ANOTHER DAY IN FERGUSON – AT 8:28 A.M. ET:  Michael Brown's funeral will be held in Ferguson, Missouri, today.  It will be, of course, a sad event for the family, but the only question that seems to intrigue journalists is who will benefit from it.  The cynicism and careerism surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer are remarkable.  From Howard Kurtz at Fox: 

Al Sharpton is again working both sides of the street, and it’s paying off for him.

As he’s inserted himself into the tense situation in Ferguson, he’s had an assist from none other than the president of the United States.

And he continues to bask in the spotlight at MSNBC, where he uses his nightly cable show to advance the causes he fights for as a civil rights activist.

But these two roles are increasingly coming into conflict. It happened last year with the killing of Trayvon Martin, and it’s happening again with the death of Michael Brown.

Sharpton is scheduled to deliver the eulogy at Brown’s funeral today. On Saturday, he led a rally on Staten Island to protest the death of a black man who police had placed in a chokehold. Tonight, on his show “Politics Nation,” he’ll undoubtedly be covering the very same events.

This is wrong on so many levels, and most news organizations wouldn’t allow it. MSNBC has defended this outrageous conflict of interest, saying people know who Sharpton is and where he stands.

But you can’t be a player and cover the game at the same time. That’s especially true now that we know more about Sharpton’s role as essentially an Obama operative.

In Ferguson, Politico reports, “Sharpton established himself as a de facto contact and conduit for a jittery White House seeking to negotiate a middle ground between meddling and disengagement.”

COMMENT:   Nothing is surprising here.  We in New York know "Reverend" Sharpton (he apparently was ordained at the age of nine) as a cynical race baiter and incendiary speaker who produced little for the "community" and much for himself. 

Sharpton will be on display today.  And in a few weeks, when the story fades, the networks will pull the plug on their cameras and lights, and Ferguson will go right back to its depressed state, with little interest shown.

As for MSNBC, and its employment of Sharpton, it is simply another example of the deterioration of journalism. 

August 25,  2014