MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” namesake host, Joe Scarborough, has been getting increasingly strident and angry in his commentaries. He is scolding more than opining. Screaming more than talking. He even went on a rage against his own network for not being hard enough on Trump. I mean, really?
Even having observed the deterioration of his presentations into over-the-top irrational rants – and he dresses down any and all who do not share his narrow left-wing opinions – I was not prepared to see Scarborough do a complete raging meltdown that was best portrayed by the fictional Howard Beale in the movie “Network.” Like Beale, the maniacal ravings of Scarborough appear to be good for ratings if not for public service.
Scarborough was spinning off an interview with one of NBC/MSNBC’s fungible stable of biased reporters about the murder of a federal law enforcement officer by a pair of anti-government, anti-police extremists – allegedly associated with the boogaloo movement.
The press has declared the boogaloo followers as a far-right group. Not sure why — since the anti-government, anti-police nut cases are commonly left-wing anarchists and revolutionaries serving the interests of the radical far left. Murdering police is not what one finds on the far right – even the nut case far right.
Call these violent activists what you like, we should all be able to agree that – right or left – they are a cancer in the body politic and should be called out as the anti-social psychopaths that they are.
It is also noteworthy that after totally ignoring the death toll from the protests and rioting – including the murder of “beloved” retired Police Captain David Dorn, 77, who was helping to guard a friend’s store – MSNBC decided to bring this one death to the front burner of news coverage. That murder by 24-year-old Stephen Cannon was caught on video. In this case, the video was taken down and not shown repeatedly on television, as were others. There was no national coverage of the Dorn funeral – no glowing retrospectives on his life and service. Could it be only because they had what they described as a right-wing link? Well, duh!
But getting back to Scarborough.
According to the “Morning Joe” interview, the algorithms of Facebook actually aid in the recruitment for the extremists – that they actually drive the hateful and violent websites to potential recruits. The issue of corporate censorship by social platforms is a legitimate issue – with good points on both sides. But not in the addled mind of Joe Scarborough.
Scarborough went berserk – and that is NOT an exaggeration. His rationality faded as his voice rose until he was in an uncontrolled tirade against Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg personally. Screaming into the camera that they are doing nothing to stop bad actors from utilizing their platforms to kill. He said that Zuckerberg and Sandberg did not care about anything but their billion-dollar incomes – and that they were a “danger to democracy.” In reference to Zuckerberg, Scarborough screeched that “He is lying to you. He is lying to himself. He is lying to the American people!”
The fact that Scarborough’s rage specifically targeted two rich Jews made his words and style uncomfortably like Adolph Hitler railing against Jews – especially those of wealth and power — in pre-War Germany.
Even Scarborough’s far left sycophantic fans, like “Crooks and Liars” Susie Madrak, conceded that they had never seen the hotheaded host so angry – so out of control. She wrote, “ In years of covering him, I have never seen Joe Scarborough so furious…”
It is impossible to explain in this after-the-fact commentary the level of derangement achieved by Scarborough. You would have to see it for yourself. Unfortunately, many in the MSNBC audience did not get a chance to see it.
You see, the normal practice of “Morning Joe” is to repeat the six o’clock hour at eight o’clock. Hoping to capture what I saw in the first hour, I returned to MSNBC at eight o’clock to record the event. But, lo and behold, the folks in the control room at MSNBC censored the broadcast. That’s right. They snipped Scarborough’s contretemps out. Just as he would have appeared on the screen, there was one of those barely noticeable editing blips and up popped a later portion of the show – sans the Scarborough rant.
If you think my assessment is overstated, consider this. Scarborough was sooooooo unhinged that even the producers, managers and engineers at arguably the most biased network on television felt obligated to censor the commentary.
Well … nothing seems to ever disappear from the Net. So, despite MSNBC’s attempt to censor, you can see Scarborough’s rant for yourself on YouTube. This is what left-wing propaganda television looks like.
So, there ‘tis,