Reply #30: How do you know whether or not he violated anything?

[ThomCat]

:shrug:

The big claim is that he violated "NBC policy."

But even that is iffy, given that he works for MSNBC, not NBC. They're 2 different companies. One is the parent company of the other, but that does not mean that policies from one necessarily carry over to the other.

This smells very much like they are rationalizing to cover up a political hit.

It is obvious that NBC has been under a lot of political pressure to get rid of KO. General Electric, the real parent company up on top, donates money mostly to republicans. Comcast is buying NBC, and they donate to republicans. Republicans hate KO. KO has been targeting republicans daily since the elections. So the pressure has been building against him, and NBC was feeling all that pressure.

It's very difficult to say "we fired him because republicans told us to." It's much easier to "find" a rule that didn't apply that you can suddenly say actually did apply, and claim that the rule was broken. An employee getting suspended for violating a rule is much more acceptable, and much easier to deal with.