If you ever wondered whether MSNBC was a corrupt organization—and not just for their hosts’ divisive opinions—look no further than the case of the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose non-profit collected a cool half a million dollars from Kamala Harris’ campaign just before his fawning softball interview with the then-presidential candidate.
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You don’t need to go to journalism school to know that’s an obvious ethics violation and a blow to what little is left of MSNBC’s credibility. It turns out, however, that they didn’t know about it (so they claim):
MSNBC was “unaware” that Kamala Harris’s campaign paid Al Sharpton’s nonprofit $500,000 shortly before Harris sat for a softball interview with the cable host, a network spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon.
But are they going to do anything about it? If so, they’re not talking:
He wouldn’t say, though, whether the left-wing network is taking any action against Sharpton for a move that appears to violate network policy. Other network hosts like Joe Scarborough have been publicly reprimanded for their failure to disclose making, rather than receiving, political donations.
RedState’s Sister Toldjah brought you the story of racist Al’s grift earlier in November:
According to a new Free Beacon report, the Harris campaign donated to Sharpton’s organization, the National Action Network (NAN), two times prior to her October 20th interview with him, which was broadcast on MSNBC. What did she donate? $500,000:
Harris’s campaign gave two payments of $250,000 to National Action Network on Sept. 5 and Oct. 1, according to campaign finance records.
On Oct. 3, Sharpton aired a video of Harris wishing him happy birthday on his MSNBC weekend show, PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton. “Happy birthday, Rev,” Harris said, using Sharpton’s nickname. “You have been over all of your years such an extraordinary leader. You have been a voice of truth, a voice of conscience.”
Sharpton, 70, conducted a glowing interview with Harris on Oct. 20 in which he touted her “extraordinary historic campaign” while referring to Trump as “hostile and erratic.” His questions lined up closely with messages that Harris sought to highlight on the campaign trail.
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Al Sharpton is a racial ambulance chaser. He SHOULD NOT be the host of a news show.
Accepting money from a candidate should be the end of his “news” career.
— Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) November 26, 2024
It’s yet another blow for the poorly-rated news network whose ratings have nosedived since the election and even more after hypocritical hosts Joe Scarborough and always aggrieved-looking wife Mika Brzezinski went to kiss Donald Trump’s ring after he won the presidency. This after eight years of calling him a danger to Democracy and comparing him to Hitler.
As of now, MSNBC has all the credibility of a hustler selling counterfeit goods on 42nd Street:
The contributions to Sharpton and his subsequent interview, which clearly constitute participation in a political campaign, also violate basic journalistic ethics guidelines regarding financial relationships with sources or interview subjects.
“This kind of entanglement harms the credibility of the journalist, the news organization, and journalism overall, and credibility is difficult to restore,” the Society of Professional Journalists told the Free Beacon. “While Sharpton may not consider himself a journalist, many viewers do.”
“When TV news broadcasters do not report their conflicts of interest, or conduct their work in ways that run counter to ethical journalism, it builds distrust among their audiences and places a black eye on both their network and the profession.”
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As our Brad Slager reported, Comcast-Universal is considering ditching MSNBC and spinning it off with some of their other channels into a new entity. (Elon Musk has joked that he might buy it, and we all know what happened the last time we thought he was joking—he bought Twitter.)
If I ran Comcast-Universal, I’d fire Sharpton for ethical violations, then jettison MSNBC in a heartbeat because it’s an absolute dumpster fire.
