Ed Schultz Blows a Gasket?

Page Six dishes that Ed Schultz had a meltdown inside 30 Rock…

MSNBC talk show screamer Ed Schultz had a meltdown in the network’s 30 Rock newsroom, shouting at staff, “I’m going to torch this [bleep]ing place.”

The hot-tempered anchor of “The Ed Show” lost it during a phone call in the packed studio and slammed down the phone before exploding.

As astonished MSNBC staff members fell silent, Schultz glared around the room and yelled, “[Bleep]ers!”

A witness told us, “Ed was furious the network was running election-night promos and he wasn’t in them. He’d been arguing on the phone with marketing, then he slammed down the phone and exploded. It was like Mel Gibson had entered the newsroom.”

Fuming Schultz was immediately dragged in for a meeting with NBC News President Steve Capus and MSNBC President Phil Griffin following his Aug. 12 meltdown.

Our source added, “Schultz was told: ‘If you do that again, you are fired.’ He broke down crying.”

Normally I’d be saying yeah, yeah it’s The Post and it’s Page Six. However…this time I think they have the story cold and this is why…

There are two key data points in the Page Six story to focus on, what Schultz “said” and the date he said it (I’ll get to why in a moment). According to Page Six, Schultz said “I’m going to torch this [bleep]ing place.” and he said it on August 12.

This is what happened at the end of Morning Joe on Aug 13th, the day after the alleged incident…

At the time I saw this I thought, “What was THAT all about?” It seemed a rather odd outburst for Joe to make and totally out of context with the discourse that had been going on prior to it. But now that I’ve read this Page Six story, Joe’s “outburst” becomes perfectly clear…he was mocking Schultz’s meltdown the day before.