If MSNBC Sacks Pat Buchanan, Will They Have To Answer For Al Sharpton?

Nonetheless, one could make the case that MSNBC has taken an irrational to the point of being paranoid defensive posture regarding being out-left-flanked by Current. I don’t think you’d see either Chris Hayes or Melissa Harris-Perry with weekend shows if MSNBC wasn’t worried about the potential of Current poaching. The fact that they’d be poached down what would amount to a Nielsen black hole is beside the point. They’d be poached.

When you are in a branding fight, facts on the ground can take a back seat to perception. Keith Olbermann first sowed the seeds of this fight by implying that MSNBC wasn’t progressive enough…that it was too much of the establishment. Cenk Uygur further drilled this thesis down by his very public falling out with the network. The perception was starting to take shape.

If MSNBC doesn’t get rid of Buchanan now, it re-enforces that perception amongst Progressives. Remember, this is a branding fight over ideology, not a fight over indisputable facts. If it was a fight over facts and absolute appropriateness for the national dialogue, both Buchanan and Sharpton’s records would have to be examined side by side. MSNBC doesn’t want that because it forces the network into a position where it has to at least tacitly admit that it’s carving out an exception for Sharpton because Sharpton and his views carry Progressive street cred whereas Buchanan and his views carry Progressive street ire.

But the network will likely face no alternative now but to put itself through this gauntlet of examination. It’s just too obvious a comparison to ignore. The network can dodge the issue as long as it remains confined to the ideological they said/they said periphery. But I’m not convinced it will stay confined there given what happened at the TCA. This will likely creep into the mainstream press and all it takes is one or two well connected media writers with enough clout to force the issue of the perceived Buchanan/Sharpton double standard and MSNBC will probably not be able to successfully dodge that.

MSNBC should have seen this coming and if it didn’t it was foolish not to. I warned the network when it was close to hiring Sharpton:

Sharpton, like Eliot Spitzer, carries a lot of prior baggage which could detonate at any time in MSNBC’s face.

I just wasn’t expecting that a potential Pat Buchanan dismissal from MSNBC would be what could light the fuse to that Sharpton baggage bomb.

Note – this post first appeared on Inside Cable News and appears here with their consent.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.