Pat Buchanan, MSNBC Part Ways: Network Drops Conservative Commentator 4 Months After Suspending Him

Pat Buchanan (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

NEW YORK — MSNBC dropped conservative commentator Pat Buchanan on Thursday, four months after suspending him following the publication of his latest book.

The book "Suicide of a Superpower" contained chapters titled "The End of White America" and "The Death of Christian America." Critics called the book racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic, charges Buchanan denied.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin said last month that he didn't think Buchanan's book "should be part of the national dialogue, much less part of the dialogue on MSNBC."

The network said on Thursday that "after 10 years, we have decided to part ways with Pat Buchanan. We wish him well."

Buchanan, in a column posted on Thursday, called the decision "an undeniable victory for the blacklisters."

The former GOP candidate had seemed increasingly out of place on MSNBC as it emphasized liberal commentary in recent years. But he kept a regular presence, even forging an unlikely chemistry with talk show host Rachel Maddow despite disagreeing on most issues.

Buchanan wrote that advocacy groups like Color of Change and the Anti-Defamation League brand people as racists or anti-Semites if they dare "to venture outside the narrow corral in which they seek to confine debate." They seek to silence and censor dissent while proclaiming devotion to the First Amendment, he said.

"I know these blacklisters," he wrote. "They operate behind closed doors, with phone calls, mailed threats and off-the-record meetings. They work in the dark because, as Al Smith said, nothing un-American can live in the sunlight."

The liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America said that MSNBC made the right decision in letting Buchanan go.

The book "was not his first, nor his worst offense," said Ari Rabin-Havt, executive vice president of Media Matters. "He's been making the same racially insensitive, anti-Semitic and homophobic statements for the past 50 years."

Also on HuffPost:

View a slideshow of Buchanan's controversial moments below:

• Buchanan calls Obama Al Sharpton's 'boy' on debt deal

• Pat Buchanan: Black people bought 'propaganda' on the 'liberal plantation'

• Pat Buchanan: Sonia Sotomayor an 'affirmative-action appointment,' U.S. 'built basically by white folks'

• Pat Buchanan: Santorum's 'facts are correct' on black people and abortion

• Pat Buchanan defends Geraldine Ferraro's comments that Obama received preferential treatment because he was black

• Pat Buchanan attacks gay marriage, judge who struck down Prop 8

• Buchanan supports limiting Muslim immigration, mosques

• Pat Buchanan tells black MSNBC guest: "You can keep your 14th Amendment rights -- with some modifications."

• Pat Buchanan: There are too many Jews on Supreme Court

  Buchanan complained that <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2010/05/153417/" target="_hplink">there are too many Jewish appointees</a> to the Supreme Court during Elena Kagan's confirmation hearings.

• Pat Buchanan defends Hitler

  Pat Buchanan wrote that <a href="http://buchanan.org/blog/did-hitler-want-war-2068" target="_hplink">he did not believe Hitler was to blame for WWII</a>.

Comments

[ScottWClifton]

12:15 PM on 03/23/2012

Well, bummer. Who is Al going to argue with if Pat leaves?

And, tell me this, Pat writes about "White American" just like Obama authored a book about "Race and Inheritance". Neither of those are racist hatred. Buchanan is talking about assimilation and a great immigration system with a "molding pot". We have tribes. Our education system doesn't teach the history of America to whites, blacks, reds, or any other color. Again I say, this is not a race issue.

PS If you think Buchanan is an extremist...would you not consider Al Sharpton one in the same?

[TommyTrouble]

09:09 AM on 03/06/2012

Its a shame. He was fun to watch on Morning Joe.. except when he'd start in w/ the ultra-right religious stuff.

[shangrolah]

09:40 AM on 02/22/2012

This is about ten or twelve years overdue. Even conservatives are not defending him.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/16/pat-buchanan-msnbc-part-ways_n_1283483.html?ref=media

[ricnaustin]

05:42 PM on 02/21/2012

When individuals say God told them so.... RUN!!!!!!!

[ricnaustin]

05:37 PM on 02/21/2012

"Another bites the dust.... Boomp, boomp, boom...."

[sammynorwich]

04:38 PM on 02/21/2012

It is way past time for Pat to go.

[bellsblu2]

01:26 PM on 02/21/2012

He became TOO STRANGE to broadcast.

Now, it's CBS's turn to send him packing....

[shangrolah]

09:41 AM on 02/22/2012

He is on CBS too? Have never seen him there.

[bellsblu2]

10:16 AM on 02/22/2012

Sadly, he's on McLaughlin Group on Sunday mornings (the show was formerly on NBC in the same 11:00am time slot, but was suddenly dropped.... CBS picked it up)

Here is a link: http://www.mclaughlin.com/

CBS seems not to notice what they've done.

[demajors]

12:57 PM on 02/21/2012

As a progressive, I'm sorry to see him go. I virtually never agreed with him, but he did do a good job on-air of expressing the collective conservative viewpoint and without getting so hysterical that it was impossible to understand what he was saying. But then I'm the kind of progressive who firmly believes in the old addage, "Know thy enemy". Enough so that I occasionally turn on Fox just to see what the other side is saying. There is little point to operating in an echo-chamber and I'm sorry to see MSNBC go that route.

[Willie12345]

12:03 PM on 02/21/2012

Another Juan Williams like action by the far left. Censorship at it's best.

[ricnaustin]

05:41 PM on 02/21/2012

Works on both sides. I've seen Fox dissect video clips to make one scenario look completely different to the benefit of Fox and it's viewers. I think they call that "censorship."

[JimInHouston]

11:54 PM on 02/21/2012

"I think they call that "censorshi­p." "

It isn't.

[Biochemist she]

02:37 AM on 02/22/2012

Another ignorant right-wing mouth piece, I see.

Do you have any idea what actually constitutes "censorship?"

Clearly not.

Were you asleep throughout your ENTIRE seventh-grade civics course?

Do you know what rights the First Amendment grants and the attendant limitations it places on our government?

Was this man jailed for speaking his mind?

Was he detained unfairly/illegaly for making his v. ile, retrograde beliefs public?

What's that you say?

No?

Thanks.

Back to the dustbin you go.

[Willie12345]

01:03 PM on 02/22/2012

While I disagree with Buchanan, MSNBC fired him for disagreeing with their political agenda. The definition of censorship is not according to the definition you propose. It fact, the term has been around for a very long time. MSNBC is not our government and lacks the power to detain, etc.

Next time, please think about your comments before you post them. At least try to know what your talking about.

[makemesmile]

01:08 AM on 02/21/2012

The end of White America? What's that all about?

[shangrolah]

09:42 AM on 02/22/2012

Too sad for words. The end of White America! And Pat a lonely voice in the wilderness warning of our demise!

[libluv235]

12:34 AM on 02/21/2012

Excellent. He is disturbing.

[JimInHouston]

11:54 PM on 02/21/2012

Oooo... wouldn't want to be disturbed. Gotta eat that pablum.

[shirleeinny]

04:16 PM on 02/20/2012

Not to worry Pat..Faux News, will pick you up promptly...you will be more comfortable there.

[phaps]

03:07 PM on 02/20/2012

MSNBC petted the snake for ten years. Now they are concerned about his venom?

[Jodi Rubin]

01:43 PM on 02/20/2012

I never really liked him anyway.

[Karma2U]

10:56 AM on 02/20/2012

Good riddance to bad news.