MSNBC's bizarre social norms: Sex bad, murder funny

Earlier today, Eric noted that blogger Marcy Wheeler caused a bit of a stir yesterday by using the phrase "blow job" on MSNBC, in the context of pointing out that conservatives eagerly investigated Bill Clinton's sex life, but don't want to investigate various infinitely more serious Bush/Cheney administration misdeeds.

As Eric noted, MSNBC hosts David Shuster and Tamron Hall "quickly apologized on behalf of Wheeler, stressing she didn't mean to say that phrase on daytime TV."

Here's something else that happened on MSNBC yesterday: On Morning Joe, Pat Buchanan (an MSNBC employee, not a blogger guest) said that Todd Palin should drown Levi Johnston to death in a stream. I didn't see any MSNBC anchor apologize for Buchanan's statement that a teenager should be put to death. In fact, Shuster and Hall played the clip during their show, laughing all the while.

Then, on Hardball, Buchanan said it again.

So, let's review: saying the phrase "blow job" on a cable channel that spent a year covering a blow job: Poor form. Repeatedly advocating the brutal murder of a teenager: Funny!

Glad we got that straight.