Lessons

[Trigger warning for misogynistic slur.]

So "progressive" MSNBC host Ed Schultz called conservative commentator Laura Ingraham a "right wing slut." In response, MSNBC suspended him for a week, but not before Schultz used his show last night to apologize.

These, then, are the two takeaway lessons from this event:

1. Male commentators will probably only apologize for engaging in vicious misogyny against female public figures if they face serious consequences by their employer.

2. "Liberal" news network MSNBC will only threaten serious employment consequences if that vicious misogyny was directed at conservative women. But if you want to have at Hillary Clinton, go for it!

Chris Matthews has, of course, long been the most egregious offender in the MSNBC line-up of saying inappropriate things about Clinton (and other progressive women), but let us also recall that, during the last presidential campaign, David Shuster also went after Hillary Clinton with impunity, once playing with, on-air, a "Jabber Jaw Pen" of Clinton laughing, referring to the laugh as "the refrain of Hillary cackling," for example.

Another time, Shuster accused Clinton of "pimping" her daughter, Chelsea, on the campaign trail, for which he later offered an on-air apology, but only after Clinton's campaign staff had to call to complain and her communications director had to threaten to refuse future debates on the network.