Let's stipulate up front that it might well have been an innocent mistake. Even so, until explained, it was shocking to say the least. On today's Morning Joe, as Mika Brzezinski read a David Brooks op-ed about the shooting of civilians in Afghanistan in which he wrote of "monstrous acts that shock the soul and sear the brain," suddenly the screen cut--for an extended period--to three different photos of . . . Republican Paul Ryan.
Even Joe Scarborough couldn't resist joking about the incident revealing the show's liberal bias. As it turns out, an op-ed by Ryan was up next, and the control room guys might simply have transitioned a bit too quickly--though some readers might not be willing to give Morning Joe the benefit of the doubt. View the video after the jump.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: David Brooks, talking about what happened in Afghanistan, Sergeant Robert Bales and the massacre of 16 civilians there, and this is hard to get the mind around but it's a really interesting piece [reading]:
"The inner world is a battlefield between light and dark . . . His job is to struggle daily to strengthen the good and resist the evil, policing small transgressions to prevent larger ones. If he didn’t do that, and if he was swept up in a whirlwind, then even a formerly good man is capable of monstrous acts that shock the soul and sear the brain. [Screen rolls photos of Paul Ryan.] Certainly not excusing what happened, but it can be a symbol of -- what are you, why are you [laughing]?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, because, our workers are so liberal that when you were talking about depravity, and the slaughter of entire races, they were showing, T.J. was showing pictures of Paul Ryan -- at great length!
BRZEZINSKI: They did? Did that happen?
SCARBOROUGH: T.J. Can we go? You've got to show T.J.'s face here. So T.J.
Cut to shot of control room guys giving camera the hand.
SCARBOROUGH: So, T.J., how --
MARK HALPERIN: He thought it was a description of the Ryan budget.
SCARBOROUGH: [dissolving in laughter] It just went on and on.
CONTROL ROOM GUY: It was an honest mistake.
