Shut Fox Down

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The newest opinion host on cable news channel MSNBC is the Rev. Al Sharpton, a figure much better known for a past in which he cast more heat than light. F. Scott Fitzgerald notwithstanding, Sharpton is now on at least his third act in public life: as a civil rights activist with a history of divisive and confrontational tactics; an increasingly accepted player in Democratic Party politics; and now, cable news pundit and host of PoliticsNation, which airs weeknights at 6. Sharpton says he wants his show to offer a hearing for racial justice and the plight of the working and middle class on TV. "You can do that with a bullhorn on the corner at Washington Square Park, but that's not going to compete with a Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or a Bill O'Reilly," Sharpton says. "You can't bring mid-20th-century techniques to a 21st-century fight and expect that you're going to win." Sitting at an empty desk in his starkly bare office at MSNBC — he had just moved in the day before — Sharpton scrolls through his Blackberry to catch up with a crush of email. He says he thought MSNBC President Phil Griffin was joking when he offered him the gig. But Sharpton says he wanted the TV job badly because of how conservatives have been dominating cable television and talk radio. "They've been able with that domination to push a certain kind of political thought that I think is contrary to a lot of the things that I have fought for — and continue to fight for — all my life," he says. Sharpton has repeatedly — and unsuccessfully — run for public office as a Democrat. But in recent years, he has increasingly found politicians eager for his public support. The announcement of his new show sparked criticism from conservatives, but some black journalists also voiced reservations, asking why a black news professional was not selected for the job. That controversy quickly faded, but viewers may not be able to get beyond his record so easily.