UPDATE: Scarborough just discussed blooper on air, mentioning NB and this NewsBusters. Video clip below!
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Ted Cruz: MSNBC's modern-day version of Nikolai Yezhov! Yezhov was the head of Stalin's secret police who fell into disfavor and was executed during a purge. A photo of him standing next to Stalin was famously airbrushed to remove his image.

And so we come to today's Morning Joe, which displayed an image of tonight's Vegas debate stage. Photos of all the candidates appear at their assigned slots. With one exception. Ted Cruz is nowhere to be found! Simple mistake . . . or diabolical left-wing media plot to purge the #2 Republican contender?  The truth is out there!

We'll give MSNBC the benefit of doubt, though perhaps some production assistant thought this would be a funny prank. So readers, if MSNBC were going to remove a Dem from the debate stage, who would you like it to be?

UPDATE: Here's the clip from later in the show where Joe discusses the blooper, cites NB and this NewsBuster, and jokingly outs the "commie" in the control room: Executive Producer Alex Korson, who good-naturedly acknowledges his "guilt."

Here's the "commie" in the control room: Executive Producer Alex Korson: jokingly outed by Joe Scarborough!

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Mika, we have been accused of doing a Brezhnev here by NewsBusters. 

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh, no. What happened? 

JOE: Well apparently, said, it may be a diabolical plot to purge the #2 contender. We had up a graphic that had everybody up there sitting on the stage. Mark Finkelstein at NewsBusters. Now it is fixed, and -- 

MIKA: What did we do? 

JOE: We did one without Ted Cruz in there. 

MIKA: Well that's a problem. 

JOE: He had been wiped clean. It's sort of like, you know how they used to erase from the viewing stand at the May Day parade?

MIKA: Yeah. Someone in the back.

JOE: Apparently Alex. Can we show Alex Korson so you guys at NewsBusters can get a screen grab? There's your commie right there. Go ahead, so you can tell. 

MIKE BARNICLE: He's related to Brezhnev. 

JOE: He is, he's Brezhnev's younger, twice removed.