MSNBC obliterated the notion of separating cable-news hosts and their political activism when the network brass gave Rev. Al Sharpton a nightly show two years ago. It was just another day at the office when Sharpton held a rabble-rousing rally for Trayvon Martin in the afternoon, and then covered it on his show hours later.

But Saturday's rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial celebrating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's March on Washington was the most dramatic conflict of interest yet. Sharpton organized the rally (with Martin Luther King III) and MSNBC aired huge chunks of it live, including all 20 minutes of Sharpton's screaming keynote speech. An MSNBC press release said they'd be promoting the rally from 11 am to 9 pm.

On the latest edition of her Sunday morning show, host Melissa Harris-Perry and her panel discussed Harris-Perry's grand theory that the media were engaging in a giant game of misdirection following the Zimmerman trial's outcome. The liberal Tulane professor naturally wants the liberal media to focus on topics that further a liberal/progressive agenda, like repealing Stand Your Ground laws, while the argument of liberal CNN anchor Don Lemon that there needs to be some soul-searching in the black community about gangsta culture among young black teens was dismissed as irrelevant.

Most panelists, like University of Pennsylvania professor and TheNation.com blogger panelist Salamishah Tillet echoed Harris-Perry’s statement and claimed that conservatives were responsible for purposefully moving the conversation away from the preferred liberal talking points. For his part, however, fellow panelist Dr. Steve Perry, principal of the renowned Capital Preparatory Magnet School offered a dissenting viewpoint, for which he was marginalized and silenced.

Just over a week ago, MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry claimed that Detroit's bankruptcy is a result of "when government is small enough to drown in your bathtub," and analogized it to "exactly the kind of thing that many Republicans would impose on us."

The truth, of course, is that Detroit has had quite a large government. It also had and still has frightening rates of violent and nonviolent crime, incredibly awful schools, and a race-based culture that the press once praised. What is far less appreciated is what Detroit did to chase citizens and businesses out of the city in the form of sky-high taxes.

On FNC's Hannity last night, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell teed off on the media's effusive reaction to President Obama's remarks last Friday about race and the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case.

Various journalists had described the President's speech as "extraordinary," "beautiful," and "a symphony." Bozell had a different word: "dishonest." (Video and partial transcript below the jump.)

As NewsBusters previously reported, MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry actually put on tampon earrings Sunday as a pro-abortion stunt aimed at the Texas state legislature.

This evoked quite a response from our dear friend Dennis Miller who tweeted, "Melissa Harris-Perry should only be allowed to do her show once a month for 5 days":