Left-Wing Talk Show Host Ed Schultz Lashes Out at MRC/NB Summer Intern

June 26th, 2010 11:45 AM

On his June 24 radio show, left-wing host Ed Schultz went on a rant against NewsBusters’ Matt Hadro, who earlier that day wrote a pretty inoffensive piece documenting how Schultz credited President Obama’s $862 billion stimulus package with more than doubling the size of his North Dakota construction firm.

Schultz bizarrely (and incorrectly) tried to ridicule the Media Research Center summer intern as a spoiled rich kid.

(Audio excerpt here.)


Did Mommy and Daddy pay your way to go to school? Are you a little conservative boy that gets all the tax breaks of the top 2 percent rich? Have you ever gotten your hands dirty doing a job, Matt? [employs falsetto voice] ‘Oh, Matty, it’s time for milk and cookies! It’s 4:00, come home now! And here’s some more money. Oh, I think it’s so cute that you’re working for those wonderful conservatives over at Newsbusters. Oh, Matty!’ I’ll bet you that’s exactly who that kid is.

What triggered Schultz’s wrath was Hadro’s matter-of-fact reporting of what the talk radio host said on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Wednesday:

“We’ve gone from eight employees to 20 employees in the past year, because of the stimulus package,” he said of his construction company. “We’ve put some people back to work. There is some growth.”

Schultz is evidently quite thin-skinned, since Hadro’s piece included no criticism of the host, his construction company, or the stimulus, but merely recounted what he said on C-SPAN. But the topic obviously struck a nerve, since Schultz lashed out at NewsBusters as “so negative” and “so hateful” in its depiction of him:


Tell me, what’s negative about expanding a company?! What’s negative about giving someone a job?! These people are so negative on America, and so hateful of Obama and anybody who has any type of success whatsoever, the mission is to put ’em in light, in bad light, any way they possibly can.

Here’s a longer transcript of Schultz’s June 24 fulmination:


ED SCHULTZ: Hell, the righties, they’re even upset when we do create jobs. What’s the big deal? Those of you who follow the radio show, I wouldn’t call it a running feud because they’re not worth it, but I do love to point out every time I make NewsBusters, which is Brent Bozell’s right-wing, psycho-analysis, conservative think-tank. They like to, well, they just write a bunch of stuff about me, no matter what it is.

(...)

I’m on C-SPAN yesterday and I live my life a little bit on the air. It is a fact that this President has done so much for small business, more than anybody else that I can see in recent terms. And our company has gone from eight employees to 18, 20, 22, depending on what’s going on, what the project is! It’s American! It’s risk-taking! It’s what I talk about!

And you jerks over at NewsBusters, you never call me, which shows that you’re not journalists. Never have you ever interviewed me. But this is how these conservative psychopaths operate. Tell me, what’s negative about expanding a company?! What’s negative about giving someone a job?! These people are so negative on America and so hateful of Obama and anybody who has any type of success whatsoever, the mission is to put ‘em in light, in bad light, any way they possibly can.

So the story reads, “While defending the Obama administration as a champion for small business owners, MSNBC host Ed Schultz revealed that his construction company more than doubled its number of employees in the past year – thanks to the stimulus bill.” Oh! Obama wrote me a check. Is that what it was? Is that the idiot implication there? Anybody who knows anything about jobs in construction knows that you have to bid!

But, I think what we’re going to do is, we’re going to check out who Matt Hadro is and we’re going to find out how much money he makes. We’re going to find out if he’s ever written a check for someone else who’s done work for him. We’re going to find out if he is a risk taker! In fact, I’m going to see if I can find out a little bit more about Brent Bozell. What has he ever done other than suck the hind tit off conservatives who want to fuel money right into his conservative think tank. He’s a leech. I’m out there supporting the boys, hiring kids, paying ’em union wages, getting ’em health care, doin’ what I gotta do, growing the company. But because I’m on MSNBC and because I champion for small businesses, they try to cook up some kind of a story like there’s, well, (sarcastically), what’s going on here?

Continuing to read it — it’s actually kind of funny, because there’s no new information there. There’s nothing there, other than what I said on C-SPAN. Absolutely nothing there. And I love it. I love the publicity. And I love pointing out who these jerks are, and how poor they are when it comes to research. And Matt Hadro, I’m going to make you a star, buddy. I want to make you a star. I want you to show some spine and be a guest on the Ed Schultz radio show. Hell, I’ll even put you on TV. I can do that too. And let’s debate the stimulus package. And let’s find out what you’re all about. Did mommy and daddy pay your way to go to school? Are you a little conservative boy that gets all the tax breaks of the top 2 percent rich? Have you ever gotten your hands dirty doing a job, Matt?

[Pretending to be Matt’s mother] ‘Oh Matty, it’s time for milk and cookies, it’s four o’clock, come home now. And here’s some more money. Oh, I think it’s so cute that you’re working for those wonderful conservatives over at Newsbusters. Oh, Matty!’ I’ll bet you that’s exactly who that kid is. (Laughing)

And Matt, I will pay your airfare from wherever the hell you are, at no expense to NewsBusters, I will put you on a plane. Well, better yet, I’ll put you on my plane. And I will take you to our construction site. And I will show you and let you interview the guys who were jobless until they came to work for E. A. Schultz Construction. You know what I’ll even do, Matt? I’ll even open up our books. I’ll show you what we’ve bid on, I’ll show you what we’ve won, I’ll show you what we’ve lost. In fact, if you have a hair on your ass, maybe you’d like to work. Do some real work instead of playing with that computer and throwing up a bunch of hate and half truths and accusations. You see, Matt, I believe in the working people. You don’t. You wanted to vilify our efforts. You want to vilify our investment. You want to put us in a bad light because we are, proudly, a liberal construction company! That actually pays people!