By Mirror Contributor EVAN GAHR
Reverend Al Sharpton has a new motto.
No justice but plenty of peace at MSNBC.
Last weekend I asked Sharpton at his National Action Network convention if he knows that a mid-level NBC employee is suing Ed Schultz for breach of partnership.
Peacock network producer and sound engineer Michael Queen claims that the behemoth broadcaster owes him money for arranging his MSNBC show (after Schultz begged Roger Ailes for a job to no avail).
Apparently caught off-guard, Sharpton, who normally has an instantaneous reaction to everything, paused for about three seconds. Then he offered this not very artful dodge: “I know The Daily Caller gives a lot of misinformation.”
Chutzpah Alert!
The guy who was convicted of libel for his Tawana Brawley hoax and, more recently, circulated the lie that convenience store robber Michael Brown was shot with his hands up, is accusing somebody else of spinning yarns?
Doesn’t that sound like Linda Lovelace, star of the legendary “Deep Throat” movie, for which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein named their long anonymous source, upbraiding somebody for poor oral hygiene?
But there was no time for such philosophical musings.
In hot pursuit of Sharpton as he walked down the second floor hallway of the Sheraton Times Square, a huge entourage in tow, I doubled down.
Would he like to see the court papers I was holding?
“I didn’t say — I just said. I know The Daily Caller gives a lot of misinformation,” he insisted.
Do you want the court papers?
“I don’t represent Ed Schultz,” he said.
His back to me, Sharpton turned around after I asked if he wanted to co-host for Schultz when the lawsuit against him goes to trial next month in a Washington, D.C. federal court.
“I am not his co-host now.”
I mean fill in for him.
“I am not his co-host.”
Sharpton then walked into a conference room to bellow about overcoming injustices.
It is hard to think of another time Sharpton ran away from a reporter. He invariably answers every question — he may lie or race bait or just thunder but he is never mealy-mouthed.
Indeed, Sharpton earlier this year responded to all The Daily Caller’s pointed questions about the New York Post front-page story that he shakes down corporations for donations.
Why the sudden reticence?
Some options: 1. Sharpton has plenty of money, but only one TV show. 2. Sharpton won’t risk his power and prestige to defend Michael Queen, who, unlike convenience store thief Michael Brown, just may be a real victim of injustice.
Notice that Sharpton never denied knowing about the lawsuit. Neither did MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell when asked about it at Sharpton’s conference.
Word around town is that folks at MSNBC and NBC are following The Daily Caller’s exclusive coverage quite closely, even as HuffPost, Politico and WaPo media writers like Erik Wemple deliberately ignore the story.
Meanwhile, conservative websites, like flatulent guy Tim Graham of Newsbusters, won’t go near the lawsuit either.
We all know that domestic violence is just a feminist myth.
End result: Schultz is like the hapless boy at summer camp who wet his bed—or worse yet, dropped a deuce in his pants.
He knows everybody is laughing at him behind his back.
And Sharpton certainly does not have his.