Ed Schultz, conservative talk show host turned liberal, dies at age 64



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Ed Schultz, a former sports animator and conservative radio host who has redefined himself as a free-lancer on radio and television and who for years has hosted one of the most popular programs of MSNBC, died on July 5 at his home in Washington. . He was 64 years old.

His son, professional golfer Dave Schultz, announced the death. The cause was not immediately disclosed.

Schultz was a college football star who was forced to re-evaluate his future when he failed in his efforts to become a player in the National Football League. "It was the biggest disappointment I've ever had to face," he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2011. "It took me a few years before I realized that There was life after football. "

First, he was a sports journalist in Fargo, ND, then a presenter for football and basketball at North Dakota State University.

In 1992, he launched a conservative political talk show on a Fargo radio station. and became a high-plain version of Rush Limbaugh. Noisy and aggressive in the air, he often mocked the homeless and unemployed by telling them, "How about getting a job?"

"I was a warmonger and a guy rather greedy, "he told the Washington Post. "I always wanted to make as much money as possible and I thought the oppressed did not deserve a break.


Ed Schultz 2004. (DAVE SAMSON / Associated Press)

In the 1990s, Mr. Schultz began a political transformation after meeting his second wife, Wendy Noack, a psychiatric nurse. Their first luncheon, Mr. Schultz wrote in his 2004 autobiography, " Straight Talk From the Heartland," was held in the cafeteria of a homeless shelter of the Salvation Army. where she worked.

The people he met at the shelter were veterans, writing, "I had a lump in my throat, and it was not the baloney [sandwich] . "

In 2000, Mr. Schultz announced that he had become a Democrat – although of the "gun-totin" variety, "red meat-eatin". He considered himself a liberal, although he remained opposed to abortion rights.

"The Ed Schultz Show", his native Fargo radio show, entered the national syndicate in 2004 as one of the few liberal talk shows. At its peak, the show had over 3 million listeners a week on more than 150 stations.

Schultz became a constant critic of George W. Bush's administration, and he denigrated "the rights" of the conservative TV and radio comment as "wicked and deliberately dishonest." He aimed at listeners "Joe Beercan" of the working clbad that he's style had been ignored by the liberal elite

. Stylistically, his show resembled the conservative programs he contested, with hard-rock and country-music comedians, all supported by Mr. Schultz's combative and combative manner. He often interrupted his interlocutors in the middle of a sentence with a severe air: "Wait a second!"

In 2009, Mr. Schultz moved to New York to become the host of "The Ed Show 'MSNBC within 21 hours. time slot. He brought a vaguely scripted and fluid style to the cable network and was a resounding success in his early years. He earned higher marks than his counterpart at CNN, Anderson Cooper, but he was way behind his conservative rivals on Fox News

Meanwhile, Mr. Schultz continued to host his daily radio show, on which he denounces the conservative channel Laura Ingraham He apologized publicly in 2011 and voluntarily requested a suspension of one week from his MSNBC broadcast

"Radio is an emotional issue", has he said. "It was a moment when I let myself be carried away by mine."

Over the next few years, Schultz's ratings dropped, as MSNBC moved from one slot to another. "The Ed Show" was canceled in 2015.

The following year, it resurfaced under the title "News With Ed Schultz" on RT America, a wired and online network known as Russia Today – and described by Michael McFaul, a former US ambbadador to Russia, "an instrument of the Russian state".

At MSNBC, Schultz said that Russian President Vladimir Putin "paralyzed" his country, but in his new job it seemed "Clinton's camp is trying to do everything in its power to connect Donald Trump. to Putin, "he told The Post during the 2016 presidential campaign," They are trying to cast somebody on RT in a negative light, I think it is deplorable. we are righteous. "

Edward Andrew Schultz was born on January 27, 1954, in Norfolk. His father was an aeronautical engineer, his mother a high school English teacher.

As a quarterback at what is now Minnesota State University Moorhead, Mr. Schultz led the NCAA Division II pbading in 1977. He had trials with the Oakland and New York Raiders. Jets, then briefly played professional football in Canada before starting his broadcasting career in 1979.

His marriage to Maureen Zimmerman ended with a divorce. Survivors include his 20-year-old wife, ex-Wendy Noack, of Washington and Detroit Lakes, Minnesota; a son from his first marriage, Dave Schultz of Fargo; and five stepchildren. Schultz never claimed to be a journalist or an authority on politics. Instead, he argued that he followed the same formula as Limbaugh and other talk show practitioners.

"This is entertainment," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2006. "It's the theater of the spirit. That's the rhythm and the sound. "

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