It hasn’t even been announced yet, but MSNBC’s expected decision to give Al Sharpton his own show is already stirring up the kind of controversy the Baptist minister, civil rights advocate and former presidential candidate has made a career of courting.
Black journalists have complained that the the 6 p.m. slot is not going to a journalist. Critics of President Barack Obama – most recently commentator Pat Buchanan, who referred to Obama as “your boy” – have accused Sharpton of being a shill for the White House. Questions have been raised about the relationship between his selection and his lobbying for the Comcast-NBC Universal merger last year. And conservative blogs have already begun dredging up Sharpton’s role in the more than two-decade-old Tawana Brawley affair as evidence of MSNBC’s questionable judgment.
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Behind the criticism is discomfort with the selection of an activist for a role that can look a lot like being a news anchor, even if it actually involves dispensing news-flavored opinion. And if Sharpton does sign a contract with MSNBC, the choice is likely to raise some of the same
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