An unfortunate breaking news blunder this afternoon for MSNBC, as the network was tricked into giving airtime to a prankster posing as an eyewitness to downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. But Krystal Ball soon found out that wasn’t the case.
At 3:24pmET, Ball introduced an “exclusive” with U.S. Staff Sgt. Michael Boyd.
The man claiming to be Boyd called in saying he was at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, where he saw the plane shot down earlier. “I saw a projectile flying through the sky, and it would appear the plane was shot down by a blast of wind from Howard Stern‘s ass,” the prankster said.
After this, Ball followed up with another question, asking “Boyd” if he could detail the type of missile system the projectile could have come from. “Well, you’re a dumb ass aren’t you?” the prankster said.
“I’m sorry sir?” Ball asked, seeming to not have heard what he said. She then went to commercial break. We’ve reached out to MSNBC to see how the prankster made it on-air, but haven’t heard back yet.
>>Update: An MSNBC spokesperson tells TVNewser “this was an unfortunate incident and we immediately clarified for our viewers.”
WATCH: