Was Jesse Ventura Paid by MSNBC to Not Oppose the Iraq War?

Jesse Ventura — former governor of Minnesota and feather boa aficionado — is claiming that he was essentially paid by MSNBC to shut his notoriously big and famously loud mouth after only a short stint as a host on the network, because of his opposition to the war in Iraq…

LA Times: What happened to "Jesse Ventura's America," which ran briefly on MSNBC in 2003?

Jesse "The Body" Ventura: It was awful. I was basically silenced. When I came out of office, I was the hottest commodity out there. There was a bidding war between CNN, Fox and MSNBC to get my services. MSNBC ultimately won. I was being groomed for a five day-a-week TV show by them. Then, all of a sudden, weird phone calls started happening: "Is it true Jesse doesn't support the war in Iraq?"

My contract said I couldn't do any other cable TV or any news shows, and they honored and paid it for the duration of it. So in essence I had my silence purchased. Why do you think you didn't hear from me for three years? I was under contract. They wouldn't even use me as a consultant!

What? Not MSNBC, that towering beacon of serious journalism! But based upon Keith Olbermann's sign-off every night, I've been led to believe that MSNBC was not a complicit pawn of the Bush administration in allowing the U.S. to illegally invade Iraq with minimal opposition! Why, I never!

That said, how much would it cost to pay Ventura off and keep his new Truther show "Conspiracy Theory" off the air?