Gather round, cable news promotional campaign junkies, because here's the latest ad from MSNBC's esteemed "Lean Forward" series — starring Al Sharpton! How do the suits go about portraying him as a common sense problem-solving liberal? Ed Schultz, for example, sips coffee in a crappy diner or wanders around a shipyard muttering to himself about labor, while Rachel Maddow stands next to a dam and says "how 'bout that dam." Only Al Sharpton, though, gets to scream about pie.

When MSNBC rolled out its new slogan "Lean Forward" last year, it was a transparent attempt to beat Fox News at its own game. (That game, for the record: news as partisan propaganda.) This is the only idea that MSNBC has. You can be sure of it, because Jeff Zucker denies it.