Thread: MSNBC fires Pat Buchanan

The president of MSNBC said Buchanan's ideas were not acceptable fare for the network. Agree with Buchanan or not, he was a top notch political analyst. He'll turn this into a win-win. Like P.T. Barnum said, 'there is no such things as bad publicity."

MSNBC drops Pat Buchanan
By TIM MAK | 2/17/12 6:37 AM EST

Longtime political analyst Pat Buchanan is being dropped by MSNBC as a result of the controversy surrounding his book, “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?”

“After 10 years, we have decided to part ways with Pat Buchanan. We wish him well,” read a statement from the network, according to the AP.

“My days as a political analyst at MSNBC have come to an end,” wrote Buchannan in a Thursday column at The American Conservative blog. “After 10 enjoyable years, I am departing, after an incessant clamor from the left that to permit me continued access to the microphones of MSNBC would be an outrage against decency, and dangerous.”

Buchanan’s departure comes four months after MSNBC suspended him for the publication of his most recent book.

“The ideas he put forth aren’t really appropriate for national dialogue, much less the dialogue on MSNBC,” said network president Phil Griffin in an interview at the time of Buchanan’s suspension.

The book, which contained chapters titled “The End of White America” and “The Death of Christian America,” was blasted by critics as homophobic, anti-Semitic and racist.

In his Thursday column, Buchanan asserted that he had been targeted by Color of Change, a group that describes itself as dedicated to “strengthening Black America’s political voice,” and the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish group.

“The modus operandi of these thought police at Color of Change and ADL is to brand as racists and anti-Semites any writer who dares to venture outside the narrow corral in which they seek to confine debate,” Buchanan wrote. “Without a hearing, they smear and stigmatize as racist, homophobic, or anti-Semitic any who contradict what George Orwell once called their ‘smelly little orthodoxies.’”

“Let error be tolerated, said Thomas Jefferson, ‘so long as reason is left free to combat it.’ What [ADL President Abe] Foxman and ADL are about in demanding that my voice be silenced is, in the Jeffersonian sense, intrinsically un-American,” he added.

Buchanan has twice run for president as a Republican and was hired by MSNBC in 2002 when the network had no obvious political leanings, according to The New York Times. Since then, he has appeared increasingly out of place at a station that has leaned to the left of the political spectrum.

On Friday afternoon, MSNBC co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski released a statement about Buchannan’s departure, dissenting from the network’s decision. Buchannan had been a frequent contributor to their show, “Morning Joe.”

“Everyone at Morning Joe considers Pat Buchanan to be a friend and a member of the family. Even though we strongly disagree with the contents of Pat’s latest book, Mika and I believe those differences should have been debated in public. An open dialogue with Morning Joe regulars like Al Sharpton and Harold Ford, Jr. could have developed into an important debate on the future of race relations in America,” wrote Scarborough on his POLITICO blog.

“Because we believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant, Mika and I strongly disagree with this outcome. We understand that the parting was amicable. Still, we will miss Pat.”

Read more: MSNBC drops Pat Buchanan - Tim Mak - POLITICO.com