Hey, it's Friday night. Time to kick back, relax, and have a few chuckles, courtesy Ed Schultz. On his MSNBC show this evening, Schultz, somehow managing to keep a straight face, claimed that NPR is "as down the middle as you can get."
Schultz served up his side-splitter in condemning Jim DeMint and other Republicans for proposing the federal defunding of NPR. In the world according to Ed, the Republican suggestion to withdraw NPR's taxpayer subsidies reflects a GOP plan to "shut down any dissenting voices in this country." Ed, buddy: Dems control the White House and both houses of Congress. NPR is the voice of pro-government flackery, not dissent. The rebels are . . . the Republicans!
Check out Schultz at his reality-denying worst.
ED SCHULTZ: DeMint is going to introduce legislation to strip all of NPR's public funding--that's 7% of where they get their money from . Cantor says that defunding NPR will be part of the Republicans You-Cut program. This isn't about Juan Williams, folks. This isn't about Williams at all. It's about an opportunity for the right wing to shut down NPR and any dissenting voices in this country. Juan Williams, he's just a tool and an opportunity in this. You see, the Tan Man [John Boehner] put it like this, he said " . . . I think it's reasonable to ask why Congress is spending taxpayers' money to support a left-wing radio network. And in the wake of Juan Williams' firing, it's clearer than ever that's what NPR is." What?? Folks: NPR is about as down the middle as you can get it. They've said don't go to this rally that Stewart and this other dude, Colbert, are having, right. I mean, they don't want their correspondents there.
So the only evidence Schultz supplies in support of his assertion that NPR is "as down the middle as you can get" is that the network found it necessary to warn its employees not to attend the Stewart/Colbert rallies. Ed: why do you think NPR didn't need to send out a similar directive telling its people not to attend Glenn Beck's rally?
Serious question: has Schultz no regard for his own reputation or credibility? It might be one thing to argue that NPR provides some interesting reporting. But that it is a paragon of objectivity? I honestly don't think even Olbermann would make such a surreal suggestion.
