MSNBC UPDATE:

On Wednesday, ThinkProgress reported that three interest groups confirmed they paid speaking fees to Chris Matthews. Yesterday, we were contacted by MSNBC President Rick Kaplan who elaborated the blanket denial (“Totally untrue”¦totally”) he provided to ThinkProgress pre-publication. According to Kaplan, while these groups may have paid fees for Matthews to speak, the fees did not go to Matthews directly, but to a charity of Matthews’s choosing. Kaplan added that NBC policy prohibited anchors from personally accepting speaking fees and anyone who did so “would risk being fired.”