MSNBC's Ed Schultz Ain't Feelin' the Love

By Stuart Schwartz

It's official: Even the Obama administration would like to forget about MSNBC's Ed Schultz.

Sure, we've known he hasn't connected with viewers, as his ratings attest. On any given night, The Ed Show has consistently failed to reach even 20% of the cable news viewing audience during his time slot with what Newsbusters describes as his "unhinged...psycho talk." But this week the Obama White House, acting in the best traditions of the old Soviet Politburo, made it official: Ed Schultz has been disappeared.

Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton, explaining why the president considers FOX News to be a greater threat to the country than a nuclear Iran, points to real journalists like "Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow" who "keep our government honest and pushes and prods to make sure that folks are true to progressive values." No mention of the Schultz of the "demonic rant" who threatened to "torch" NBC headquarters when the network did not include his show in election night promotions.

And it was only 20 months ago when Ed Schultz was stationed by the white House in the front row for Obama's first press conference, right up front with the notorious Helen Thomas. This was the signal for a new era, in which all that was right with journalism -- according to Obama -- took center stage. However, the public has found as much to dislike with insider media as it has with insider Washington, and now Schultz has been thrown under the Obama bus.

Schultz first noticed his disappeared status when the president appeared on Fox this summer "in my time slot" despite having "busted my ass for Obama." And then NBC brass left him out of MSNBC promotions, followed by this week's White House pronouncement pointedly excluding him from its examples of journalists providing "an invaluable service."

It's official: Ed Schultz is lower than low. He has become the MSNBC ham at a Long Island Bar Mitzvah, and he just ain't feelin' the love.