So let the hardworking staff get this straight:
Al Sharpton is the host of MSNBC’s nightly news program PoliticsNation.
Al Sharpton is also the president of National Action Network, “which works within the spirit and tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to promote a modern civil rights agenda that includes the fight for one standard of justice, decency and equal opportunities for all people regardless of race, religion, national origin, and gender.”
In his latter role, Sharpton did this (via the Washington Post) in his offtime Saturday:
Al Sharpton leads rally for jobs, justice
Rev. Al Sharpton organized a March on Washington for Jobs and Justice on the National Mall on Saturday. Occupy DC protesters also joined the event as they headed toward the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
And MSNBC is apparently okay with that.
Damn.
Even Fox News has higher standards.
From the New York Times last year:
Fox News Cancels Hannity’s Tea Party Broadcast
Sean Hannity’s plan to broadcast from a Cincinnati Tea Party rally were canceled late Thursday.
Fox said Mr. Hannity returned to New York once it became apparent that the local Tea Party organizers were raising money based on his widely-promoted attendance at the rally.
But it’s okay with MSNBC for Sharpton to shill at a Jobs ‘n’ Justice shindig.
No wonder NBC News want to disown its kissin’ cousin.
Campaign Outsider 
Just a theory: 6:00 pm Eastern Time is problematic for a national news channel. Individual stations on the East coast are aiting their local news followed by the network news feed from ABC, CBS and NBC. Stations in the midwest are airing whatever they brought on to replace Oprah, or early versions of their own local news. PBS is running the “PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer”. All MSNBC seems to care about is the fact that Sharpton shows up EVERY night. No matter what day of the week, even Fridays and holidays, there’s Reverend Al. No guest host has to be secured and get paid. And according to tvbythenumbers.com, he gets an average of 700,000 total viewers every night.
I’m not sure that Fox News Channel is being consistent with Hannity. They allowed him in 2007-8 to appear at (or host?) one or more fundraisers for Rudy Giuliani. They also differ from most news organizations in that they have no policy forbidding campaign donations from their journalists, er, entertainers/personalities.
The big problem with Al Sharpton isn’t his outside activism. It’s that he’s a loose cannon on the hairy edge of the facts and scandal. They’re better off returning him to be the occasional guest, not host.
MSNBC allows contributions too, Mike, as we found out in last year’s Keith Olbermann dustup. They just have to be cleared in advance.
NPR drops Opera host Lisa Simeone for speaking at Occupy DC:
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/150174/npr-investigating-host-who-has-become-spokesperson-for-occupy-dc/