Posted in: Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: donald trump, morning joe, msnbc
Morning Joe Hosts Hit Mar-a-Lago in Effort to Make Nice with Trump
MSNBC Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski hit up Mar-a-Lago over the weekend in an effort to make nice with Trump.
Maybe it had to do with incoming POTUS and convicted felon Donald Trump nominating "warrior for free speech" Brendan Carr to head the FCC when his regime begins in January 2025. Maybe it has to do with the growing number of folks walking away from reported "news networks" (like CNN and MSNBC) whose election coverage clusterf**ks set back journalism in ways we never imagined we would see heading in 2025. Whatever the reason, MSNBC Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed earlier this morning that they had traveled out to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend to bend a knee for the monster that they helped create. Here's what the duo had to say, followed by some "reality check" thoughts:
Brzezinski: "Joe and I realized it's time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump but also talking with him. For those asking why we would go speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back, why wouldn't we? Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country."
Reality Check: Scarborough and Brzezinski noted that Trump was upbeat during their meeting. Of course Trump was feeling upbeat – he had two ex-friends who turned into his critics traveling out to see him… at his home base… surrounded by his people… to essentially make the case for their morning show's existence. Because Scarborough and Brzezinski know that they're going to need some of those Trumper eyeballs watching to make up for the folks they're losing.
Scarborough: "We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets. We talked about that a good bit. It will come as no surprise to anybody who watches this show, has watched it over the past year or over the past decade, that we didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues, and we told him so."
Reality Check: Trump couldn't give a single s**t, let alone two s**ts, about what Scarborough and Brzezinski think on any of those issues. The morning show duo headed out to Florida out of a sense of personal career self-preservation – simple as that.
Brzezinski: "What we did agree on was to restart communications. My father [former President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski] often spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed. That is a task shared by reporters and commentators alike."
Reality Check: Trump "restarting" communications means that he's going to keep doing what he's doing, and Scarborough and Brzezinski are going to make sure they have enough people on Morning Joe to rationalize that what Trump's doing is normal.
Scarborough: "I will tell you a lot of Democratic leaders we have talked to this past week since the election have told Mika and me it's time for a new approach."
Reality Check: At this point, the opinion of anyone who considers themselves in the "Democratic leaders" pool should be righteously ignored since they got the country into this mess. Setting aside the role that Scarborough and Brzezinski played in trumping up Trump back in the day (sorry, but that's a scarlet "T" that they will be wearing for a long time), how about… doing your job? Basic fundamental facts aren't "up for debate" – lies should be called out for being lies, and liars called out for being liars. Everyone should be fact-checked – Republicans, Democrats, and especially those who shit away their vote on Jill Stein – and not just during debates.
If Scarborough and Brzezinski want to try "a new approach," try being journalists and doing real journalistic things – and make sure you get the word out to CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times. Because it sure seems like a lot of news folks have lost their way in ways that would have Edward R. Murrow in tears. But, hey – maybe we'll end up with a Morning Joe broadcasting live from Mar-a-Lago. That's cool… right?