MSNBC’s Ali Velshi Stands in Front of Dictionary Entries for Exonerate and Acquittal in Trump Rant

On Saturday, MSNBC’s Ali Velshi dedicated a segment to essentially airing his grievances about the impeachment votes, and how he views Trump’s responses, current and future.

Velshi stood in front of the definitions of both “exonerate” and “acquittal” as he gave his remarks. He showed former president Richard Nixon discussing his own impeachment (see full video below), as an example of doing a good job of being impeached. The idea was that while Nixon was apologetic and putting the country first, Trump is not and won’t be.

(Nixon’s rehab is really coming along nicely these days.)

The reason for the definitions on screen wasn’t so much for enlightenment of anyone who might not understand the words, but rather to underscore his point. That point, which took several minutes to deliver, essentially boiled down to saying “you didn’t win.”

Acquittal does equal exoneration. A plain fact, though delivered as if it were an insight. The thrust of the segment was to be put-out about the vote and give the finger to Trump. It was an editorial, and as editorials go, not bad. It won’t move any needle but it would make a good blog post. But it brings up a difference between how the networks are treated and perceived.

MSNBC (and CNN) do not make a formal distinction between whether a program is news or opinion the way Fox News Channel does. At CNN, for example, the now infamous moment of laughing about the “rubes” in Trump’s voter base was during Don Lemon‘s show, which is a mix of news and commentary.

However, during the day time hours, viewers do generally think of MSNBC’s programming, particularly MSNBC Live, as a news program, and the hosts as anchors. However, they are also accustomed to hosts taking a segment to offer their own commentary.

In the segment where Velshi discussed the definition of exoneration versus the definition of acquittal, no indication was made that the segment would be the host/anchor’s opinion. One may find such disclaimers useful or not as one sees fit, but there’s is zero doubt that a line as blurry as the one at MSNBC Live would cause fits were it a Fox News program.

Here’s the full segment.

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