Rick Scott Cancels Lockup at Florida Prison; Rachel Maddow, in Orange Jumpsuit, Explains

A couple of weeks ago, the Florida Department of Corrections was proud to announce it was inviting the crew of MSNBC's prison documentary, Lockup, to Florida's Santa Rosa Correctional Institution to film the goings-on at the prison -- including a contract that gave the state an extra $110,000 of income.

"For the first time in Florida Department of Corrections (DC) history, a television production crew will be filming inside a Florida prison for almost eight weeks, with unprecedented access to inmates and staff who wish to participate," the DOC said.

Filming started at the prison shortly after that -- well, until Gov. Rick Scott pulled the plug on that one.

As you may know, Rachel Maddow, the lefty pundit who runs a show on the same network, likes to make fun of the governor every so often.

The governor's spokesman claimed that Florida's prisons boss Ed Buss didn't have the authority to bring in the revenue to the state and sign the contract with MSNBC, but that started a conspiracy theory that the governor canceled the contract because of Maddow's antics.

Maddow, in an orange prison jumpsuit, offered an explanation on Friday night to lead into Lockup, almost debunking the theory that it was her fault Scott nixed the contract.

Gov. Rick Scott's spokesperson emailed us to our query, flatly denying even the suggestion that ye olde prime-time cable news needling led to the kibosh on the prison show in the Sunshine State and Florida losing more than $100,000 in income... This is a full-on debunktion provided you believe him.