title:  Lawrence O’Donnell Goes Off On MSNBC For (Once Again) Cutting His Show For A Trump Rally Live Feed
text: Iconic liberal news anchor Lawrence O Donnell is clearly not happy   and he has every right to be.Yet again, his  Lean Forward  bosses at MSNBC opted to cut his show so that they could run a live feed of a Donald Trump stump speech. It wasn t  news.  It wasn t even  new.  It was just Donald Trump, up at the podium, saying the kind of disgusting things he always says. MSNBC gave over their network for that. MSNBC silenced one of their star anchors for that.Needless to say, viewers were furious. So too was O Donnell.Because the anchor is in many ways the face of his or her program, many of MSNBC s disgruntled fans took out their frustrating on O Donnell. On Twitter, his account was innundated with negative responses. Many couldn t believe they were watching MSNBC hand over free advertising to Trump. Many just wanted to know why O Donnell wasn t on like they had hoped.Rather than toe the network line and give a weak defense of why Trump just had to be given the air time, O Donnell threw the script away and began sympathizing with his fans. MSNBC screwed up. They have repeatedly screwed up during this election. They need to own this..@Patta47cake @cp2austin I tried to make it clear that wasn t my decision.  Lawrence O Donnell (@Lawrence) April 29, 2016 .@Kcurran222 I don t like it.  Lawrence O Donnell (@Lawrence) April 29, 2016.@JoeLeydon @Patta47cake @cp2austin I understand. Completely.  Lawrence O Donnell (@Lawrence) April 29, 2016In an act of defiance (or maybe a hope that maybe his bosses might see reason), O Donnell also began tweeting media critics who have repeatedly slammed networks for their unabashed love affair with Trump( s ratings).Media: We're not enabling Donald BREAKING NEWS: Donald Trump giving same stump speech he's been giving for months pic.twitter.com/nlgGcJag1Y  Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) April 29, 2016This truly may be unprecedented in the TV era: One candidate, and one candidate only, given massive free air time by media giants.  Joe Adalian (@TVMoJoe) April 29, 2016Like other anchors, O Donnell is rightfully fed up with allowing the tail to wag the dog. Rather than report the news, MSNBC has settled on chasing Trump from campaign event to campaign event in the hopes that viewers will tune in. It s given the Republican candidate unprecedented amounts of free air time. He doesn t even have to spend money on advertising because huge networks give it away for free.And instead of trying to rein in the absurd status quo, MSNBC has shown signs that it will only get worse. Already the network tossed one of their fiercest liberal hosts, Melissa Harris-Perry, because they needed more time for Trump live feeds. They ve recently begun hinting that they will be expanding their conservative morning show, Morning Joe, in an effort to entice both Trump and his fans to check out the network. Host Joe Scarborough is a well known Trump fan making the relationship between the Republican candidate and the network even more inexcusable.Did the media  create  Donald Trump? The answer is complicated. Certainly, Trump s racist and sexist fans were already around, just waiting for a candidate to say all the right things to them. But there can be no question that the media has enabled Trump. Every phone interview. Every campaign rally. Every panel discussion about Trump s  viability  makes Trump s star rise. There is no such thing as bad publicity, and nobody gets publicity   good and bad   like Trump.Kudos to O Donnell for taking a stand against this betrayal of integrity.Featured image via screengrab