UPDATE (11:26 AM): Was Joe Scarborough mocking Schultz on air the day after his outburst?
Ed Schultz may have finally lost it. He has reportedly been neglected by MSNBC brass. The last straw came earlier this month when Schultz found out he would not appear on MSNBC's election night promo.
He went absolutely berserk, according to people on the scene.
"I'm going to torch this f***ing place!" he screamed during a meeting in the MSNBC newsroom according to the New York Post. "F***ers!" he added for good measure.
According to an unnamed source, Schutlz was dragged into a meeting with MSNBC president Phil Griffin, where Schultz was told that he would be fired if he did it again. He broke down in tears.
The Post has the full scoop (h/t Treach):
A witness told us, "Ed was furious the network was running election-night promos and he wasn't in them. He'd been arguing on the phone with marketing, then he slammed down the phone and exploded. It was like Mel Gibson had entered the newsroom."
Fuming Schultz was immediately dragged in for a meeting with NBC News President Steve Capus and MSNBC President Phil Griffin following his Aug. 12 meltdown.
Our source added, "Schultz was told: 'If you do that again, you are fired.' He broke down crying."
Sources say the hothead was pushed over the edge by MSNBC's catering to bullying fellow anchor Keith Olbermann and its focus on golden girl Rachel Maddow.
A second MSNBC source said, "Ed never gets any attention and love, and he finally snapped."
Poor Ed.
If it's any consolation, we hope MSNBC includes Schultz in its election night coverage. With blowups like this, it's hard to top the entertainment value.
*****UPDATE
The folks at Inside Cable News make a very interesting - and entertaining - connection.
Normally I'd be saying yeah, yeah it's The Post and it's Page Six. However...this time I think they have the story cold and this is why...
There are two key data points in the Page Six story to focus on, what Schultz "said" and the date he said it (I'll get to why in a moment). According to Page Six, Schultz said "I'm going to torch this [bleep]ing place." and he said it on August 12.
This is what happened at the end of Morning Joe on Aug 13th, the day after the alleged incident...
At the time I saw this I thought, "What was THAT all about?" It seemed a rather odd outburst for Joe to make and totally out of context with the discourse that had been going on prior to it. But now that I've read this Page Six story, Joe's "outburst" becomes perfectly clear...he was mocking Schultz's meltdown the day before.
Hmm...
