“Morning Joe” is cable news MSNBC’s morning show. For three hours from 6 am, former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough (“Joe”) and progressive news analyst Mika Brezhenski along with Willie Geist and a cast of regulars analyze the news and events of the day.
Open Microphone
Joe and Mika – Please stop. You’re doing it again. It’s like an addiction: “I’ll just have a little bit, just a couple of drinks – what can that hurt?” And if you hadn’t already been down the hole, down the bitter catastrophe of 2016, maybe it wouldn’t hurt. But you were.
You put a charlatan on the map. You gave him literally millions of dollars of free air time in 2015 and 2016, enough that he was able to “call in” and make himself a legitimate Presidential candidate. To use the language of addiction – you were enablers, giving him the free podium to America. In religious terms, you gave him the “imprimatur” of respectability.
And it made your ratings. Because the half-hour conversations, even when Joe got the chance to chastise and harangue, confirmed your show as the premier cable morning program. Those who supported his fraud, well they watched to hear what he said. And those that scoffed at his candidacy, well they watched too. They watched to hear him make a fool of himself, and to hear Joe condemn him, and to hear Mika’s sly commentary about what he said.
His supporters saw him as courageous, coming onto MSNBC, the ultimate enemy. And the “haters” laughed in their sleeves. “Was this the best the Republican Party could do? Listen to Joe chastise and control him on the phone line”. But who is laughing now?
It’s A Choice
It was more than five years ago. But you, Joe and Mika, are falling into the trap once again.
I am an addict myself. MSNBC goes on at 6:30 am (Eastern) in my house, and it stays on most of the day. It is the background to our lives, whatever else we are doing. It’s on right now, even as a write this missive.
Joe Biden is doing good things. He’s crossing the country, reaching out beyond the Congress to convince Americans that rebuilding our infrastructure is a critical. It shouldn’t take much convincing: drive any highway and you’ll know there’s work to do. My MSNBC flickers multiple times a day – it’s coming from the internet, and there’s always a glitch, a momentary pause.
Biden’s doing the “good work” of reuniting families cruelly separated at the border. He’s getting more and more Americans vaccinated against COVID. And he’s bringing consistency and strength back to America’s image in the world.
Joe, Mika: talk about that.
It’s the News
Sure you have to cover the fate of Liz Cheney, and the “Big Lie”, and election suppression in America. But you don’t have to give the charlatan any more room in your busy schedule.
I understand why you would. He’s a ticket to ratings – even now – in exile in his “Elba Island” of Mara Lago. His “lovers” aren’t watching you – they are over at Fox and Friends or worse. But his haters want to hate – I want to hate – and feeding that hate gets more viewers. And you are “winning” the ratings war. You are the most watched cable morning show (Adweek).
But history does repeat itself. Returning to your addiction threatens to have the same consequences. He’s not history, and he’s not a joke. He’s a threat, just as Napoleon was a threat during his first exile. Don’t play into his game. We know his strategy: better to say bad things about me, than not talk about me at all. And we’re talking about him again, over and over.
Joe and Mika, you are keeping him relevant. I know that you are “reporting the news”. But beware: understand your addiction. You were in recovery, but the lure of the ratings is dragging you back down again.
The nation went down with you five years ago. We can’t afford to fall into that rabbit hole once more.
