The hammering has finally stopped. An unnamed hero who brought joy to tens of thousands including all of Lawrence O’Donnell’s flinching, shell-shocked staff, has been fired. Page Six reports the person who leaked the embarrassing outtakes from O’Donnell’s show left an obvious trail:

Multiple sources said that a male “Today” show editor was found to be the culprit who compiled and leaked the eight-minute video of O’Donnell raging at staff during breaks in an Aug. 29 live broadcast of his show “The Last Word.”… One source said, “The video of Lawrence O’Donnell was leaked on Sept. 20. The leaker was identified, confronted and fired on Sept. 26. It turned out to be a ‘Today’ show editor who said he did it because he thought it was funny. But it wasn’t exactly the perfect crime — he left a very clear trail.”

If you recall, the 8-minutes of outtakes from O’Donnell’s show all came from one taping for a single night’s broadcast. That suggests to me there could be dozens more videos like this which someone with the right access could leak. Granted, there probably aren’t people talking in O’Donnell’s earpiece and hammering every night (“Stop the hammering!”). However, I suspect the causus belli of O’Donnell’s rage are transitory but the unbridled rage itself is more of a constant. I don’t have any inside information to back that up, I’m just basing that on the fact that O’Donnell has had multiple meltdowns on the air. So it seems probable he’s had many, many more off the air.

We may never get to see those other meltdowns now that NBC has made it clear that embarrassing their top talent will not be tolerated. But thanks to YouTube clones, we’ll always have this glorious clip of O’Donnell’s August 29 meltdown. I recommend you watch it again and pay special attention to the vast gulf between the gentle, reasonable tone O’Donnell uses on air and the full-tilt rage he uses with his staff. Which voice is the genuine Lawrence O’Donnell? I think we all know.