Al Sharpton Poised to Get MSNBC Show

The deal isn't official yet, but the New York Times and Los Angeles Times say Al Sharpton is all but certain to get his own show at 6pm EST on MSNBC. It doesn't come without a dose of drama, though. Sharpton won the job over the outspoken Cenk Uygur, who left the network and accused its top brass of caving to the pressure of "people in Washington" who wanted him to tone down his criticism. (Uygur gives his version on his online Young Turks show, and the lengthy video is at left.)

Not so, says MSNBC's Phil Griffin: “We never told Cenk what to say or what not to say." It wasn't politicians who complained but the network's own producers, who said it was getting hard to book guests because of Uygur's combative style. The right-wing Blaze loved the whole story, asking, "Is the White House programming a news channel?" The White House promptly denied the charge as ridiculous to Mediaite. For more on the Uygur controversy, see Salon or the Huffington Post. (More Al Sharpton stories.)