Ah, those layers of fact-checkers and editors in the mainstream media come in handy, don’t they? Thank goodness NBC imposes news standards for its cable channel; otherwise, MSNBC would just spew misinformation and smears to advance a political agenda. Watch MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch connect the Tucson shootings with the “fact” that Arizona doesn’t recognize Martin Luther King Day, celebrated today — and frequent MSNBC contributor Al Sharpton declaring that Arizona has already seceded by not joining the rest of the country in honoring the civil rights activist for his non-violent pursuit of equality (via Eyeblast and The Blaze):

There’s only one problem with this analysis … it’s flat-out wrong. Arizona began recognizing MLK Day in 1992, after a long battle over adding another paid holiday for government workers in the state. They weren’t even the last state to recognize it; New Hampshire changed Civil Rights Day to MLK Day in 1999. Utah changed Human Rights Day in 2000 to MLK Day, the same year South Carolina made it a paid holiday rather than just a day of remembrance.

So now that the “heated rhetoric” meme has been dismantled, apparently now we have the “Arizona is racist” meme instead on MSNBC, based on total and willful ignorance and a complete failure to bother to do any simple research on the issue. That must be the New Tone of MSNBC as they Lean Forward! Perhaps their motto should be Better Civility Through Ignorance.