David Shuster's Suspension Has An End: February 22

February 14th, 2008 5:10 PM

The Hollywood Reporter's Paul Gough reports that MSNBC reporter David Shuster's exile from the airwaves now has a scheduled end:

MSNBC correspondent David Shuster will serve a two-week suspension for comments that angered the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. NBC News President Steve Capus confirmed on Thursday that Shuster will be back to work on Feb. 22.

Hillary Clinton's campaign confirmed on Wednesday that she would show up for an MSNBC debate on February 26 in Ohio.

Broadcasting and Cable magazine's Marisa Guthrie reported that Steve Capus, president of NBC News, claimed that when Matthews and Shuster "crossed a line," the network "acted immediately." He complained about scrutiny from the blogosphere and from candidates. "Everybody is under immense and immediate scrutiny," Capus said, "and in some cases by those who are objective and in some cases by those who are not so objective. I don’t give them any more importance than they deserve."

But it's quite obvious from Capus reacting quickly to pressure from liberal groups like Media Matters that he's much more sensitive to liberal complaints than conservative ones -- which means he's hardly the person to declare that he's objective rather than subjective.