Ed Schultz will be sorely missed on prime time

The news that Ed Schultz will be leaving prime time weekday television on MSNBC and move to the weekend is not welcome news in this quarter. Don’t get me wrong, Chris Hayes, who will be moving into prime, is first-rate and will do a great job. But Ed is one of a kind, and he is the kind we need on television because on the single greatest issue of our age, the Les Miserables economy with too many jobless people and too much social injustice, Ed Schultz fights like hell for the people who need more voices fighting for them.

Ed and I have had our ups and downs. To be perfectly honest, I used to appear from time to time on his show, but for some time — let’s just say I have not appeared. But much more importantly, if there is one thing my columns and Ed’s shows on radio and television have always tried to stand for, whether it requires supporting or criticizing adversaries or friends, it is that a lot of people in America are getting a lousy rotten deal. On this score, the most important score, he has been a fighting friend to those in America who need friends the most and often find few true friends in the corridors of power.

Whether he is on radio or television, and whether his voice is heard during the week or over the weekend, Ed Schultz has a loud and principled voice, and the more this voice is heard, the better for America.

So I wish and expect the best for Chris Hayes and wish and expect the best for Ed.

Ed sets the standard for having the guts to afflict the comfortable, which is the only true way to comfort the afflicted.

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