Mika's Cheney-Darth Vader Mock Jolts Joe to Dial 1-800-NEWSBUSTERS

Photo of Mark Finkelstein.
By Mark Finkelstein | October 12, 2007 - 08:29 ET

Sure, we know when we're being used. The folks at "Morning Joe" are well aware that if baring some liberal leg is likely to cause us to cover them, mentioning NewsBusters by name virtually guarantees that an item will follow here in short order. But if the MSNBC show wants to play the homely-if-roundheeled high school girl striving for attention, NB is happy, as the popular QB of liberal-media busting, to oblige.

And so it was that on this morning's episode, newsreader Mika Brzezinski, much like the girl at the beach who "accidentally" lets the bikini strap slip, made a transparently intentional "mistake," confusing Dick Cheney with Darth Vader. That in turn prompted host Joe Scarborough, in mock horror at Mika's exposure of too much liberal skin, to call for NewsBusters. The incident occurred during Mika's 6:11 A.M. EDT newsreading of an otherwise innocuous item.

View video here.

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MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Residents of Albuquerque, New Mexico treated to an amazing light show last night. Hot air balloons lit up the night sky for one of the most spectacular moments of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Spectator favorites this year included a dragon-shaped balloon, a flying house, and [pause for effect] the nefarious Dick Cheney -- I'm sorry -- Darth Vader.

JOE SCARBOROUGH [in mock horror]: What is this? Hey Chris [MJ producer Chris Licht, pictured here], Chris. Can you call our friends at NewsBusters?

BRZEZINSKI: I'm just kidding.

SCARBOROUGH: I'm serious [no he wasn't], that was in the middle of your newscast, for God's sake.

BRZEZINSKI: Come on, Lynne Cheney had fun with it, she went on the "Daily Show" with a Darth Vader [doll].

SCARBOROUGH: Quarantine those kind of comments to the editorial page.

WILLIE GEIST [to Mika]: You have to be more subtle about it.

SCARBOROUGH: Chris is blaming this on me.

BRZEZINSKI: You should be blamed.

SCARBOROUGH: Call 1-800-NEWSBUSTERS. And you know what, when I do that [the rare occasions when Joe criticizes Dems] call 1-800-MEDIAMATTERS.

BRZEZINSKI: You guys can't take a joke. Get over yourselves.

SCARBOROUGH: Make a joke about Democrats, some time, why don't you?

Note to Mika: when Lynne Cheney jokes about Darth Vader, it's self-deprecating. When you do it, it's just plain deprecating.

Now, if Bubbles wanted to break out a Mr. Peanut doll . . .

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.

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I caught this spiel early

I caught this spiel early this morning while in the kitchen making my coffee, I thought I heard him (Joe) say NewsBusters but wasn't 100% sure...

Thanks for the clarification, this is fun to me with NBs getting mentioned, the more advertizements...the merrier!

Good going NBs!

As an aside...Mika, honey, you really need to get over yourself.

Except, BT, NewsBusters has more people on-line

than Morning Joe has viewers.  "Mentions" work more in their favor than NB.

But kudos to Mark for "NewsBusting" their sophomoric ploy.   ;^)

RJ... Well thanks for the

RJ...

Well thanks for the early morning laughs already, you make an excellent point about the number of people here vs. Morning Joe....heheheee...

is it just me...?

doesn't mika act like a cutesy 17 yr old most of the time? isn't she about 40?  not funny mcgee!

...or more self-depreciating humor

Mika could break out a copy of the SATs.

Ouch: good one!

Ouch: good one!

Joey Tribianni: "She's the

Joey Tribianni: "She's the smartest one in our family - you know the SAT's, she took em!"

A service of the new NB respect police

Attention

Mark, 

That Mika will do anything for attention.

In a discussion of O'Reilly's blasting the non hit NBC show 30 Rock, Scarborough claimed that O'Reilly's complaints about Keith Olberman has boosted Olbermans ratings.  I can't remember O'Reilly ever mentioning Olberman by name.

It is not that I don't trust Joe, Mika and Wilie, but are Olberman's ratings really up?

allanf... I know you

allanf...

I know you weren't asking me but I do remember BOR mentioning Olbie one time quite awhile back, I cannot remember the subject but BOR had evidently had his fill of the pure BS coming from the critter and could not contain himself any longer...he was angry, I personally was glad he said whatever he said at the time.

It may have given Olbie some ratings for awhile right afterwards just to check him out, but anybody with a brain wouldn't stay tuned nightly to the sleaze-balls show.

I admit I click it back and forth because he comes on in my area the same time as BOR, so if their is a segment I don't like or commercials I do go back and forth at times being the political junkie I am...lol.

 

BT, O'Reilly has a

BT,

O'Reilly has a tendency to overplay NBC/MSNBC. He's making it almost personal and shrill. Rush handles it perfectly. He either doesn't mention Olbermann by name or pretends he isn't sure who he is. Rush is the master of putting midgets, like Olbermann in his place. His deft touch is what makes him head and shoulders above Hannity and O'Reilly with their heavy handedness...

Howdy Chris... I agree

Howdy Chris...

I agree with you thats for sure about the difference in the two men.

I have only heard Rush mention Olbermann once too.

Olberman's viewers increased from 50 to 51

An increase of 2 whole percentage points!!!! But what does it really mean? - nothing.

No RINOs in '08

Its funny but I see the

Its funny but I see the bigger plan at msnbc.  Notice that Joe compared Newsbusters to mediamatters.  I don't think anyone who knows anything about the two organizations could make a serious comparison, but for the lowest common denominator demographic that makes up msnbc's audience it only goes to give credibility to media matters. 

Oh I do think there are

Oh I do think there are some people other than political junkies like me who tune into msnbc...that may learn something, that may be curious when they hear Newsbusters and may check us out, whether it is more trolls from the leftist side or some in the middle who may read this site and enjoy it, eventually join, or someone who is already a conservative and never heard of us and check us out and join.

Ya just never know Free!

I remember when this site was just getting started to an extent and they wanted suggestions from us on how to get Newsbusters out there, you know name recognition, some advertisement for this site, I called different and emailed different people, also called the Washington Journal and mentioned this site ect....so word of mouth does get around, no matter the venue or party...if ya get my drift....lol.

I also think the comparison to MediaMatters has to get under their skin, heheheee.... may have to expect more new trolls today...eh? 

I heard about Newsbusters

I heard about Newsbusters for the first time when Rush Limbaugh mentioned it.  I guess there's word of mouth and then there's WORD OF MOUTH.

Forget 911, I dial 9MM.

fossten... You are El

fossten...

You are El Correcto!

Btw...that is where I first heard of NBs too.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

This has been a test of the liberal-bias detection network. This is only a test. Had there been actual liberal bias, no one on the program would have noticed.

We now return you to your regular NewsBusting.

Joe was just checking to

Joe was just checking to see if anyone was paying attention.  The Darth Vader juvenile attempt at humor comment shows a lack of journalistic maturity.  Let us contrast this poor taste in humor with Brit Hume of Fox News at the end of his segment, now there is a clever well done and clearly understood Joe Izuzu moment.  Come on Joe, show some class instead of crass.  Repubs love a good satire even when they are the object of it, because unlike the Dems you support, they have a sense of humor.  

Now what would have been hysterical if you would have set the scene with Cheney in a Darth Vader suit telling Hillary he was her father.  LOL

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity

Nah it would have been

Nah it would have been funnier if the evil emporer had pulled back his cloak and revealed it was Hillary, much more realistic and frightening...almost a portent of things to come.

Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.

Or, if the day after the

Or, if the day after the election, Hillary unzips and out pops Bella Abzug.  Shutter...

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity

dscott... I'm not so

dscott...

I'm not so sure. Bella may actually be hotter than Hillary. 

Get Email updates from Fred http://socialnet.imwithfred.com/email_alert_july_26.html

ICK....ICK....ICK...

ICK....ICK....ICK...

LOLOLOLOL! Get Email

LOLOLOLOL!

Get Email updates from Fred http://socialnet.imwithfred.com/email_alert_july_26.html

have you ever?

seen her girlfriend -- Mandy Grunwald -- she's had some cosmetic surgery done since Hillery started making some real money -- but good grief to think of them in bed together is -- oh my god - I think I'm going BLIND!

Well, I didn't want to

Well, I didn't want to gross everyone out with the alternative...  Helen Thomas whose pic has been ungraciously foisted upon us many times at the beginning of a NB thread.  

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity

Eeeew!

Eeeew! ....Eeeeew!....Eeeeew!

How can u diss her like

How can u diss her like that, Helen is much classier than Shillarey though Helen does look like one of the trolls from LOTR.

Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.

DAN... More like

DAN...

More like Orks. 

Get Email updates from Fred http://socialnet.imwithfred.com/email_alert_july_26.html

For you who did not have to

For you who did not have to endure the Carter presidency and the actions of Mika's father just think about:

 

1.   In the late 70's Iran was led by the Shah, a close friend of the United States.  Mika's father was Carter's National Security Advisor.  When the religious nuts began protesting in Iran they did NOTHING to support the Shah.  In fact they engaged in a policy that encouraged him to allow back into Iran the most dangerous religious leader.  They were there at the beginning and encouraged and aided the takeover of Iran by the religious nuts that still rule there.  There turned their back on a trusted friend of the US.

 

2.  Try to buy a house with the mortgage interests rates under Carter of 14 to 18%. 

 

3.  Try to find a job with 8% unemployment rate.

 

4.  Try to control your finances with a 10% inflation rate.

 

Jimmy Carter has no right to comment on any political events.  He and Mika's father laid the groundwork for almost all the problems we face in the middle east and when Carter left office this country was in the worst depression I have ever lived through. 

 

 

Worse!

Worse: Carter made human rights a centerpiece of his foreign policy.  He used this as a basis for his justification of pulling troops out of South Korea entirely (the whole story told in The Two Koreas), which, he did not complete, thankfully for us.  At the same time, instead of nudging our ally to make soem reforms within his country that might have forestalled the Islamic Revolution, he openly praised the Shah for how well things were going in Iran! (the whole story told in Guests of the Ayatollah)

Then, when Iran underwent the Revolution, no one in the Carter administration (like many Leftists now who crow about what a wonderful democracy Iran is) ever got a clue about the two-tiered system of government it had, or how those two tiers would enter a power struggle that eventually led to the takeover of the embassy.  Note that in Guests of the Ayatollah, Carter is reported to have openly mused about the possibility of an embassy takeover roughly a month before it happened as a consequence of allowing the Shah into the United States for medical treatment. 

Res tantum valet quantum vendi potest.

Gettin' It

Bubbles just doesn't get it.  If you want to knock both sides on a political show--you can get away with it.  But you just can't pick on the ones you don't like. 

When was the last time you regularly heard anyone on the left bad-mouth their brothers or sisters.  However, the right will fight over ideas and not just people.  The difference is truly frightening. 

 

http://thelazytriathlete.blogspot.com/

Does anyone really watch

Does anyone really watch MSNBC anymore?

His comment: #1 shows Their bias, #2 Is a cheap shot to get noticed. It might gain them maybe 3 or 4 more viewers from the Moveon.org crowd.

Mika and her self-esteem

Maybe we’re being a too hard on Mika. On the left, there are a number of people that’s had to depend on their fathers to provide employment for them either by giving them a job or using their influence. Mika is certainly one of them. Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, Cokie Roberts and Andrea Koppel are just a few more that come to mind.

 

These people haven’t accomplished much on their own, and this, most likely, has put a pretty deep dent in their self-esteem. The public has been patient with these ungrateful snobs while they struggle with maturity and it appears Mika still has a way to go. 

while you're there

add gloria vanderbilt's baby boy anderson cooper; several kennedys -- make that all of the kennedys!

I have to admit, without

I have to admit, without Newsbusters, I would never know who these people are.  Most of my news comes from various web sources and Fox News since I have found their news delivery just slightly left of center and sometimes right down the middle. 

Now the question - is it better for Newsbusters to draw attention to these folks because people such as I find it educational, or is it a disservice because they draw attention and add ratings to low rated shows?  

I don't have the answer, but I will say that with possible exceptions such as The View  which probably still carries its own, a mention on Newsbusters always benefits a particular program.  I don't think Newsbusters benefits from a mention on a cable news show anymore than an "A" list celeb benfits from a mention on the Tonight Show.

~annoyed sigh~

Alright! Alright! "UNCLE"!!!

Here, Mika ... Here's a rag and a spray bottle of that pretty blue ammonia based window cleaner (careful NOT to drink it, Mika) ... Find a busy intersection in downtown New York City ...

Go, now, and be productive!

Or, as the Mayor of Detroit said;

"Get off the porch and get a job!"

drill, She's under

drill,

She's under qualified. Her career counselor suggested a career in the doorstop service industry.

She is underqualified?  It

She is underqualified?  It seems to me that for a woman you must be white, blond, thin, young and be able to walk and talk at the same time.   She has those qualifications.  Blacks, hispanics, heavy women, older women, non blondes need not apply.

 If she were not related to the NSA for Jimmy Carter I would just consider her the typical MSNBC commentator.   The fact that she is related to an absolute monster makes her special.  Her father, along with Carter , came about as close as you can to totally destroying this country.  Carter was the worst president in history.  Mia's father was the worst NSA in history. 

 

She, her father and Carter should be asked about the Carter record every single time they attack Bush or Cheney.  They should be asked why they abandoned the Shah.  They should be asked why they started arming and training the taliban and UBL.  They should be asked about the dead special forces in the Iranian desert.  The should be asked why they got themselves in the position of letting our foreign service people seized and held captive for a year.