MSNBC’s Al Sharpton has a habit of shouting… and repeating President Obama verbatim. The Washington Free Beacon has produced a hilarious video that proves the bizarre penchant Sharpton has of reciting the President’s remarks word-for-word back to his audience.
“The reason why the press doesn't care about these things is because the press is literally just a parrot for the president. Just a total parrot for the president,” Glenn said on radio this morning. “Quite a claim to make, until we play this from Al Sharpton.”
As the Beacons explains, Shartpon plays a clip of the president, and then rehashes, verbatim, whatever President Obama just said. “As the reverend isn’t particularly regarded for his eloquence, his balance or any real depth on his program,” the Beacon writes, “perhaps he can be forgiven for this curious habit.”
Keeping Sharpton’s lack of eloquence in mind, Glenn had another theory about the bizarre habit that would prove how little Sharpton knows about broadcasting.
Not to get too inside baseball here, but typically, when a television show plays a video or sound bite, the last line of that bite will be written into the teleprompter to give the host a heads up that the clip is coming to an end. In the case of Sharpton, Glenn thinks he might be mistaking that cue for something he is actually supposed to read, which is why he repeats exactly what President Obama just said.
“That's maybe why he's saying the same thing after each clip,” Glenn said. “He thinks I'm supposed to say that, too. That could be what's happening.”
Regardless of the reasoning, it’s just bad television. According to Glenn, Sharpton is one of two things: A parrot or a moron.
“You need to write the Free Beacon and see is he doing this with all SOTs. Is he doing this with all sound bites? Because if he's doing this every time he comes out of a clip, then we know. Otherwise he's just being a parrot,” Glenn concluded. “So the options are: Are you a parrot or a moron?”