Thursday on Morning Joe, actor and MSNBC contributor Donny Deutsch had a lot to say about the media and their relationship with Donald Trump. According to Deutsch, the “higher educated, left leaning” media needed Donald Trump all along…until they didn’t. Co-host Mika Brzezinski pointed out that although they had Trump on their show regularly for months during the primaries, viewers were “getting really tired of him” and their ratings “flat lined.”
The irony behind Brzezinski’s comments is significant. While she insisted that “we didn’t need him,” day in and day out the show devotes countless segments to berating Donald Trump. It is clear Brzezinski also thinks her viewers are of a very high caliber, or as she put it, “a certain kind of viewer.” That must because the liberal media is “higher educated.”
BRZEZINSKI: …You know, we were looking at it when we were being accused of being supporters when we were having him on the show and asking him really tough questions every step of the way and also saying what was true is that he had the potential to win the Republican nomination. I noticed when he called in and Joe and I, we looked at the ratings, the ratings weren't that great when he called in. In fact, they flat lined. People were sort of like getting really tired of hearing him drone on and about nothing and saying ridiculous things about Vladimir Putin and they kind of couldn't follow, at least our viewers. Or maybe they were even turned off by it. But we have a certain kind of viewer. But we didn't get, like, we didn't need him.
Just as the media used Trump to their advantage when it was “cool” to do so during the primaries, so too are they using him now to capitalize on his gaffes, which have become a daily routine. But, fear not, the media is only a “little left leaning,” according to Donny Deutsch.
DEUTSCH: But the second sexiest story in the media is when you're taking somebody up, and the first sexiest story is when you're taking them down. And that’s what’s also happening in the media. And I think also because the media, by nature, I think, does lean a little left and it is a higher educated—
BRZEZINSKI: Sure.
DEUTSCH: —more liberal, I think at some--they were going along for the ride because they had to but then something else is kicking in now and I think all of that is what is happening and what I call backing him into a media corner.
Sounds like Deutsch believes "higher educated" is synonymous to "liberal." One thing he said was certainly true: the mainstream media does not lead by example, they “go along for the ride because they ha[ve] to.”
Deutsch’s comments seem to contradict what he said on Monday. Appearing on MSNBC’s With All Due Respect, he mocked claims of liberal media bias from the Trump campaign: “What they're saying is so ignorant and stupid, stupid for the candidate and stupid actually factually.”
View Full Transcript Here:
08-11-16 MSNBC Morning Joe
07:37:39 AM – 07:39:34 AMDONNY DEUTSCH: He's backed himself in a media corner, also. We all know during the primaries and early on in the general election, he was everywhere. Basically he's just on Fox now because it's unsafe for him to go anywhere else. He won’t—
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: He went to CNBC.
WILLIE GEIST: He was on CNBC.
BRZEZINSKI: He was on CNBC.
DEUTSCH: Okay but I’m just I'm saying in general, though, I think we did a study that 97% of the impressions over the last two months were Fox because he's boxed himself in. He is afraid to go most places now because this is where he is going to be at. So he's got his rallies, but his media, if you will, band width is much smaller. And, also, the media all along needed Donald Trump. Whether they liked him or not, you couldn't be iced out because your ratings would go down.
HAROLD FORD JR.: That’s true.
DEUTSCH: What a lot of the media has realized now the a realized now is, you know what, they'll do the numbers by bashing him. They actually don’t need him. And I think there is a conscious that has arisen so his kind of whole media game is much more boxed in.
BRZEZINSKI: Well I don’t know you know we were looking at it when we were being accused of being supporters when we were having him on the show and asking him really tough questions every step of the way and also saying what was true is that he had the potential to win the Republican nomination. I noticed when he called in and Joe and I, we looked at the ratings, the ratings weren't that great when he called in. In fact, they flat lined. People were sort of like getting really tired of hearing him drone on and about nothing and saying ridiculous things about Vladimir Putin and they kind of couldn't follow, at least our viewers. Or maybe they were even turned off by it. But we have a certain kind of viewer. But we didn't get, like, we didn't need him.
DEUTSCH: But the second sexiest story in the media is when you're taking somebody up, and the first sexiest story is when you're taking them down. And that’s what’s also happening in the media. And I think also because the media, by nature, I think, does lean a little left and it is a higher educated—
BRZEZINSKI: Sure.
DEUTSCH: —more liberal, I think at some--they were going along for the ride because they had to but then something else is kicking in now and I think all of that is what is happening and what I call backing him into a media corner.
