Musto's Tragically Unfunny Bit Hurts MSNBC, Helps Sarah Palin

Ever since MSNBC's evening line up became a response to Fox News's conservative bias, they have situated their credibility precariously on a thin line of distinction--they consider themselves different from Fox because they stipulate that they are covering politics, not doing news.

That's a fair point. But that shield against criticism disappears when they make a mockery out of a legitimate news story by being mean spirited and, far worse, unfunny. This "sketch" done by Countdown regular Michael Musto on Lawrence O'Donnell's watch, he was sitting in for Keith Olbermann, is so tone deaf and shrill that it obscures the point of the story and likely illicited sympathy for Sarah Palin among those who don't know politics as well as they know that this shit is not funny.

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A commenter on Newsbusters' inevitable post about this sketch writes, "They can't use facts, just personal attacks and debasement." Sadly, that is exactly the impression this crap gives, which is extremely counterproductive because there are plenty of facts to use against Palin. Musto's unfunniness operates as such a distraction that it's hard to even follow what MSNBC is reporting--that Palin had a terribly unbecoming concession speech that she was desperate to give for self-serving reasons. The additional context that Vice Presidential candidates on the losing tickets do not give speeches on election night and that the McCain camp reportedly cut the lights to make sure Palin wouldn't give her awful speech is swallowed up by the image of Musto desperately trying to milk humor from a stone.