MESSNBC

Martin Bashir became the latest MSNBC personality to stick his foot in his mouth, a condition that normally only afflicts Chris Matthews.  He did it by implicitly suggesting that something different should be stuck in Sarah Palin's mouth.  Late last week, Bashir cited Palin's ignorant comments equating big government with slavery by noting the brutal, cruel actions of an eighteen-century British plantation owner in Jamaica named Thomas Thistlewood, who beat and whipped his slaves within inches of their lives and forced some of them to defecate into the mouths of other slaves whom he believed deserved punishment.  So far, so good.  But then Bashir had this to say:

"When Mrs. Palin invokes slavery, she doesn't just prove her rank ignorance. She confirms if anyone truly qualified for a dose of discipline from Thomas Thistlewood, she would be the outstanding candidate." 

And so Bashir turned an attack on ignorance of the evils of slavery into an endorsement of unspeakable violence against women.  Way to go, Martin!

Anyway, Bashir apologized to Palin as quickly as possible, regretting his choice of words and his foray into personal destruction.  Coming as it did on the heels of Alec Baldwin's MSNBC Friday night talk show being suspended by the cable news channel for his use of a homophobic slur against a papparazo photographer attempting to get a picture of him and his family, this has made MSNBC look more than a little embarrassing.  Baldwin may even pull the plug on his own show after having done it for little more than a month.

But - and here's the important point - MSNBC at least acknowledges bad behavior on the part of their on-air personalities and makes them apologize for it or suspends them.  Why do you never hear of Fox News personalities being reprimanded for outrageous statements? Because, unlike Fox, MSNBC has standards.  Why do you never hear of CNN personalities being reprimanded for outrageous statements?  Because, unlike CNN, MSNBC has an audience.