Blankley was present to set Ed Schultz and Bill Press straight (video follows with transcript and commentary):

While folks in the media blame conservatives for violent rhetoric they dishonestly claim led to Saturday's massacre in Tucson, they continue to hypocritically ignore their own toxicity.

No finer or timely example occurred just three days before the shootings when Ed Schultz on the program bearing his name angrily said, "This is an ideological war. I say it on camera tonight here on MSNBC - I will fight these bastards every night at 6 o’clock" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Despite virtually all economists and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve finding Friday's unemployment report disappointing, MSNBC's Ed Schultz parroted President Obama's take that the numbers released by the Labor Department were good news.

The "Ed Show" host crowed so gleefully about the much-maligned data that he even said it was evidence the 2009 stimulus package worked (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Ed Schultz on Wednesday called Republicans bastards that want to destroy the American dream.

Apparently recognizing that he might have gone too far, the "Ed Show" host apologized moments later (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Here at NewsBusters, we've documented Ed Schultz's heroic if unsuccessful struggles with the English language.  Guess we've got to add math to the subjects where Schultz requires some serious remedial work . . .

On his MSNBC show this evening, Schultz asserted that corporations donate 1000 times more money to political campaigns than unions do.  Or as Ed said, in his inimitably  muddled manner,: "unions contribute 1/10th of 1% of their money that corporations put into campaigns. Now think about that: 1/10th of 1%.  You got the corporate money over here; you got the organized labor money over here."

How off is Ed?  The National Review's Rich Lowry has documented that in the last election cycle, three unions alone kicked in $170 million to Dem coffers.  So corporations would have had to contribute . . . $170 BILLION to match Ed's alleged 1000:1 pace just for those contributions, ignoring the donations that all other unions made!

View video after the jump.

Howard Kurtz on Tuesday published a surprisingly glowing piece about one of the most hate-filled commentators on television.

In "Rush Limbaugh's TV Nemesis" posted at the Daily Beast, Kurtz even seemed to condone Ed Schultz's disgusting pet names for Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and Chris Christie:

Al Sharpton said Thursday he spoke to the Federal Communications Commission about holding public hearings next year that Rush Limbaugh would be forced to attend to explain so-called "racist" statements he's made on the air.

Chatting with MSNBC's Ed Schultz, Sharpton said he had a "very good meeting on Tuesday" with FCC officials and that "some of the commissioners" were interested enough in following up on his concerns that this could come to fruition in the coming months (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As one of the liberal media members that have expressed feeling betrayed by the President's recent tax compromise proposal, Ed Schultz on Wednesday said Barack Obama did a better job of selling the Bush tax cuts than George W. Bush ever did.

So dismayed by today's 81 to 19 Senate vote in favor of the measure was the host of MSNBC's "The Ed Show" that he asked Nation magazine editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, "Do you trust President Obama?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Ed Schultz on Tuesday abruptly ended an interview with a Republican strategist when she accused him of lying to his audience about the significance of Monday's ruling striking down the Constitutionality of ObamaCare's mandate to buy health insurance.

When the host of MSNBC's "The Ed Show" said, "It’s not a big key element of the health care bill," sparks began to fly (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Can two grown men really be this dumb, or is their hatred for conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh so blinding they wouldn't know sarcasm if it punched them in the face?

As tough as it might be to believe, Ed Schultz and Al Sharpton actually took seriously Limbaugh's joke that media outlets criticizing President Obama's tax compromise plan did so because they are racist (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Al Sharpton on Monday said that he's going to be meeting with representatives of the FCC next week about revoking conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh's license.

On a special 9PM edition of the "Ed Show," the Reverend didn't mince words (video follows with transcript and commentary):

GOP strategist Ron Christie had quite a run in with libtalker and former Air America personality Lionel on Friday.

By the end of their segment together on MSNBC's "Ed Show," Christie was so fed up with Lionel's rude behavior he scolded, "What a joke, I hope we never see you again" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Do a media company's political activities affect the way its subsidiaries report the news? The folks at MSNBC sure think so. That channel's hosts have insisted ad nauseum that Fox News parent company News Corporation's political actives compromise the ability of Fox to report the news fairly and accurately.

But MSNBC has, as I have noted before, shilled for policies that would enrich its parent company, General Electric, under the guise of "environmental awareness." Today the Washington Post exposed yet another such conflict, reporting that GE took $16 billion in loans from the Federal Reserve during 2008 and 2009.

Pot calling the kettle clueless . . .

On his MSNBC show this evening, Ed Schultz twice called newly-elected Republican congressman Allen West  "ignorant."  For good measure, Schultz said West "didn't have a clue."

Schultz was incensed that West had observed that Washington, DC--home of big government--was relatively immune to the economic woes that have befallen the rest of the country.  View video after the jump.

By interesting coincidence, I had occasion to overfly Leesburg, VA in the DC suburbs this past weekend, and for the first time saw what McMansions look like [see photo I snapped after break].   Now why would Loudoun County, Virginia have the highest per-capita income in the country? Steel mills?

Ed Schultz on Tuesday falsely accused Fox Business Network contributor Charles Payne of recommending people on unemployment lines eat each other to survive.

Such ironically occurred on the "Psycho Talk" segment of the "Ed Show" (videos follow with partial transcripts and commentary):