Morning Joe

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh had more fun Friday with what Mark Halperin said on "Morning Joe" the previous day.

In Limbaugh's view, you can't call Obama the D-word on MSNBC, but you can debase conservatives however you want including saying they're "racist, sexist, bigot homophobes" (video follows with transcript and commentary, minor vulgarity warning):

Jay Carney admits calling MSNBC yesterday to complain about Mark Halperin's crack [that we were first to report] that the President, at his Wednesday press conference, acted like a "d--k."  Did the White House press secretary take the opportunity of his call to pressure the show to bring on more pro-Obama flacks?

The question arises because on today's show, Mika Brzezinski revealed that "we're getting hit a lot lately for not bringing on people who speak on behalf of the White House and really stick up for the President."

Markos Moulitsas, the founder and publisher of the Daily Kos, demonstrated that he can locate a vast right-wing conspiracy just like the rest of the Kosmonauts. Mark Halperin's suspension, for him, proved once again that Halperin is a right-wing fellow traveler with Joe Scarborough, who's the "real president" of MSNBC:

I think it's wonderful that Halperin betrayed his full feelings about Obama on the air. It's tiresome seeing people pretend that he's some sort of neutral political arbitrer [sic], when he's engaged in a long-running jihad against the truth.

As NewsBusters reported Thursday, MSNBC has put Mark Halperin on indefinite suspension for making an intemperate remark about President Obama on "Morning Joe."

Just a few hours later, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh told his audience the network's response would have been much different if Halperin had said this about George W. Bush when he was president (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On MSNBC you can call a sitting president a "murderous" "fascist" even muse about putting the President on trial for war crimes, so long as that president is a Republican. But if you dare call a Democratic president a "d–ck," as MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin did this morning it's grounds for indefinite suspension.

While calling any president the D-word is probably not showing the proper respect for the office, it has to be asked where does it rank compared to essentially accusing a president of mass murder and war crimes?

Via TV Newser, we learn that MSNBC has "suspended indefinitely" its senior political analyst Mark Halperin for stating on Morning Joe that President Obama was "kind of a [male appendage]." This is not exactly what the "No Labels" crowd at Morning Joe were expecting. The official MSNBC statement:

Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air.  Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst.

When Mark Halperin asked if the seven-second delay was working prior to offering his observation on President Obama's performance at his press conference of yesterday, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski seemed to assume he was joking, and invited the normally mild-mannered pundit to proceed. 

But it immediately became obvious that the joke was on the Morning Joe hosts, because when he spoke, Halperin said of Obama "I think he was kind of a d--k yesterday."  As evidenced in the screengrab, Mika and Joe reacted with shocked amusement.

View video after the jump.

The following post was based on a misunderstanding of the conversation described. Please see our retraction here.

Tuesday's Morning Joe treated the conviction of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich as a relatively minor affair, and gave it little to no coverage save a brief discussion about the supposed injustice of the process. "It's any other day and that's any other news story," said Mika Brzezinski, who appeared annoyed at being asked to cover the story at all. Later, she insisted "We're not going to waste the first block on this."

It seems no matter what Sarah Palin does or doesn't do, she's going to be lambasted by America's press - even the supposedly "conservative" ones.

On Tuesday's "Morning Joe," co-host Joe Scarborough used Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann's successful campaign launch as a means of bashing the former Alaska governor (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In the wake of the release of 24,000 emails from the office former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the media’s obsession with the former Vice Presidential candidate has reached such a fever pitch that even Morning Joe can no longer stand it.“Did you see the obsessive countdown to Sarah Palin's e-mails being released? Did they not make themselves look like fools and - and just prove - and again we have been harshly critical of Sarah Palin, but did the media not prove how biased , over the top biased they’ve been every step of the way on Sarah Palin?” host Joe Scarborough said this morning.

(video after the break)

Editor's Update: Thanks to tipster Jim Trotter who reminded us that back in February, Joe and the Brew Crew spent almost 4 minutes talking about Chris Lee's shirtless pic. (video at link)

Yesterday, this column jibed Joe Scarborough & Co. for blacking out, during Morning Joe's first half-hour, coverage of Anthony Weiner's epic news conference of the day before.

Today, a defiant Scarborough dismissed the criticism the show received, boasting "we'll talk about what we feel like talking about."

When the show opened today, it at first seemed that Scarborough was about to make amends for yesterday's poor news judgment.  But Joe's mock contrition was just a set-up for a joke.

View video after the jump.

In an exchange with Pat Buchanan on Thursday’s “Morning Joe,” MSNBC reporter Norah O’Donnell demonstrated just how out of touch she is when it comes to her view of the state of the American economy (video follows page break): 

So now we know: Donny Deutsch would advise Dems caught in a sex scandal . . . to fabricate a false story.

On today's Morning Joe, ad man Deutsch stated that, when caught with his pants down, Anthony Weiner should have been "very honest" and claimed that he had sent the picture to his wife. And by "very honest," Deutsch of course means "very dishonest" since no one, starting with Weiner himself, suggests that the congressman meant to send the shot to his wife but that somehow it went out to a 21-year old college student in Seattle. Hat tip reader Texndoc.

View video after the jump.

Joe Scarborough, MSNBC's favorite Republican, on Tuesday continued his habit of slamming conservatives. He knocked former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's One Nation bus tour as "a big, old, fat weekend of nothing, politically.”

The former vice presidential candidate spent this Memorial Day weekend in Washington D.C., where she visited important historical sites, including backdrops that many political candidates have used before.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lobbed incendiary accusations at the coal industry on "Morning Joe" today in a segment that devolved into a nearly 10-minute advertisement for his new anti-coal documentary.

The left-wing environmental activist juxtaposed fossil "fuels from Hell" with "patriotic fuels from Heaven," though neither co-host Joe Scarborough nor Mika Brzezinski pushed back.

"Right now the rules that govern the American energy system were written and devised by the incumbents, by the carbon cronies, to reward the dirtiest, filthiest, most poisonous, most toxic, most addictive, and destructive fuels from Hell rather than the cheap, clean, green, abundant, wholesome, and patriotic fuels from Heaven," blathered Kennedy.

[Video embedded after the page break.]

Steve Israel had his talking points, and he was sticking to them. Republicans want to "end Medicare" in order to give tax cuts to the big oil companies. On Morning, Joe Scarborough repeatedly called out Israel, head of the Dem congressional campaign committee, on his demagoguery. Not that it stopped the Dem congressman from New York from repeating his rap.

For good measure, Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett appeared later and claimed that Medicare could be maintained without cutting a penny of benefits to seniors merely by finding various "efficiencies" in the program. Waste, fraud and abuse ride again!

View video after the jump.

As first picked up by NewsBusters from Brian Maloney's Radio Equalizer blog, MSNBC anchor Ed Schultz on Tuesday demeaned conservative radio host Laura Ingraham as a "right-wing slut," prompting his indefinite suspension on Wednesday.

But on "Morning Joe" today, the panelists demonstrated their devotion to equal treatment of women in the workplace with a special, "Knowing Your Worth," which Ingraham's staff noted completely ignored Schultz's crass insults.

Jessica Alba received an overwhelmingly positive reception on "Morning Joe" today while lobbying for legislation that would give the EPA broad-sweeping powers to regulate chemicals in consumer products.

Despite her cheerful demeanor, the Hollywood starlet made a spate of damning claims against the chemical industry that she failed to substantiate, while the MSNBC panel nodded in approval.

[Video embedded after the page break.]

Joe Scarborough made a puzzling comment today that, to put it generously, could use some clarification.

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Scarborough argued that Rep. Paul Ryan's 2012 budget plan will fail because "fundamentally changing" Medicare is too extreme.

But in a previous show, the morning host sang a remarkably different tune.

On the May 23 edition of "Morning Joe," Joe Scarborough accused Mitch Daniels of having "resentment" for his wife and derided the Indiana governor as "unseemly."

Moments earlier, the MSNBC host and his panel heaped mounds of praise on the "civil" Jon Huntsman, hailing him as the "'Morning Joe' candidate" whose civility deserved to be admired, before lobbing insults at Daniels.

[Video embedded after the page break.]

"He's a Morning Joe candidate." That could be the kiss of death among Republican primary voters, but Mark Halperin meant it as a compliment.  Today's Morning Joe panel was unanimous in its praise for Huntsman's performance in New Hampshire over the weekend.

More from Mark Halperin:

"As impressive as any couple I've seen . . . I was pretty blown away by how effective he was . . . more [comfortable in his skin] than Barack Obama and George Bush, and they for me in my career have been the gold standard . . . One of the liberal trackers said 'I really like this guy.  I'd cross over.'"

View video after the jump.

"Meet the Press" host David Gregory said Friday there are "prominent views within Israel" that support President Obama's controversial Mideast peace ideas expressed the day before.

When asked by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, "What major Israeli public figures have come out supporting the President's speech," Gregory couldn't name one (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters has been reporting, so-called "news" organizations have been routinely calling leading Republican figures racists for having the nerve to criticize the policies of President Obama.

On Monday, conservative talk radio host Mark Levin specifically called out NBC News not only for its on-air talent being "blindingly white," but also for "promoting racial division in this country" (embedded audio follows with transcript and commentary):

Newt Gingrich came in for some serious criticism on today's Morning Joe.  

Reacting to footage of Newt on Meet the Press alluding to Paul Ryan's health care proposal as "radical," Joe Scarborough accused Gingrich of being in "the mushy middle." Pat Buchanan came with the unkindest cut of all, saying Gingrich is "out on the left wing of the Republican party."

View video after the jump.

Mike Barnicle has greeted Newt Gingrich's announcement of his presidential candidacy with a sneer, calling the former Speaker of the House "a delusional loser."  The former Kennedy-clan retainer and Boston Globe columnist seasoned his sneer with snobbery, launching an ignorant attack on Gingrich's educational background.

Barnicle spewed his bile on today's Morning Joe.

View video after the jump.

Left-wing Columbia Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a frequent Morning Joe guest, has accused US special operations forces of committing "high-tech murder on a large scale" for their targeted campaign of killing or capturing Al Qaeda Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

Sachs made his contemptible accusation on today's Morning Joe in the course of a discussion of the PBS Frontline documentary "Kill/Capture" on the JSOC operations.  Stephen Grey, a producer of the documentary, was a guest.

View video after the jump.

President Barack Obama's Ground Zero visit yesterday was "pitch perfect," according to former Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, despite reports that the commander-in-chief was rude and dismissive toward at least one American who lost a family member on Sept. 11, 2001.

On the May 6 edition of "Morning Joe," MSNBC anchor Willie Geist asked Meacham to characterize the significance of Obama's visit to the site where more than 3,000 people were slaughtered in an attack planned by deceased al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"I thought it was pitch perfect in the sense of it was not about him," intoned Meacham, who now occasionally writes for Time magazine. "It was not the grand speech; it was him doing a kind of human interaction with the folks."