Krystal Ball: MSNBC Hostess Falls Victim To Howard Stern Prank Caller (Video)

Krystal Ball of MSNBC fame fell victim to a Howard Stern fan stunt as old as ding-dong-ditch, toilet papering or even the Howard Stern Show itself: The old prank call.

Unfortunately, many Howard Stern prank callers, such as the one that got through to Krystal Ball’s show today, choose to strike in the aftermath of tragedies such as today’s downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.

Though obviously a tacky and tasteless time for a prank call, given the grief and loss surrounding such incidents, news and other media outlets like MSNBC and Krystal Ball make themselves prime targets for these phone gags as the competition to deliver updates and/or breaking details is fierce. Krystal Ball seemed to be in such haste, excited to be delivering an “exclusive”, first hand account of what had happened to the jetliner.

And that’s exactly how Krsytal Ball’s television report was framed, the MSNBC text below Ball labeling her report a “Breaking News Eyewitness Exclusive” featuring a “Sgt. Michael Boyd” who said he was at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine.

According to the Business Insider, Krystal Ball was caught off guard live on the air Thursday while reporting on the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 which originated in Amsterdam and was headed for Kuala Lumpur.

Ball unknowingly engaged the Howard Stern fan who, as military expert, Sergeant Boyd, quickly made his eyewitness account of the tragedy suspect by saying it was Howard Stern’s flatulence that brought the plane down:

“I was looking out the window and I saw a projectile flying through the sky, and it would appear that the plane was shot down by a blast of wind from Howard Stern’s a**,” said the supposed Sergeant.

Unfortunately for Krystal Ball, she either didn’t hear the prank caller’s statement, or was pre-occupied with something else, acting as if the prank caller had given a perfectly reasonable description of what he’d seen, Ball following with another question:

“So it would appear that the plane was shot down. Can you tell us anything more from your military training of what sort of missile system that may have been coming from?” she asked.

“Boy you’re a dumbass, aren’t ya?” replied the wise guy Stern fan.

Conservative pundits lost no time piling onto Krystal Ball and liberally oriented MSNBC.

Mediaite reports Bill O’Reilly and Bernard Goldberg being utterly smitten with the perceived embarrassment heaped upon Krystal Ball and MSNBC. While “inexperienced” was one term that bubbled forth, Goldberg went so far as to call Krystal Ball a “moron”, and that Ball made Ron Burgundy look good.

But even O’Reilly had to confess that Krystal Ball must not have heard the prank caller’s first statement regarding Howard stern’s posterior, because “nobody in their right mind would continue a phone call with somebody who uttered that crudity… even somebody as inexperienced as that woman.”

Image via Wikipedia, video via Youtube