Will Ed Schultz Be Fired?

The Racer meme continues to move through the main stream media, and allows the MSM an easy way to discredit anyone who opposes President Obama’s policies.  After his announcement in South Carolina, and arrival in Iowa, Texas Governor (and presidential candidate) Rick Perry found himself under attack from the usual Racer suspects.

The other night, MSNBC host Ed Schultz, host of The Ed Show, showed a piece that accuses Gov. Perry of racism by selectively and deceptively editing a video of Perry speaking at the Des Moines Register Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair.

Schultz rails that when Perry states that a “Black Cloud” hangs over America, Perry means President Obama.  So there is no confusion, Schultz starts his piece talking about the overt racism in the United States:

I think there’s an element of racism every time people claim the first black President doesn’t love this country.  Perry comes from the radical country club that loves to remind white America President Obama is other; not like you.  Perry also wants you to know that he is pro-business.

We will set aside Schultz’ inane attack on Capitalism, and focus on his primary lie.  This meme, put forth by other key Racers like Janeane Garofalo, Al Sharpton and Keith Olbermann, is not based on reality or truth.  Rather, Racers push the meme solely as an attack vehicle, designed to engage class warfare and intimidate the target.  In this case, the target is the biggest threat to Obama’s re-election chances to date: Governor Rick Perry.

However, Schultz and his team at MSNBC lied.  The video, when played in its entirety, clearly shows that the “Black Cloud” Perry is talking about is the debt, not Obama.

As pointed out by Larry O’Connor, editor of Breitbart.tv, Schultz admits the error in the editing, but does not apologize for the purpose of the editing, which is to engage the Racer meme and distort reality; To portray Gov. Perry as a racist and to engage the rabid, truth-be-damned, class warfare fanatical fan base at MSNBC to rally around President Obama.

While there are far too many apologies in American media today, (Schultz himself gave one of the best apologies in history a few months back, after a hate-filled radio show rant against conservative Laura Ingraham.  It earned him many kudos amongst conservatives.) an apology here would not be enough.  It simply won’t do.

If this was part of a stream of consciousness rant, an ever escalating, heated tirade that led to an inappropriate statement or falsifying of facts, then perhaps an apology (as it were) would suffice.  But this was not the situation.  This was calculated.  This was discussed.  And, unless Schultz is truly adept with Final Cut Pro, sent all of his producers out of the room while the clip was rolling and ran the production room by himself while on camera, this is also conspiratorial.  Schultz, and his staff, knew they were lying, and actively participated in deceiving their viewers while engaging, together, in a vicious slander of Gov. Perry.

They don’t have to apologize.  They have to be fired by MSNBC for engaging in a conspiracy to falsify the news to allow themselves a clearer path to espousing their rigid ideology.  Will MSNBC recognize this? Time will tell, and so will the viewership.