At a moment when even some on the left are criticizing the liberal media's wildly overheated coverage of the Mueller probe and "Russia-gate," one angry voice is out there, bitterly defending the MSM's excesses.
His name is Joe Scarborough, and he opened today's Morning Joe with an epic rant in defense of the liberal media, and in denunciation of its critics.
The essence of Scarborough's tirade was that the MSM had no choice but to cover the story the way that it did, given the "lies," admitted and alleged, by a variety of Trump associates regarding contacts with Russians.
A visibly agitated Scarborough spit venom at those who have dared to criticize the MSM for its coverage.
"Just because you're sucking up to Donald Trump and just because power is all that matters to you, and just because you will justify everything that man does and just because you are corrupt, just because you're not a journalist, just because you have sold your soul to a personality, don't knock reporters at the New York Times or the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal or the broadcast networks for doing their job right."
Scarborough chooses to ignore the media's fundamental failure in its Russia-gate coverage. Yes, it's appropriate to report inconsistencies, prevarications, lies if you will, by Trump associates. The key word being "report." It's something entirely different for supposedly objective journalists to spin wild theories about Trump being a Russian agent, about the imminent demise of American democracy, about the 2016 election having been "stolen" from Hillary Clinton.
Scarborough did say one thing that was undoubtedly true. The Mueller report's finding of no collusion will not stop the shameless liberal media from continuing its wild attacks on President Trump. Scarborough vowed: "damn the torpedos, full steam ahead," and yes, we can expect countless more anti-Trump torpedoes from the MSM between now and the 2020 election.
Here's the transcript of Scarborough's rant.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
3/26/19
6:05 am EDTJOE SCARBOROUGH: So I just pose this question to you. I'd pose this question to everyone watching, either now or later on the internet: what would you have had the media do over the past two years when Donald Trump lied throughout the 2016 campaign about his contacts with Russia? Now why would Donald Trump lie about Russia? Why would the man who was coming in to have the most powerful foreign policy position, the national security adviser, General Flynn, why did he lie to the FBI in December about his contacts with Czechoslovakians? Swedes? No, no, no: with Russians! And that wasn't even a Russian accent!
Why in January would Mike Pence go on a Sunday show, and lie and say, actually, nobody in the Trump campaign ever talked to any Russians during the campaign? Why would he do that when telling the truth would have been so much easier? Why would the Attorney General of the United States before becoming Attorney General lie to members of his own Senate about having contacts with the Russians.
And let me just stop you right here and ask you a question: what should the media have done when everybody it seems that was close to the president, everybody that I was told were the president's closest advisers in 2016, everybody who I was told flew on the plane with Trump all across America, what was the press to report on when all of these lies were tumbling out of the mouths of Trump aides?
Should we have reported on horse farms in Kentucky or done investigations into how maybe eating tree bark would lower our cholesterol? What would you have had us do? I don't just say this to people on the right who have found common cause with conspiracy theorists over Seth Rich or Sandy Hook. I'm saying this to established journalists who are ringing their hands and saying this is worse than WMD. Is it really? Is that why George Papadopoulos lied to the FBI? Got sent to jail. Is that why the national security adviser lied?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Paul Manafort.
SCARBOROUGH: His campaign manager not only got caught lying to the FBI but after he was in talking to the FBI, got caught lying again. Donald Trump's second in command, behind Paul Manafort, got caught lying to the FBI, and then when he was delivering his proffer, he got caught lying to the FBI. The man that Donald Trump knew longer than anybody else in politics, you see him on the lower right-hand corner [Roger Stone], yeah, you know, the guy with the Nixon tattoo on his back, get caught lying to the FBI about what? Bowling? Huh? The best places to get sangria in San Diego? No! The Russians. They lied about the Russians nonstop for two years.
Oh, let's see, maybe the press, maybe the New York Times, maybe the Washington Post, maybe the Wall Street Journal, maybe they should have just ignored the fact that Don Jr. met with a bunch of Russians who said they were going to give him info, dirt on Hillary. He said, I love it. Not: wait a second, I better contact the FBI because that's what everybody else would have done. He said, I love it. Maybe they should just ignore the fact that the president called everybody around on Air Force One and concocted a lie, said let's say it's about adoptions.
No, I just ask: what was the media supposed to do at that point, shrug it off? You know the answer, and just because you're sucking up to Donald Trump and just because power is all that matters to you, and just because you will justify everything that man does and just because you are corrupt, just because you're not a journalist, just because you have sold your soul to a personality, don't knock reporters at the New York Times or the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal or the broadcast networks for doing their job right!
MIKA: Which they'll continue to do.
SCARBOROUGH: Which they will continue to do. So you can keep lying, you can keep saying your misogynistic statements, you can keep saying that hispanics are breeders, or they bring diseases to America. You can keep bringing up theories like the Seth Rich theory--that was great for his family, wasn't it? Way to go. You're lecturing the Washington Post and the New York Times on journalism?
And by the way, if you write for these papers, and there's some people I respect that write for these papers that have actually written columns condemning the media's behavior: be ashamed of yourself. Be ashamed of yourself. Were there bad actors, yeah, and guess what, we know who they are. We won't have them back on our show. But there are bad actors, guess what? I got bad news: there are bad actors in your house.
And a lot of you who were bitching and moaning last night and being morally self-righteous: you are the bad actor. So save your breath, all right? We're not going to divert our eyes. This president lies more than any other president in the United States. He has lied about universal health care, he promised he'd give it. He didn't give it! He lied about the wall, he said Mexico was going to pay for it. The Mexicans wouldn't pay for it! Hell, the Republicans wouldn't even pay for it when they owned Washington! We're going to keep talking about that. Tax cuts, he said he was going to help the working man, then he went down to Mar-a-Lago that night, and said to Robert Kraft, I don't know if Jeffrey Epstein was down there, but whoever the hell was around his table and said, I just made you all a lot of money today.No, we're not going to divert our eyes! Damn the torpedos, full steam ahead, follow the story where it leads us.
