The Hazards of Live TV: #24,945

Looks like Shuster is off the hook now and MSNBC’s “anti-Clinton” albatross is flapping its wings again. Hot Air has the video of MSNBC analyst A.B. Stoddard apparently using the word “skanky” in reference to Hillary Clinton. However I’ve played the clip over a dozen times now and I’m still not convinced that the word used was “skanky”. It’s so muddled it sort of sounds like it, but it also sort of sounds like the end of a longer word that we didn’t hear the beginning of. But perception is 80% reality for idealogues so expect this to blow up over the blue blogs anyways…

Update: After recovering my TiVo recording and playing that instead of the Hot Air clip, I’m convinced the word was “skanky”. Just what MSNBC needs right now, coming on the heels of the Olbermann gaffe last week.

Update 2: The Politico’s Michael Calderone writes it up…

MSNBC confirmed to Politico that it was Stoddard, who’s seen laughing as the camera goes back to her.

So what did she mean?

Stoddard, reached by phone after this item initially ran, said that in no way did she use the word “skanky” to refer to Clinton–even though it directly follows the clip.

According to Stoddard, MSNBC had a clip in the monitor relating to the Vanity Fair photo scandal, where a risque shot of Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) is running in the magazine’s latest issue. Cyrus has said that the photos weren’t meant in a “skanky” way, and the word appeared on the screen.

“Skanky is not in my vocabularly,” Stoddard told me.

Well it is in her vocabulary because we all heard it. But if it’s true that she was referring to the Cyrus phrase and not Clinton, it’s unfortunate because the blue blogs won’t buy it given the history of Clinton related gaffes that have occurred on the network.