Ed Schultz to Liberal Critics Angered by His Praise for Santorum - 'Shut Up!'

Ed Schultz has forgotten he works at MSNBC. His viewers have not.

Schultz, irritated that his praise for Rick Santorum set off a barrage of tweets and email, lashed out in a video posted at his MSNBC blog. (video after page break)

"All right, folks, let's have a conversation, OK?" Schultz says -- followed by dialogue consisting of nothing more than a four-minute harangue from him --

All right, so last night I'm on the coverage (of Iowa caucuses) on MSNBC and all of a sudden I start getting all of these tweets from liberals who think that I am eating Santorum's salad or I'm a turncoat and emails are coming in, Ed, wha, wha, wha, wha -- shut up!

Look, I went to Iowa as an objective reporter to bring the story to you on what's happening on the ground. And I came back and I said, you know what, this Samtorum guy (yes -- "Samtorum"), he's going to win. Why is he going to win? Because he's absolutely an ace at retail politics. And yes, whether you like it or not, he's as good as President Obama with a crowd. I know, I saw it, OK?

I, on the air, on "The Ed Show," I talked about why he's good. Because he looks right at people and gives them a direct answer and then gets into detail. He doesn't get off into the weeds with bullet points and he doesn't dismiss people, OK? There is a certain genuine quality about this guy. Has nothing to do with how radical his positions are on gay marriage or the family or, you know, the bridge to nowhere or whatever! But I want to tell you, it kind of pissed me off!

You know, look, are we at the point now where on "The Ed Show" that  I can't go out and do an objective story because there might be some people out there that think, Ed's a turncoat? You know, c'mon. Is it under my skin? No! (emphatically, after having just said he was pissed off). It's not under my skin, but I just want to set the record straight that, you know, you're totally wrong (chuckles) to the point where it's almost kinda comical. But, I just thought I'd have some communication with you wonderful people about that. (sarcastically).

Notice how Schultz described himself as "an objective reporter" who may occasionally "do an objective story" -- a delusion he shares with colleague Rachel Maddow, who actually told Slate.com over the holidays that MSNBC "may" employ liberals "but the network is not operating with a political objective."

Sorry, Ed, your audience doesn't want objectivity. They want "Psycho Talk," remember? And this you provide, more often than you intend.

(h/t, Verum Serum)