MSNBC’s daily dumpster fire of commentary, also known as Morning Joe, continued unchallenged Monday, when co-host Mika Brzezinski brought on race-baiting Reverend Al Sharpton to discuss one of Joe Scarborough’s favorite targets, Facebook.
Brzezinski started off by asking about Sharpton’s latest boycott campaign against Facebook advertising:
And a question we raised on this show last week about Facebook. Are advertisers really going to continue to be okay with this as our democracy is impacted so greatly by hate speech flourishing on their sites? Reverend Al you were talking a lot yesterday on your show about the Facebook advertising boycott. There are multiple advertisers saying, no way. This has to stop. We don't know if this is the turning point for President Trump but could it be the turning point for social media?
Scarborough’s social media rants are obsessively targeted at Facebook. What is his deal? Twitter and other social media platforms get some criticism from Scarborough, but Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg are often the main focus of his hysterical rants. Perhaps viewers should question whether or not Scarborough's recent constant personal attacks on Zuckerberg and Facebook's chief operating officer Cheryl Sandberg start to border on anti-Semitism, especially as Zuckerberg has become publicly more religious in recent months.
Morning Joe’s choice of guest was also an example of this problematic targeting of Zuckerberg -- Sharpton -- who had this to say on Monday’s segment:
Derek Johnson, the President of the NAACP and I and other civil rights leaders had a meeting in Mark Zuckerberg's house with him around voting stuff and around these similar types of issues and tried to make him understand what it's doing. We could not get to his head so we will get to his pocket to make him understand you can do it, but you will not be making a profit in doing it. Not off of us.
Why on earth is Sharpton still being brought on this show to talk about race relations, or in this case, hate speech? Remember, this is the man responsible for the Crown Heights Riots, the controversy surrounding Freddy’s Fashion Mart, and the Tawana Brawley fake rape accusation. And MSNBC wants to bring him on to talk about hate speech? Who has made remarks like “blood sucking Jews” and “Jew bastards” and “white interlopers”? Scarborough’s choice of guest certainly is not helping him look less anti-Semitic when it comes to criticizing Facebook.
Frankly, the amount of hateful rhetoric that MSNBC continues to promote on its morning and primetime shows is abhorrent. Continually bring on offensive guests like Sharpton, continually pushing old and tired conspiracy theories accusing President Trump of being in bed with the Russians and all the rest. When will MSNBC get it together and clean up it's own disgraceful act?
Perhaps you should contact Humira and ask them if they approve of this irresponsible behavior.
Read the full transcript below. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
6-29-20
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: He tweets it to 83 million followers, this racism and hate speech flourishes on places like Twitter and Facebook. And a question we raised on this show last week about Facebook. Are advertisers really going to continue to be okay with this as our democracy is impacted so greatly by hate speech flourishing on their sites? Reverend Al you were talking a lot yesterday on your show about the Facebook advertising boycott. There are multiple advertisers saying, no way. This has to stop. We don't know if this is the turning point for President Trump but could it be the turning point for social media?
AL SHARPTON: I think it will be a turning point for social media. This boycott initiated by the NAACP, ADL, and others that we've all joined in is to say you cannot take our consumer dollars and finance hate speech. Even though you can argue you have a first amendment right to free speech we have the right to say you will not do it with our dollars and our sponsorship. So if you want us to consume your product, you cannot take the profits from our pockets and invest in giving someone a platform to spread bigotry and racism. It's just that simple they have the right to post what they want and we have the right to withdraw dollars and you will go broke and bankrupt for investing our dollars in something blatantly that is bigotted that you will not identify, and that message is finally getting acrossed. Derek Johnson, the President of the NAACP and I and other civil rights leaders had a meeting in Mark Zuckerberg's house with him around voting stuff and around these similar types of issues and tried to make him understand what it's doing. We could not get to his head so we will get to his pocket to make him understand you can do it, but you will not be making a profit in doing it. Not off of us.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Again, this is the free market, Mika, there are a lot of right wingers, not conservatives, there are right wingers that are talking about going in and controlling content on Facebook. Which, again, it's -- there's nothing conservative about at. All the rev is saying, all I'm saying, is let free market forces decide this.
It's Mark Zuckerberg and Cheryl Sandberg's platform, they have decided they're going to turn it over to white supremacists, they're going to allow PizzaGate to continue to flourish on there. They decided they're going to turn it over and promote boogaloo boys. They decided they're going to turn it over to foreign countries that interfere in American democracy. They decide when somebody tells the board that they have turned it over, their website over to the Russians that Cheryl Sandberg is going to scream and yell and get angry because somebody told the truth about Russian infestation that they still were having problems with six months a year later. I mean, you know, they can do that if they want. If Mark Zuckerberg wants to let white supremacists thrive, that's his business. But nobody has to advertise on it. That's called the free market. And one of these days, Congress is going to realize that we stepped over the line in 1996 when we granted them immunity through Section 230. Because nobody saw this coming. That you would have a company this powerful and a guy worth $85 billion, $85 billion, wanting to get even richer because he wouldn't tamp down on hate speech. Wanted to make more than $85 billion because he wanted to let white supremacists on his website. Wanted to get even richer because he wanted PizzaGate conspiracies to still thrive on his websites. As if shooting up that joint once wasn't enough for Mark Zuckerberg. They have no controls. No meaningful controls at all.
And now, too little too late. Too little too late. What they're trying to do is nothing. If you're a racist, if you're a bigot. If you're -- if you hate black people, if you hate Asian people, if you hate Jews -- Where do you go? If you're a foreign country, if you're in China, Iran, Russia, if you consider yourself an enemy of America and you want to undermine American elections in 2020, where do you go? That guy. He's holding up his hand, come to me. I'll take your money. I'm worth 85 Billing but I need more money. I'll take your money. That's where you go. And Facebook will not do the right thing. They refuse to. So, Congress, you need to strip them of their 230 immunity and go back and rewrite the bill. Because Americans have the right to sue Facebook. Americans should have the right to sue Twitter. Americans should have the right to sue anyone who causes harm in their life. That's called the free market. Enough with this immunity for billionaires. It's outrageous and it needs to end. Reverend Al, I want to thank you, Derek Johnson of the naacp, Mr. Greenblatt with ADL on your show last night, you're fighting the good fight. Thank you.
SHARTPON: I think it's important to do it and do it together, to show this is about all of us, blacks, Jews, Latinos, everyone, saying particularly to advertisers you cannot mainstream hate. To have your brand next to this is to give legitimacy to that and you can't do it with our dollars. It's free market driven and we're saying to the Congress you have to deal with 230. We must say what is not acceptable in this country. We don't want to silence you, but we're not going to condone you, mainstream you and endorse you that this is proper behavior.
SCARBOROUGH: 100%. Reverend Al, thank you so much.
