MRC President L. Brent Bozell's Letter to Brian Roberts, Chairman of Comcast (MSNBC's parent company) demanding termination of Ed Schultz.
March 15, 2012
Mr. Brian L. Roberts
Chairman
Comcast Corporation
Dear Mr. Roberts,
As
the chairman of Comcast, you have a responsibility to your shareholders and the
public to produce programs which follow a basic standard of civility.
Unfortunately,
MSNBC anchor Ed Schultz regularly doles out hate-filled, venomous rhetoric which
has reached a boiling point. MSNBC should
not give Mr. Schultz a platform to spew such hate.
Therefore,
I am calling on you as the Chairman of MSNBC’s parent company, Comcast, to demand
Ed Schultz’s termination.
As
I am sure you know, in recent weeks there has been an uproar over an
inappropriate comment Rush Limbaugh made about Georgetown University Law
Student Sandra Fluke. Rush apologized profusely for his unfortunate mistake,
but that has hardly appeased the talking heads at MSNBC who continue to attack
Rush. One of the most notable among them
is Ed Schultz.
These
attacks are enormously hypocritical given his history of vile rhetoric directed
at conservatives and women. In fact, there’s nothing Limbaugh has said
throughout his entire career that begins to approximate the vitriol that has come
from Schultz. And this
network, using him
as the talking head, is condemning Limbaugh? It is hypocrisy and
journalistic dishonesty of the highest order.
Ed
Schultz called Laura Ingraham a “right wing slut.” He claimed that "The
Republicans want to see you dead! They'd rather make money off your dead
corpse! They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don't have
anything for her. [1]"
Or
consider his comments on the former Vice President: "You're
damn right, Dick Cheney's heart's a political football. We ought to rip it out
and kick it around and stuff it back in him. [2]"
Schultz has compared the Tea Party to Nazi Brown Shirts [3],
asked if the term “whore” applied to Joe Lieberman’s wife [4],
and claimed that conservative broadcasters want Obama shot [5].
And that is but the tip of the iceberg. The list of vile, repugnant venom
coming out of Schultz’s mouth is extensive as we outlined in the letter [6] we sent to Mr.
Griffin yesterday.
Mr. Roberts, Ed Schultz’s vile rhetoric has no
place in American political discourse. It is deplorable and beyond the pale.
As MSNBC’s parent company, Comcast bears the
ultimate responsibility for the venom Ed Schultz spews on a regular basis. The
buck must stop with you, Mr. Chairman.
I
hope you agree with me and millions of patriotic conservative Americans that
someone who routinely engages in such hate-filled, incendiary rhetoric should
not be given a platform by a prominent corporation like Comcast.
I am calling on you to do the right thing and demand
Ed Schultz’s termination.
I am also
attaching an
open letter I sent to MSNBC President Phil Griffin [6], calling on him to
resign effective immediately for hiring and promoting one of the most uncivil,
unhinged anchors working in television today. Mr. Griffin’s horrendous decision
to endorse a vicious hate monger is blatantly negligent. As I related to Mr. Griffin, MSNBC is working
on marching orders from Media Matters, and is on a mission to take Rush
Limbaugh off the air. Far from being an independent journalistic
enterprise, MSNBC under Mr. Griffin has become the very essence of a political
lapdog of the far left.
We intend
to take this message directly to the shareholders of Comcast as well. As also
stated to Mr. Griffin, I doubt very much they want to have anything to do with
race-baiting, hate-filled, character-assassinating misogynists.
Thank you
for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to your public
announcement calling for Ed Schultz’s termination.
Sincerely,
L. Brent Bozell III
Founder
and President
Media Research
Center
If you want to join the fight against the extreme bias at MSNBC, click here ( http://mrcaction.org/fight-liberal-media-bias [7]) to be notified when our petition is posted.