Scarborough's claim a little off

I mentioned this last night when it was said, but I did no research on it. Media Matters did.

In the early hours of September 1, during MSNBC's After Hours coverage of the Republican National Convention's second day, Scarborough said:
"[B]efore the [Swift Boat Vets] commercial -- and I think we [Scarborough Country] were the first show that played the commercial -- before we played that commercial, I think the book was number one on Amazon.com. So cable television didn't create this."

In fact, Scarborough Country aired the ad on August 4 -- the day before Unfit for Command gained the top spot on Amazon.com, according to The Boston Globe. And Scarborough Country was actually the second program to show the ad. As Media Matters for America has noted, Hannity & Colmes aired it earlier that evening.

(snip)

But neither Scarborough Country's nor Hannity & Colmes' airing of the ad marked the first time that the cable news networks covered Swift Boat Vets' smear campaign. As MMFA noted on August 5 -- the day Unfit for Command did reach number one on Amazon.com -- O'Neill and his group had appeared on, been quoted by, or covered by CNN, MSNBC, FOX News Channel, or CNBC at least 22 times beginning in April and ending on August 4, when Scarborough aired their ad.