Tweet
Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson was on Morning Joe today to discuss a story he wrote about the way Republican operatives used fear-mongering and lies to mobilize the supposedly spontaneous town hall screamers. Dickinson faced a hostile panel, 3 people (Pat Buchanan, Maria Bartiromo, and Mort Zuckerman) were dismissive of his piece, refusing to consider the facts he cited and essentially saying (a) concern over health care reform is real (b) there’s no way Republican operatives like Dick Armey could have organized the town hall protests. Bartiromo charged that FreedomWorks is simply using the same model as MoveOn.org. (The sole "liberal" among the Morning Joe Crew today, Lawrence O’Donnell, did squelch that laughable comparison.)
Dickinson kept pointing to facts: Frank Luntz wrote a memo advising Republicans to use scare tactics to block health care reform, and that’s exactly what happened. Luntz said that the prospect of government bureaucrats denying people medical care "is at the core of what scares Americans most about a government takeover of health care." Opposition to health care reform followed Luntz’s playbook, basing their campaign on lies about death panels, euthanasia, and a government take-over of health care reform. Buchanan and the rest didn’t take on Dickinson’s facts, they simply said they couldn’t believe Republicans could organize town hall protests.
You could feel the atmosphere on the Morning Joe set getting a bit uncomfortable. Dickinson was speaking plainly about what the health care "debate" has been about–lies spread by Republicans. Finally, Mika (sorry, easier to use her first name), playing the role of moderator and alleged moderate, declared that she is "uncomfortable with this being a right thing."
Mika did us a favor. She was "transparent" about one of the key factors driving media coverage, in health care as well as other areas: the false mantra of "balance". Cable news types are reluctant to call out blatant lies by Republicans, and are eager to "balance" their coverage. Here’s how it goes. Republican after Republican lies about death panels, euthanasia, and a government "takeover" of health care. Democratic congressman Alan Grayson says that the Republican plan for health care is don’t get sick–if you do, die quickly. Cable news jumps on the latter story, pointing to it as "proof" that both sides are extreme (and that their coverage is "balanced").
Mika must have been relieved by the segment that followed discussion with Tim Dickinson: the crew discussed Rep. Grayson’s sarcastic description of the Republican "plan" for health care, and the Grayson clip appeared, once again. Mission accomplished: Morning Joe achieved "balance" and Mika no longer has to feel uncomfortable about bashing the right by openly discussing the ways in which they have controlled debate about health care reform by spreading lies.
6 Comments
Mika Brzezinski proves that sometimes the fruit falls a long fucking way from the tree.
apparently…her father has been on the show and delivered a memorable rebuke to Joe Scarborough, calling him “stunningly superficial”. Joe talked about it for a while–it clearly stung. Brzezinski is supposed to be a liberal counterweight to Joe but she seems to side with him on most issues.
OK, as soon as I read Mika Brzezinski, I knew where this was going. And expatjourno, what a great line.
I am so appreciative of our liberal network, MSNBC!
exactly–they’re made out to be the liberal equivalent of Fox because they have Maddow, Olbermann and Schultz in the evening, but Fox would never give the liberal equivalent of Scarborough and Buchanan 3 hours of air time every day as MSNBC does for Morning Joe
I was very hopeful at one time about Mika’s prospects as a host on MSNBC. Not anymore more, I’m sorry to say. She’s become a prudish, fidgety “mother superior” who is uncomfortable about everything. It’s just unpleasant to listen to her. Most of her commentary consists of caveats and criticism. She does ZERO reporting. Someone else presents some facts and she expresses her gut feelings which range from OUTRAGE to DISCOMFORT.
Joe & Mika remind me of the SNL “Two A-Holes” sketch.
I just don’t think she could withstand the psychological effects of having to work for Scarborough, surrounded by the new crowd of frat brothers that replaced Imus’ boys. We should have some sympathy for her, as we do for the girl who was kidnapped and forced to live in that psychopaths backyard tent for years.