Billionaires who back conservative Republicans are trashed on NPR when they die as “scathing TV ad” backers. But what about a black radical who wrote a poem blaming 9-11 on Israel and implying America was evil and terrorist? On Thursday night's "All Things Considered," NPR began by calling him “one of America's most important — and controversial — literary figures,” under the headline “Amiri Baraka's Legacy Both Controversial And Achingly Beautiful.”

The man’s invented Muslim name was Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones). He was the poet laureate of New Jersey in 2002, but they abolished that honorary office after his poem. NPR cultural correspondent Neda Ulaby found his most controversial work wasn’t too negative, it was “complicated.”

On Monday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC host Al Sharpton bizarrely devoted his regular "Nice Try" segment to Dick Cheney denying that he and Wyoming Republican Senator Mike Enzi are "fishing buddies," which the former Vice President did on Sunday's ABC This Week during a discussion of daughter Liz Cheney's bid for the Senate.

As he mocked the former Vice President, Sharpton managed to bring up the Iraq invasion and repeated the false assertion from the left that Cheney had claimed Iraq should be invaded because an Iraqi agent met with one of the 9/11 hijackers. Sharpton:

Liberal radio host Mike Malloy has made some truly asinine comments in his career, but what he said on the twelfth anniversary of 9/11 Wednesday truly takes the cake.

Discussing the tragic events of twelve years ago, Malloy said United Airlines Flight 93 was shot down over Pennsylvania with “orders from a bloodthirsty son of a bitch named Dick Cheney” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

"[T]his might be one of the most “epic” fails in recent memory," Mediaite's Andrew Kirell noted as he opened up his noontime post about how a graphics glitch at Esquire's website mashed up a photo of a man falling to his death from the World Trade Center with the headline "Making Your Morning Commute More Stylish."

While, "clearly, Esquire did not mean to do this on purpose," it seems the magazine is not exactly falling over itself with effusive apologies. "The magazine tweeted out that the image was due to a 'stupid technical glitch.' They kinda-sorta 'apologized' for any confusion," Kirell noted, embedding the magazine's apology:

 MSNBC anchor Toure on Wednesday insisted that he was not a 9/11 truther, despite having several tweets indicating otherwise. After being confronted on Twitter, the Cycle anchor denied, "But I am not so there's that."

However, he has previously tweeted, "How could a plane crash into the Pentagon? And not appear on video cameras?? And leave little wreckage??? #Don'tbuyitfiremenow." [See screen shot below.] Another Tweet from 2009 featured a paranoid video claiming that the Pentagon was hit by a missile: "This fascinating video raises questions about the Pentagon attack: 757 or missle [sic]? http://bit.ly/12AOlN"