How bad was MSNBC's coverage of Republican Governor Scott Walker winning his recall election in Wisconsin Tuesday?
Well, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart on Wednesday renamed the network "MSNB-Sad" saying that it "passed through all the stages of grief last night" (video follows with transcript and commentary, serious vulgarity warning):
JON STEWART, HOST: If Fox was high, MSNBC must be MSNB-Sad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED SCHULTZ, MSNBC: To say that I'm shocked and stunned is pretty much an understatement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: “Shocked and stunned is an understatement. No, it feels tonight more like my heart was f—ked by the devil.
(Laughter) No, wait, that's an overstatement. Tonight I feel somewhere between shocked, stunned and devil heart f--ked. (Laughter) This is Ed Schultz.”
Indeed, MSNBC passed through all the stages of grief last night. Stage one, denial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: You know, NBC is calling it for Walker. Okay, I think it's awful close and there's a lot of absentee ballots yet that are still out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: Yeah, no. (Laughter) Stage two, denial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN NICHOLS, NATION MAGAZINE: This will not be a massive win for Scott Walker.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: Yeah. (Laughter) Finally, stage three, just really massive amounts of industrial-grade denial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL, MSNBC: Tonight, the really big winner of the Wisconsin recall election is President Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(Laughter)
STEWART: Yep, just like Obama drew it up on the chalk board. “Hey, guys, I got an idea. What if we could figure out a way to have the core of what we believe soundly rejected by voters in a swing state just five months before the national election? It might just be the boost we need.”
Actually, in this instance, there were four stages of grief with the last one being not understanding that if the exit polls were wrong in predicting who won the recall, they would likewise be off in how Wisconsinites view the upcoming presidential election.
Unfortunately, MSNBC anchors and commentators despite the obvious flaws in Tuesday's exit polls continued to cite them to claim President Obama has a seven point lead over Mitt Romney in Wisconsin.
Maybe Stewart will spoof that hysterical stupidity Thursday.
Stay tuned.