Posted in: NBC, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: morning joe, msnbc, opinion, trump

Morning Joe: MSNBC Morning Show Takes Ratings Hit Post Trump Visit

MSNBC's Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski took a ratings hit after announcing they had visited Trump this past weekend.

Well, this unfolded a lot faster than even we expected. On Monday, MSNBC's Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski announced that they traveled out to Mar-a-Lago this past weekend to make nice with Trump. To say that the news wasn't received well across the entire scope of the political and media spectrum would be a serious understatement – with many seeing it as nothing more than a self-preservation move to save their show and their political connections. The following day, the hosts responded to the push back, arguing that only social media had a problem and that the "real world" was very positive and supportive of their efforts.

Well, it looks like the "real world" might not be as in line with Scarborough and Brzezinski as the morning show hosts believe. To put it in perspective, Monday's show reached 770,000 viewers overall (with 86,000 viewers reached in the advertiser-loving 25-54 demographic) – before the announcement. Jumping ahead 48 hours to Wednesday, the show reached an average of 647,000 viewers overall (with 51,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo) – an overall audience decline of 15% (and a 41% drop in the 25-54 demo). Making the news even more troubling is that the ratings hits come at a time when MSNBC is facing an uncertain future, with the news network one of a number of cable assets that Comcast is spinning off into a separate company as it looks to streamline NBCUniversal.

Morning Joe Hosts Hit Mar-a-Lago in Effort to Make Nice with Trump

Here's what the duo had to say on their show on Monday, followed by a look back at "reality check" thoughts on the matter:

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.

Final Thought: 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?

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