On Friday’s Morning Joe, political analyst Mark Halperin was surprisingly honest about the liberal bias in the media as he assured that President Trump would receive positive press coverage as long as he kept striking deals with Democrats. “This will get good coverage if he works with Democrats for as far as the eye can see. It will produce more liberal policies, which a lot of people in the media like,” Halperin proclaimed.
He laughably argued that “The establishment media likes bipartisanship over ideology” and predicted: “He will get good coverage the more he works with them.” Halperin claimed that liberal reporters like him were “sick of covering failure” during the Trump administration and liked to see him “getting stuff done” – as long as it was on Democratic Party terms of course.
“So I think that through Halloween, if the President works with Democrats, and maybe beyond, he can get positive coverage and he’ll respond positively to that,” the pundit concluded.
Minutes later, co-host Joe Scarborough confirmed Halperin’s analysis by cheering Trump’s debt ceiling deal with Democrats: “...what happened yesterday, ideology aside, is that Washington worked for the first time in a very long time....And the President likes good coverage, well, okay, whether he likes good coverage or not, more importantly, Americans like seeing their government work.”
Later on the show, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei described how thrilled the President was with the media coverage of him caving to Democrats:
What’s interesting is Trump was on cloud nine yesterday. He was so jazzed that he watched your show, watched others, saw people praising him. He got on the phone with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, was all jacked up and bragging about the coverage. Nancy Pelosi asked him to tweet something positive about DACA and he does it. I mean, it’s like a movie. And the guy is just loving the last 24 hours.
The biased conversation was brought to viewers by Hewlett Packard, Golden Corral, and Oral-B.
Here are excerpts of the September 8 panel discussion:
6:12 AM ET
(...)
MARK HALPERIN: Let’s talk about this idea about the President liking the coverage. One thing we know about the President, he likes good coverage.
JOHN HEILEMANN: Who doesn’t?
HALPERIN: This will get good coverage if he works with Democrats for as far as the eye can see. It will produce more liberal policies, which a lot of people in the media like. It produces a change in the storyline, which a lot of people like. The establishment media likes bipartisanship over ideology. It will – it could go on for a good long time. He will get good coverage the more he works with them. And the press – while the press likes covering failure, we’re kind of sick of covering failure, getting stuff done. So I think that through Halloween, if the President works with Democrats, and maybe beyond, he can get positive coverage and he’ll respond positively to that. And Republicans are gonna have to figure out how to deal with that because they can’t stop him from working with the Democrats, it’s easy for him now to work with them.
(...)
6:15 AM ET
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And John Heilemann, Mark was talking about how the President likes good coverage and almost making getting things done sound dirty. When actually, what happened yesterday, ideology aside, is that Washington worked for the first time in a very long time. Republican leaders and Democratic leaders came together on a topic that many people said was going to be difficult to solve, they got in the same room and they solved it. And the President likes good coverage, well, okay, whether he likes good coverage or not, more importantly, Americans like seeing their government work. I understand why conservatives are upset, but yes, this probably will happen again because nothing succeeds like success.
(...)
8:38 AM ET
SCARBOROUGH: So, Jim VandeHei, everybody’s been talking about how they’ve wanted bipartisanship for the past, oh, I don’t know, 200 years. Is it a good thing? Do you think that many opinion writers believe it is a good thing that there’s a bipartisan deal struck on hurricane relief and also increasing the debt ceiling?
JIM VANDEHEI: Listen, there is no doubt that to get that out of the way – Congress was going to fund – get the funding done for the hurricane victims and you gotta get rid of this debt limit because it just rattles the markets and always gets fixed anyways. What’s interesting is Trump was on cloud nine yesterday. He was so jazzed that he watched your show, watched others, saw people praising him. He got on the phone with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, was all jacked up and bragging about the coverage. Nancy Pelosi asked him to tweet something positive about DACA and he does it. I mean, it’s like a movie. And the guy is just loving the last 24 hours. So is this a long-term strategy? I'm with you, Eugene [Robinson], who the hell knows? But certainly he likes the instant gratification of the results that he’s getting.
(...)
