Kudos to Mika Brzezinski for admitting the truth: if Jonathan Gruber were a Republican, the MSM "would be exploding." Instead, noted Mika on today's Morning Joe, the MSM has been silent on the Gruber story, with only conservative sites covering it.
Mika contrasted the current quietness on the MSM-Gruber front with the media "firestorm" that erupted when David Stockman made his infamous allegations about Reagonomics.
Howard Dean claimed the story "isn't a big deal," sniffing off Gruber as a mere "consultant." Jon Meacham airily asserted that "you could spend a whole academic career studying why certain moments go viral." But then he gave away the game, admitting that the Stockman story fit "what the left-of-center press wanted to believe." Precisely. And since the MSM ardently doesn't want to believe the Gruber story, or let the American people learn, about it, they've done their best to bury the story.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: This Obamacare story, which I saw yesterday and I'm surprised it didn't emerge . . . It's an interesting dynamic. This broke yesterday [ed. NewsBusters was reporting it four days ago], we kind of, were trying to get to it. Nobody covered it except for some right-wing outlets. Had this been a Republican, what do you think would have happened?
MIKE BARNICLE: Well, he is, this century's version of David Stockman, who was Ronald Reagan's original budget director. In 1981, in an extensive magazine piece in the old Atlantic magazine by Bill Greider, former Washington Post editor, David Stockman sat down with him. He was Reagan's budget director, sat down with Bill Greider for many, many times, to explain the budget. And he said, basically, none of us really understands what any of these numbers are all about, the federal budget.
BRZEZINSKI: [facetiously] So let me guess, nobody dealt with it, right?
BARNICLE: President Reagan had no idea what those numbers were all about.
BRZEZINSKI: Just a few left-wing bloggers brought it up, right? It wasn't covered? I think there was a huge firestorm, I believe.
HOWARD DEAN: There was.
BRZEZINSKI: Exactly, that's my point!
HOWARD DEAN: David Stockman was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. This guy is a consultant. So it's a slightly different --BRZEZINSKI: Well, he's one of the architects, is he not?
DEAN: Ehhh, it's not entirely clear.
BRZEZINSKI: You can't define him as an architect of Obamacare?
DEAN: He likes to think he was one of the architects. He did play a significant role as a consultant. But he's a consultant, not the architect.
. . .BRZEZINSKI: First of all, I was wondering why nobody jumped all over this, although we did at MSNBC--Ronan interviewed him. Meacham, is it fair to make a parallel to the huge firestorm after Stockman--we talked about this first hour--David Stockman, during the Reagan era, undermining Reagan's policies, and that we're just sort of not, except here, I don't know, I don't see it in the papers.
JON MEACHAM: You can spend a whole academic career studying why certain moments, we would now say went viral, and some don't. What often happens, I think the conventional explanation is, if something affirms a prevailing narrative, it tends to stick. So Stockman back in '81, '82 was saying the emperor has no clothes in terms of Reaganomics. That was what the left-of-center press wanted to believe. And so I think it probably made more of a difference.
. . .
BRZEZINSKI: That was a huge gaffe, right? We can all agree on that. I do think had it been a Republican, the media would be exploding.
DEAN: I think there's a big stature gaffe between the office, the Director of the OMB and a consultant for the -- that's why it's not a big deal.
BRZEZINSKI: Okay, that's fair.
