“Morning Joe” from Mar-a-Lago: Will Scarborough now be fair?

At first, I thought the news of the meeting between Trump and the “Morning Joe” hosts sounded like one of those funny parody articles from “The Onion” — with a headline like “Joe and Mika meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.”  What great grist for the satirical mill! 

It turned out that the reports were true.  The next day, I checked out “Morning Joe” in the first hour.  I knew they would have to talk about it – and they did.

They said that they had not talked to Trump in seven years – during which time Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski and the rest of the “Morning Joe” cast were among the most consistent and vicious critics of Trump.  They constantly promoted the narrative of Trump being an existential threat to the future of Democracy – a fascist dictator in the making.  An American Hitler.  Scarborough called people “stupid” if they did not see the comparison.  Trump was not only unfit to be President but was a reprobate who would bring down the Republic … end future elections … and should be locked up.

But … that was then, and this is now.  According to Brzezinski, the purpose of the visit was to launch a “new approach” to covering Trump.  (Maybe this new approach is something called honest journalism.)  Does that mean a kinder and gentler – or at least more accurate — approach?  They said that they met with Trump to open a dialogue.  Mika said they wanted to be able to talk with Trump and not just about him.

(That was one of my frequent criticisms of MSNBC’s propaganda machine.  In every show, the hosts and panels made up exclusively of never-Trumpers talked ABOUT Trump – in the most negative terms.  The only time you heard from Trump is when they took a few words out of context from his long rally speeches – words that they could spin as a criticism. At one time, the network’s uber-lefty Rachel Maddow announced that MSNBC would not be airing Trump speeches in the future as a matter of policy – literally censoring a major presidential candidate.  That is right out of the Goebbels public relations manual.  But I digress.)

Joe and Mika talked about engaging with President Trump as if the 7-plus years of ruthless and too often mendacious attacks never existed.  They spoke of their role as journalists – unwittingly admitting that they had not operated as journalists for the better part of a decade.  Like Saul on the road to Damascus, they suddenly found religion in the Fourth Estate.

Their conversion to ethical journalism – if that was what it is – did not win favor from the perma-pissed anti-Trumpers for whom any normalizing of Trump is heresy.  The backlash was quick and nasty.  MSNBC had to close down the viewer “comments” and stopped uploading clips of the show after the network was inundated with viewer reaction – and it was not pretty.

Some criticism came from inside MSNBC, with a number of staffers criticizing the meeting.  One called it “disgusting, but not surprising”.  Others accused the couple of “cowardice” and “opportunism.”   MSNBC host Katie Phang posted, “Normalizing Trump is a bad idea.”  And MSNBC contributor Jennifer Rubin, of the Washington Post, said the meeting was “disgusting” and called for a boycott of the program.

Media critic Jeff Jarvis said the meeting was “a disgusting show of obeisance in advance” and a “betrayal of their colleagues’ democracy and us all.”  Sunny Hostin of “The View” likened it to “kissing the ring.”   (She had the right idea, but the wrong part of the anatomy.) Also on “The View,” a visibly angry Ana Navarro said the meeting was “opportunistic.”  In that same spirit, conservative commentator Buck Saxton said that Scarborough and Brzezinski had “fully surrendered to Trump.”

Journalist Greta Van Susteren accused the couple of “groveling”.  Cable news personality Megyn Kelly called them “grifters” and criticized their journalistic ethics.  (Imagine that.  Being willing to hear from both sides is a violation of “journalistic ethics”.  How ass backwards is that?)

So, why did they do it?

There are a couple of theories.  Perhaps the most cynical and outrageous came from CNN’s smarmy retread media commentator, Brian Stelter – who wallows in cynicism and outrage.  As absurd as it may be, he speculates that Scarborough and Brzezinski were motivated by a fear that Trump would retaliate against them in some way.  They wanted to get on Trump’s good side.

A more likely explanation was offered by former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who suggested that the reason for the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago was the precipitous drop in ratings at MSNBC following the election.  The network was reported to have lost more than 54 percent of its primetime views following the election – a drop from 1.8 million to 808,000.  More current ratings show an additional drop for the month from 1.1 million in October to 736,000 today. 

I personally saw that reaction in a progressive Democrat friend who was a regular MSNBC viewer – especially “Morning Joe.”  He was shocked by the election outcome – even though I had told him several times that Trump would win.  Following the election, he told me he would “never watch those MSNBC bastards again.”  He felt totally deceived.  I thought my friend was merely anecdotal, but there have now been reports of a significant number of folks on the left expressing that same sense of betrayal and outrage.  When I listed the left-wing media among the losers in this election, I was not aware of how big of a loser those folks would be.

The rating news was even worse after the “Morning Joe” co-hosts visited Mar-a-Lago.  According to Mediaite, after Scarborough and Brzezinski announced their meeting with Trump at the top of the 6 a.m. morning start, 38 percent of the all-important 25-54 demographic viewers stopped watching by the next hour. Traditionally, viewership increases in the second hour.

One can speculate over Scarborough’s and Brzezinski’s decision to pow wow with Trump, but it seems clear that the massive effort to censor and demonize Trump has failed miserably – not only seen in the election result, but in the response to those who now feel duped by months of propagandized reporting.

Left-wing media has never been popular with the American people. That is why  FOX viewership is consistently greater than MSNBC and CNN combined.  It was inevitable that the current purveyors of progressive propaganda would eventually collapse. 

Scarborough and Brzezinski appear to see the need to take things in a different direction.  We will have to see if the left-wing networks recognize the same need and start reforming their operations with new programming and new personalities.  If not, they will be nothing more than the voice of the elitist establishment on the two coasts.

In response to the backlash, Brzezinski said “For those asking why we would speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, I would ask back: Why wouldn’t we?”  (Good question, Mika, but why didn’t you do that for the past seven years?) 

Scarborough summed it up by saying that “for the first time what a massive disconnect there was between social media and the real world.”  (Methinks that the more massive disconnect was between the reporting on “Morning Joe” (and MSNBC) for the past 8 years and the real world,)

In a FOX News interview following the meeting, Trump said it was “very important, if not vital, to have a free, fair and open media or press.”  Award this round to Trump.

So, there ‘tis.