Ed Schultz: The Working Class Hero That Will Be Missed

With the loss of Ed Schultz comes a loss of courage in reporting – the loss of a willingness to call balls and strikes. It’s a loss that could not have come at a worse time. A time when reporters, anchors, producers, and contributors at places like MSNBC, CNN, Fox, and ABC are so terrified of losing their jobs that they are willing to bastardize the truth, massage the facts, and land where their corporate masters tell them to land. Not because they land on the truth, but because the money is good.

Ring of Fire's Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss this.

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The media world was sent into a state of shock this past week when the news broke of Ed Schultz's passing. There's an empty room at RT America and a gaping hole in the world of responsible journalism with the loss of one of my very closest friends Ed Schultz. With his loss, there comes a loss of courage in reporting, the loss of a willingness to call balls and strikes. It's a loss that could not have come at a worst time, a time when reporters and anchors and producers and contributors at places like MSNBC and CNN and Fox and ABC are so terrified of losing their jobs that they're willing to bastardize the truth, massage the facts, and land where their corporate masters tell them to land.

Not because they land on the truth, but because the money is good. Ed Schultz was willing to give up the most lucrative job he ever had in his career, a job as the most talented news reporter that MSNBC ever had, ever had, sitting in an anchor chair. A job that he quit because corporate numbered crunchers had political agendas that prevented him from reporting the news rather than delivering corporate and political pablum that was fashioned not by a news department, but was fashioned by NBAs and CEOs and COOs who cared more about being delivery boys for the DNC political agendas and advertisers and even the establishment government.

They cared more about all of that than they did actually delivering news programs that had a place for real reporters. Real reporters like Ed Schultz. Everyone here at RT America will suffer the loss of Ed Schultz for a very long time. The business of journalism and responsible reporting will suffer right along with us, whether the industry has the honesty and the good sense to understand that or not. Ed Schultz, we're going to miss you.

You know, I think one of the greatest stories I've heard of Ed Schultz and we heard it at the time ... It actually came from John Nichols. He and John Nichols were also very close. He went to Wisconsin constantly during the Scott Walker recall election. John Nichols told the story after news passed of Ed about how Ed would go there, talk to the people in the streets, but not just for the camera. Ed would talk to these people throughout the night. No cameras. No reporters. No nothing. This wasn't for optics. Ed wanted to talk to the people whose lives were being affected and get their stories. Not to go out there and tell the story and get ratings, but because he actually cared.

He wanted to know what was happening. He wanted to know how it affected the guy down the street and the guy on the other street. It was such a moving story that really captured what Ed was. It was never about ratings. It was never about trying to get the viewers in there. It was about what's your story? What's going on? What's happening in the world? How does this affect the average people? You don't see that. You do not see that anywhere else. There's nobody that has replaced that and there won't be. I don't think there ever will be.

Well, you know, truthfully we've seen this ... You and I have seen it firsthand. You were a dear friend of Ed's too. The words that he had for you were remarkable, Farron. He called you one of the most talented young reporters coming up in the business.