Joe Scarborough went on a screaming anti-Zuckerberg rant on Wednesday's Morning Joe. The gist, per Scarborough, was that Zuckerberg is insufficiently censoring far-right groups and foreign manipulators on Facebook -- although Scarborough pointedly declined to mention Facebook by name, referring to it only as "Zuckerberg's website".
Joe started out calmly, but got increasingly agitated, and ultimately pegged the sound system several times [as at 1:25, 3:50, and 4:35 in the clip]. And the obsessed Scarborough mentioned Zuckerberg by name at least 18 times during the segment.
Along with repeatedly accusing Zuckerberg of greed, Scarborough similarly blasted Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg by name several times. If you didn't know it was Joe, you might have thought it was an anti-Semitic crank denouncing these two "Bergs" for their "billions."
Early on, Scarborough gave away the game as to why he was so upset, alluding to Zuckerberg permitting the Lori Klausitis allegations on Facebook. And Joe made screaming demands that Congress do something to hold these billionaires "liable." From there, he went on to lecture dramatically that soldiers scaled the cliffs of Normandy and fought Islamic terrorists to protect democracy, and Zuckerberg is undermining it.
One thing that Joe conveniently omitted from his long rant: Zuckerberg's announcement of yesterday that Facebook will "clamp down" on election interference, and will set up a "Voting Information Center" with information on how to register and vote. Facebook will also offer an option to turn off all political ads.
Poor Joe seems to be losing it. Last month, Scarborough, in full TDS mode, repeatedly yelled at the camera. And back in April, his anguished screams got so bad that his concerned wife, Mika Brzezinski, asked Joe if he was okay, and suggested he might want to take a break. Sad.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
6/17/20
6:45 am EDT
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I’ve seen a lot of insincere statements put out. I’ve got to say, Mark Zuckerberg talking about how deeply saddened he was by the things that he’s seen the president say —
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: No, he’s not.
SCARBOROUGH: Is near the top of it, considering that he makes billions of dollars off of spreading lies and letting people spread lies, hateful lies that, well, I can tell you in my case, is torturing the lives of a family who lost their daughter and their wife 19 years ago. But you can say the same thing about a 75-year-old man who’s fighting for his life, has a cracked skull, can’t walk —
MIKA: Buffalo, New York.
SCARBOROUGH: And it’s spread all over Mark Zuckerberg’s site that he may be Antifa . . . They hatched their conspiracy theory by giving Mark Zuckerberg money, by going on Facebook . . . Mark Zuckerberg is promoting the extremism, because Mark Zuckerberg is actually — his site, the Zuckerberg site, has actually set up! Set up! Like, ad promotions that actually push people towards extremist sites that kill federal officers! And Mark Zuckerberg becomes a billionaire! . . . Mark Zuckerberg’s site, Sheryl Sandberg’s site.
They scaled the cliffs of Normandy to protect American democracy. They have fought across the world against Islamic terrorism to protect American democracy. They have been fighting for 240 years to protect American democracy. And when Sheryl Sandberg found out that Mark Zuckerberg’s website was being used by foreign powers to interfere in the 2016 election, what did she do? She got angry at the Mark Zuckerberg employee that came to her and came to the board and warned them that American democracy was at risk.
Mark Zuckerberg said he doesn’t care that people use his site to lie . . . For Mark Zuckerberg to say he’s sad because he’s making billions of dollars off of lies being spread, off of hate groups germinating on Zuckerberg’s website and Sandberg’s website. It is so disingenuous. And if Congress doesn’t do something to make Mark Zuckerberg liable and to make Mark Zuckerberg’s website liable for the hatred and the lies and the libel that is being spread on his website, then American democracy will remain at risk.
Because Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg have proven they are interested in one thing! More than truth, more than the protection of 75-year-old men who were brutalized in a march for black justice, more than the protection of American democracy. Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are only interested in protecting their billions.
And so, when you find that a federal officer is mowed down, is killed by a right-wing extremist group! And it is Mark Zuckerberg whose platform is promoting that group by pushing people to that group? Then his words are meaningless!
He is lying to you. He is lying to himself. He is lying to the American people! And Congress and the next president of the United States need to stand up to the billions and billions of dollars in Silicon Valley and hold these people, hold these billionaires, accountable for their lies and for their undermining of American democracy! We’ll be right back.
