MSNBC Cuts Off Sam Seder Over a Single Lame Joke From Eight Years Ago

Chris Hayes:

Hayes is responding to the fact that MSNBC has “severed ties” with Sam Seder. And why did they do that? Because eight years ago Seder made a joke on Twitter about Roman Polanski:

Was it a dumb joke? Sure, I guess so. Should people be blackballed for making dumb jokes? Nope. Should anybody really care about this tweet? Nope. Even some conservatives agree that nobody should care about this.

So why does MSNBC care about it? Apparently because the man who brought us Pizzagate—the story that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring out of a Washington DC pizza joint—has spent the last month demanding that they care.

Let’s tot up the scorecard here. NBC News passed on the Harvey Weinstein story. They harbored a sexual abuser for years even though “everyone knew” what Matt Lauer was up to. Ditto for Mark Halperin.

But thanks to the demands of a lunatic conservative, they cut off Sam Seder for a single lame joke made on Twitter in 2009. What the hell is in the water these days at 30 Rock?

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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