In 2000, the Commission on Presidential Debates denied Ralph Nader a spot at the presidential debates. The stated rationale was that since Nader (or any of the other third-party candidates) had failed to capture the arbitrarily floor of 15% support. The same rationale kept John Edwards and Ron Paul off debate stages during the 2008 primaries.

So given that these media slights are made regularly for candidates considered to be such a long shot as to not be worth mentioning, why does NBC News decide that the weekend before the NYC mayor primary to interview Anthony Weiner?

Once considered to be the favorite, Weiner's extra-marital activities and well, prickly (if you'll excuse the pun) behavior on the campaign trail has seen his support plummet to a pathetic seven percent. As a matter of fact, Bill deBlasio's most recent polling has him over the 40 percent run-off minimum, with a 20 percent difference between him and his next closest rival Bill Thompson. So it looks largely sewn up for deBlasio and Weiner will lose significantly enough that even if a run-off is demanded, he will not meet the standards to be included.

So again, why talk to Weiner at all? Is it just to beat him up for humiliating his wife in public, as Savannah Guthrie's questions largely tended toward? Is it to reinforce for Weiner not to attempt another comeback as the Villagers have decreed? Or is it just for the vicarious licentiousness of reliving his fetishes?

Any way you slice it, it's just bad news for NBC.