New York, New York (EXCLUSIVE to The Adobo Chronicles) – The big news at MSNBC is the resignation Wednesday of Martin Bashir, the British journalist who became famous for the television film “Living with Michael Jackson” in which he interviewed the late pop singer over a span of eight months.  Prior to joining MSNBC, Bashir was employed at ABC. Until his resignation, Bashir was a political commentator for MSNBC and a correspondent for Dateline NBC.

Bashir’s decision to quit was prompted by a commentary he made last month against Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential nominee, in which he criticized her for statements comparing American debt to slavery, saying she deserved the same kind of humiliating and degrading treatment that some slaves faced. Ms. Palin herself, was a commentator/consultant for the rival network Fox News.

In announcing Bashir’s resignation, MSNBC issued a separate statement saying that it has hired Palin to replace Bashir. “We thought that hiring Ms. Palin to replace Bashir would show our sincerity in not condoning Bashir’s controversial comments on our network,” said Phil Griffin, MSNBC president. “It is the perfect apology, no doubt,” he added.

Bashir is no stranger to controversy. In 2008, while keynoting the gala banquet of the Asian American Journalists Association at the UNITY:Journalists of Color convention in Chicago, he remarked about how exciting it was for him to be in a room of great looking “Asian babes” and then added that he was glad he was standing behind a podium so no one could see how excited he really was.