Did MSNBC ever vet Al Sharpton? Seriously. Much of the talk about HBO's Game Change docu-drama is focusing on the vetting of Sarah Palin or lack thereof by the McCain campaign. Is there any minimum standard of knowledge required to have one's own show on the Lean Forward network?
Take Sharpton's mind-boggling misstatement on Morning Joe today. The Reverend Al asserted that in Alabama, "it's against the law to organize unions." Did any of the MJ crew, including Joe Scarborough, Gene Robinson and Steve Rattner, call Al out on his misrepresentation? Of course not. View the video after the jump.
Note: Noel Sheppard has documented that there are over 300 unions Alabama, with a total of about 181,000 members. That represents about 10.9% of the labor force, in line with the national average of about 11.9%. Should the Reverend wish to review a list of unions in Alabama, he'll find them here. For that matter, many union representatives are surely participating in his march. How could he not know?
Note Deux: Maybe Sharpton was focused on the fact that Alabama is a right-to-work state: workers can't be forced to join a union or pay union dues. Perhaps in Al's mind, there's no point in having a union if you can't filch funds from people's paychecks.
Sharpton's whopper came in response to Joe Scarborough's question as to why he had organized a march in Alabama.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Reverend, tell us about the march, obviously steeped in history, that march from Selma to Montgomery. You're marching for a couple of causes: tell us about it this morning.
. . .
AL SHARPTON: So we're here about voter ID. We're here because the most reactionary immigration laws in the country is [sic] in Alabama where literally they're telling utility companies and hospitals you can't service people if they are undocumented immigrants. And thirdly, workers' rights: it's against the law to organize unions here.
