Scarborough To Republicans: 'Stop Blaming The Media'
Should Republicans unilaterally disarm in the media-bias wars? Joe Scarborough seems to think so. Arguing that it distracts Republicans from performing the political blocking-and-tackling needed to win elections, Scarborough has called on Republicans to "stop blaming the media."
Saying "let's makes this personal," Scarborough cited as an example of the supposed distractions to which he was referring the controversy over the tape Morning Joe aired in September from a Romney campaign stop. Readers will recall that the clip seemed to show Romney asking the crowd, which had been chanting "Romney!", to change to "Romney/Ryan." But Scarborough suggested just the opposite: that the crowd had been chanting "Ryan!" and that Romney asked them to change to "Romney/Ryan." View the video after the jump.
Sure, a political party needs to be able talk and chew gum at the same time. Republicans need to organize, ID voters, get them to the polls, and do everything else that goes into winning campaigns. But why would or should the GOP stop calling out the media for its blatant bias? Helping voters understand the way the MSM is trying to deceive them is an important and worthy part of an overall campaign strategy. As for the existence of that bias, does anyone doubt that if the Benghazi outrage had occurred under a Republican president during campaign season, the MSM would have gone into 24/7 coverage, complete with calls for the president to resign/withdraw from the race, etc.? How different would this election have been had the MSM not buried Benghazi?
Watch Scarborough make his pitch.
WILLIE GEIST: There are a lot of smart Republicans like Haley Barbour who in the last 36 hours have identified the problem; they recognize it. But to your point: the very people you're talking about are still hanging on: it was Chris Christie's fault by throwing his arms around President Obama. It's the media's fault, and yes, it's the fault of the New Black Panther party, the guys with the berets --
JOE SCARBOROUGH: There was one, and he had a walker.
GEIST: That's your point: they're stilling blaming those things for a much greater problem.
SCARBOROUGH: Let's make this personal, OK? Let's talk personally. They spent a week-and-a-half saying we doctored a tape here.
JOHN HEILEMANN: I know ---
SCARBOROUGH: Hold on, this is important!
HEILEMANN: I agree with you.
SCARBOROUGH: I listened to the tapes. It sounds like "Ryan" to me. But they spent so much attention. I said, listen guys, first of all, I told you, I'm voting for Romney. You're spending this much time, this much energy, trying to find conspiracy theories? How many times did they say the polls were rigged? How many times did Dick Morris say the polls were rigged? How many times did--I could list a thousand people in the niche-conservative right that makes millions of dollars doing this. They have a different conspiracy theory every day. You know what Obama's people were doing while they were chasing conspiracy theories? They were registering voters. They were putting yard signs in yards. And they were placing phone calls. They were ID'ing loyal Democrats. We have got to stop with the conspiracy theories! Stop blaming the media! Reagan did pretty well with a media that hated his guts.
