Delusional': Ed Schultz under fire by North Dakota paper for 'slave labor' comment

The Grand Forks Herald of Grand Forks, N.D., is knocking MSNBC's Ed Schultz after he criticized city officials in Fargo, N.D. for recruiting eighth-grade students to help fill sandbags as a flood-preventing measure. Schultz called it "slave labor."

"There is nothing slave-like about the workforce that filled tens of thousands of sandbags over the past few days," a Friday editorial in the Herald says. "Talk-show host Schultz’s description of the process goes beyond exaggeration or even hyperbole. It’s practically delusional, because it not only falsely describes the event but also twists it into an ugly and bizarre caricature of the real thing."

On his radio program Monday, Schultz said of the flood-preventing measure: "That's how they [Fargo] flood fight. It's called slave labor. Make 'em think they're really building character. In fact, they have to build character every spring! The college kids, I think, have figured it out. Screw you! So now they're picking on the eighth graders."

"The sign of a bad reporter is exactly what was heard when valley residents reacted to Schultz’s claims," the editorial says. "Slave labor? In Fargo? Where adult and youth volunteers are filling sandbags to protect the community?"

Schultz worked as a sports and newscaster in North Dakota (including Fargo) from the late 1980s through the 1990s.

@eScarry