Networks Ignore Martin Bashir Resigning After Repulsive Attack on Palin

After Martin Bashir announced his resignation from MSNBC [1] on Wednesday following his vile attack on Sarah Palin, NBC, ABC, and CBS refused to make any mention of his disgraceful exit. The networks had already skipped any mention of his wildy offensive November 15 rant [2] calling for Palin to be urinated and defecated on.

As Media Research Center deputy research director Geoff Dickens reported early Wednesday [3] – just hours before Bashir's resignation – such a media blackout stood in stark contrast to the two-week period after Rush Limbaugh called left-wing activist Sandra Fluke a "slut" in early 2012, prompting 32 network segments lambasting Limbaugh for the comments and even demanding that advertisers pull their sponsorship of his nationally syndicated radio show.

On November 25, TVNewser's Gail Shister [4] singled out NBC News for its "deafening" silence on the Bashir controversy: "It's no surprise that NBC tries to distance itself publicly from its corporate sibling. In this case, however, its silence has been deafening. How low does the bar have to go before Tom Brokaw speaks up, as he has in the past? More to the point, why haven't any NBC women taken a stand?"

Those questions are particularly important given that Palin appeared on NBC's Today [5] just days before Bashir's nasty tirade. In fact, Palin canceled an additional interview [6] with co-host Matt Lauer following the vicious remarks.