MSNBC Removes Buchanan Piece; Issues Non-Explanatory Statement

Politico’s Michael Calderone reports that MSNBC has taken down Pat Buchanan’s article claiming that World War II was Britain’s fault, and that Hitler really never wanted to murder six million Jews. Of course, abruptly yanking the piece in response to a storm of outrage on the Internet (including a tweet to Rachel Maddow from yours truly) does not explain why MSNBC promoted it on their site to begin with.

The network did release a brief statement when it removed the article and the link to it, but it’s boilerplate and to laugh at:

An MSNBC spokesperson issued a statement ot [sic] POLITICO: “An editorial decision was made to remove the column from msnbc.com. Pat is a contributor to MSNBC, his syndicated column does not speak for the network or represent the views of MSNBC”