MSNBC is in free-fall, with its ratings down more than 40% over the last year. It is no mystery why: MSNBC’s standards are so low that its hosts and guests feel bound by no standards of intelligence or decency. A case in point occurred earlier today, when a guest on the Alex Wagner show, Jamilah Lemieux, said this about Ted Cruz’s statement that he started listening to country music because of the genre’s reaction to the September 11 attacks:
Nothing says “let’s go kill some Muslims” like country music, fresh from Lynchburg, Virginia.
Huh? Lynchburg, Virginia?
I mean, really? That’s absurd.
Yes, it was. Let’s go to the tape, which includes an on-air apology delivered by host Ari Melber not long after Ms. Lemieux’s “let’s go kill some Muslims” riff:
To some extent, of course, this episode reflects the fact that it is open season on Ted Cruz across the media landscape. (His taste in music? Seriously?) But MSNBC is a special case; it is hard to think of another “mainstream” news outlet where ignorance and bigotry are so utterly unrestrained. Well, maybe the New York Times.
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