Cancel culture before it had a name

The "Defenestration of Buchanan" and a real-life Mississippi legal thriller

A dozen years or so ago, I used to keep a much different schedule and MSNBC, though tilting aggressively leftward, did not have as its editorial policy “to hate each and every American with impunity” as it does now.

I watched Morning Joe regularly. Generally, the show was quite intelligent. Lots of panel discussions, rather than the hot-take debate situation that you see on the morning sports shows or the evening cable “news” programs.

That all screeched to a halt when MSNBC fired regular contributor to Morning Joe, Pat Buchanan, from its network entirely.

Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025 by Buchanan was published on October 18, 2011. He was fired that day.

Technically, he was fired in February 2012 or had his contract run out, but he hadn’t appeared on the network since the book was released.

MSNBC vetted the book prior to its release a…