11727: MSNBCheerios Mess.

From The New York Daily News…

MSNBC apologizes for tweet taunting conservatives over Cheerios Super Bowl ad starring biracial child

The tweet was sent from the network’s official account and was aimed at conservatives, assuming they would be offended by the upcoming Super Bowl spot that revisits an interracial family featured in a 2013 ad. MSNBC later apologized and removed the tweet.

By Leslie Larson / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

MSNBC is backtracking after it used its Twitter account to taunt conservatives over the Cheerios ad starring an interracial family that will air during the Super Bowl.

“Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family,” read a tweet posted late Wednesday on the MSNBC account, providing a link to a short article on the news website about the ad.

MSNBC apologized for the “offensive live tweet” and then deleted the message.

“The Cheerios tweet from @msnbc was dumb, offensive and we’ve taken it down. That’s not who we are at msnbc,” MSNBC.com Executive Editor Richard Wolffe tweeted.

Ironically, it was just weeks ago that the network’s own host, Melissa Harris-Perry, had to apologize to Mitt Romney for mocking his adopted black grandson on her show.

Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin sounded off against the cable network, encouraging Republicans from mixed race families to share photos with the hashtag #MyRightWingBiracialFamily.

The social media effort was soon top trending on Wednesday night.

“You’ve been served, @msnbc. Take notice all the rest of you left-wing race card players. Your smears WILL be crushed,” Malkin tweeted to the cable network.

The 30-second ad in question is a follow-up spot to the Cheerios promo featuring actress Grace “Gracie” Colbert as the daughter of an interracial couple.

Gracie first appeared in a spot for the cereal company in May 2013. It was posted on YouTube and received so many racist comments that the company had to shut down the comments section.

“The comments that were made in our view were not family-friendly, and that was really the trigger for us, you know, to pull them off,” Camille Gibson, vice president of marketing for General Mills, told the “Today” show in June.

The racist reaction sparked an outrage and even caught the attention of then-New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray, who is African American.

During the campaign, the interracial couple and their son, Dante, posed for a photo sitting around their kitchen table, with a Cheerios box prominently featured at the center.

“Nineteen years of marriage and two children later, this is the first TV commercial I have ever seen with a family that looks a little bit like ours,” McCray wrote in the email to supporters about the ad.

“Cheerios is recognizing the changing face of America,” she added in praise of the company.

9045: Guess Who’s Coming To MSNBC.

From The New York Times…

Sharpton Appears to Win Anchor Spot on MSNBC

By Brian Stelter

After giving a nearly six-month tryout for the Internet talk show host Cenk Uygur, the cable news channel MSNBC is preparing to instead hand its 6 p.m. time slot to the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Mr. Sharpton’s imminent hiring, which was acknowledged by three people at the channel on condition of anonymity because the contract had not been signed, is significant in part because MSNBC and other news channels have been criticized for a paucity of minority hosts in prominent time slots. Mr. Sharpton, who is black and is a well-known civil rights activist and radio host, has been guest hosting in the 6 p.m. time slot for the last three weeks.

There had been uncertainty about the 6 p.m. slot ever since the channel’s marquee anchor, Keith Olbermann, departed in January, prompting Ed Schultz to be moved to 10 p.m. from 6. Suddenly Mr. Uygur, who had been made a paid contributor to MSNBC months earlier, was handed 6 p.m., a big coup given that he had earlier campaigned to have his progressive Web show “The Young Turks” picked up by MSNBC.

He earned solid but not stand-out ratings; in late June the channel’s president, Phil Griffin, decided to try out Mr. Sharpton, and offered Mr. Uygur a new contract that included a weekend show, but not a higher-profile weekday show.

Mr. Uygur, who by most accounts was well liked within MSNBC, said in an interview that he turned down the new contract because he felt Mr. Griffin had been the recipient of political pressure. In April, he said, Mr. Griffin “called me into his office and said that he’d been talking to people in Washington, and that they did not like my tone.” He said he guessed Mr. Griffin was referring to White House officials, though he had no evidence for the assertion. He also said that Mr. Griffin said the channel was part of the “establishment,” and “that you need to act like it.”

MSNBC is home to many hosts who criticize President Obama and other Democrats from a progressive point of view, but at times Mr. Uygur could be especially harsh.

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Griffin denied Mr. Uygur’s accusations and sounded disappointed that he had decided not to accept the weekend position. “We never told Cenk what to say or what not to say,” Mr. Griffin said.

The “people in Washington,” he said, were MSNBC producers who were responsible for booking guests for the 6 p.m. hour, and some of them had said that Mr. Uygur’s aggressive body language and overall demeanor were making it harder to book guests. “The conversation was, ‘Hey, look, here’s how we can make it better’ — about physical things on the show,” Mr. Griffin said.

Mr. Uygur’s audience on “The Young Turks” Webcast, which is separate from MSNBC, is younger than the audience on cable television, Mr. Griffin added, suggesting that the two demographics require different manners of speaking. Mr. Uygur stood by his account, saying in an e-mail, “That conversation on that day was not about body language.”

Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, said in an e-mail Wednesday that his staff did not raise any concerns about the show “with Phil Griffin or anyone else.”

“I didn’t agree with everything said on the show, but certainly didn’t have any problem with it,” Mr. Pfeiffer added.

8818: News & Nonsense.

Entertaining stupidity in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Disney opted to drop its SEAL TEAM 6 trademark application after the U.S. Navy filed an application as well. News sources indicated Disney withdrew its application “out of deference to the Navy.” Plus, Disney probably realized it was not smart to mess with the guys who put a bullet in Osama Bin Laden’s head.

• Former NFL player Tiki Barber compared himself to Holocaust victim Anne Frank in a Sports Illustrated article. Barber was discussing moving with his girlfriend into the attic of his agent’s home. “[My agent is] Jewish,” said Barber, “and it was like a reverse Anne Frank thing.” The major difference being Frank’s diary has been read worldwide, while Barber’s literary efforts usually head straight to the bookstore remainder bin.

• MSNBC personality Ed Schultz was suspended for one week without pay for calling conservative radio host Laura Ingraham a slut. “I used vile and inappropriate language,” said Schultz. “I am deeply sorry, and I apologize. It was wrong, uncalled for, and I recognize the severity of what I said. … I have embarrassed my family, I have embarrassed this company… I have been in this business since 1978 and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. This is the lowest of low for me.” The man is such a media and attention whore.