MSNBC's Rachel Maddow with a straight face: "There may be liberals on TV at MSNBC, but the network is not operating with a political objective."

File this one in the "unlikely" category.

Via NewsBusters: 

In an interview with Slate.com, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow unloaded the bizarre claim that Fox News is "operating with a political objective to elect Republican candidates," but MSNBC doesn't resemble that in any way.

 "I think the thing that is underappreciated about MSNBC is that we don't really do anything as a company, that we all sorta get to do our own thing," she claimed. "There may be liberals on TV at MSNBC, but the network is not operating with a political objective."

I think that the new model in cable in news broadcasting is that when you hear a host talk, you are expecting that they are saying exactly what they believe...We are actually saying what we think. We are not playing a role. We are not being fake-objective. We are not being directed in political talking points in any way. That it’s us. That means management has to be hands off with all of us, because in order for you to believe that The Rachel Maddow Show is saying what this person named  Rachel Maddow believes, there can’t be anybody else telling me what to say. So that’s the rule with everybody. Everybody gets to say their own piece.