WASHINGTON -- Former Fargo resident and MSNBC progressive pundit Ed Schultz has found a new television home.
The former Fargo area talk show host who famously switched from supporting conservative to liberal causes, announced in a YouTube video today that he’s now working for RT America, formerly called Russia Today.
RT America is funded by the Russian government.
Standing by a set of railroad tracks, Schultz announces:
“For decades the American middle class has been railroaded by Washington politics. Big money corporate interest has drowned out a lot of voices. That’s how it is in the news culture in this country now. That’s where I come in. I’m Ed Schultz, I do the news on RT America. I’ll make sure you don’t get railroaded and you’ll get the straight talk and the straight news. Question more.”
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RT America is based in Washington, D.C. It is part of the RT network, a global multilingual television news network based in Moscow.
Last October, Schultz announced that he was going to give the middle class a boost by helping to create a super PAC called Americans for a Strong Middle Class.
He is the president of the super PAC and said his work would be voluntary and that he wouldn’t draw a salary for at least the first two years of ASMC’s existence.
“There’s so much out there. There’s low-wage states, there’s right-to-work issues, there’s health care issues, there’s just so much that has to be done as far as messaging, developing a narrative and moving the country forward,” Schultz said. “This is how I want to make a difference. There’s no doubt it will be effective. I’m very confident in that.”
A super PAC can raise and spend unlimited amounts on politics, but must operate independently of candidates and cannot contribute to individual candidates. The donors must be disclosed to the Federal Elections Commission. As a 527 non-profit group, ASMC can run political ads with unlimited individual and corporate contributions, but must disclose its donors to the Internal Revenue Service.
Schultz’s “The Ed Show” was dropped from MSNBC’s daytime lineup along with two other programs last July as part of an effort by the cable network to rebrand itself.
MSNBC’s move ended the tenure of one of its longest-serving hosts. Schultz had been on the air since 2009. He was a prime-time fixture on the network from 2011 to 2013.
Schultz, a former Fargo resident, got his start as a sports broadcaster for Fargo-Moorhead area television stations. He later moved to talk radio in the 1990s and took his radio show nationwide in 2004.
