Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC commentator inexplicably but perhaps not entirely seriously described as "... funny, and she's just a cut above everyone else on that execrable channel," by some conservative commentators, has been implicated in the forced closing of hundreds of Broward County schools directly as a result of the misleading editorial practices of her program and network.
Maddow did a feature on the appearance of conservative talk radio host Joyce Kaufman at a July 3rd Tea Party event, decrying Kauffman's vicious, hate-filled speech about gun ownership at the rally and on the air. The problem was, the tape was inexplicably not vicious or hate-filled enough to make Kaufman's point, so she and her network did what any responsible, professional, ethical journalists would have done.
They, um, trimmed it, y'know? Punched it up. Spiced it up a little bit.
And boy howdy, did they. They spiced it up so hot and hyped it so heavily that Ellisa Martinez, a Green Party member in Broward County was inspired by the spirit of civic virtue to call Kaufman's show and announce her husband had just grabbed his guns and run out the door, and that there was going to be a school shooting in support of Kaufman's edited position. As a result, 300 Broward County schools were locked down, the 275,000 children held inside closed buildings and unable to return home.
There was the usual rash of automatic accusations against right-wing extremists and 'teabaggers'.
This week, a grinning Martinez pled guilty to sending the threat, and is expected to receive 12-18 months against a possible 5-year maximum sentence.
There has been no discussion of the case or its conduct on MSNBC or by Maddow. It's almost like "unapproved things unhappen," as PJ O'Rourke once put it.
UPDATE: In an exclusive statement to this blog, talk show host Joyce Kaufman states, "I have not heard from MSLSD and I am considering legal action against multiple parties who were complicit."
