With Its Credibility Already In Tatters

...MSNBC decides to "double down" on its worst PR loss of 2013:

THOMAS ROBERTS: Well as we look at that, because look at this, the Duck Commander company itself, it's worth a reported $400 million through the sale of duck calls, other items that they produce. We've got 11.8 million viewers tuning in for the premiere of season 4 Ladd. So this family earned $200,000 per episode that season and they represent and they speak to a large swath of the country. Primarily the stereotype almost that you just pointed out. But how do you try to combat that? Because, obviously they're within their rights to go ahead and do this. This is all legal.

LADD EVERITT: Well, look, I mean I think the Robertson family is banking on being able to market firearms, you know, by issuing some of these very extreme political comments and hoping that it appeals to basically a swath of far right-wing Americans that they assume are their main customer base. I'm hoping that backfires. When you poll gun owners in this country, the fact is that the overwhelming majority of them are very moderate in their views. And I think many of them will not embrace the type of, you know, misogynist, racist, anti-gay comments that Phil Robertson is making. And my hope here is that this strategy, if it is indeed a strategy, will backfire on them.

What's the undercurrent-thesis behind this otherwise inexplicable tirade?

• Guns are evil.
• Those who sell them are Merchants of Death who must be opposed.
• The Duck Dynasty folks will soon use their marketing muscle to sell guns.
• Whoopee! They really are a bunch of evil backwoods bigots straight out of Deliverance! Can we get some shots photos of them buggering trespassers?

Does anyone actually watch MSNBC, or are there just a lot of unwatched sets piled up in a basement somewhere, tuned to the channel in an attempt to fool the ratings agencies?