The post-2016 meltdown of former Republican consultant Rick Wilson would be insignificant, were it not for the fact that CNN and MSNBC routinely lend him their credibility.

That is, if you go so far as to call it “credibility.”

Wilson, on Wednesday, tweeted “#BeInfected” in response to a public service announcement on the coronavirus featuring first lady Melania Trump. Some people thought Wilson, who also appears often on HBO’s Real Time, was suggesting that he hopes the first lady contracts the deadly virus. I don't think that’s what he was doing, but no serious person who’s familiar with Wilson doubts that it’s something he would do.

Wilson is a disreputable person. He says distasteful things all the time. Why do CNN and MSNBC let him do it on their airtime?

Just a few weeks ago, Wilson was invited on Don Lemon’s CNN program, during which he proceeded to mock President Trump's voters using a Southern accent as “the credulous boom rube demo” repulsed by “your geography and your maps and your spelling.”

In August 2019, he accused Trump of inspiring gun violence. “When he triggers somebody, they pull a trigger," Wilson said. The only recent shooting demonstrably related to partisan politics was the one in 2017, in which a Bernie Sanders supporter nearly killed Republican Rep. Steve Scalise and tried to kill a score of other Republican lawmakers.

The 2016 presidential campaign was an especially ripe time for Wilson’s brand of commentary. On Twitter, he asked conservative author Ann Coulter, “Does Trump pay you more for anal?” He also actively fanned a rumor about some video recording that would have implicated one of the Republican presidential candidates in a scandal. (Wilson vehemently opposed Ted Cruz's presidential campaign.)

This is the person whom MSNBC and CNN so value as to make him a regular guest, raising his profile and all of the gross things about him.

Don’t waste the outrage on Wilson. Instead, ask CNN and MSNBC why they further ruin their reputations by having him on.