Salon.com > Joe Scarborough http://www.salon.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:15:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Hack List No. 8: MSNBC http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/hack_list_no_8_msnbc/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/hack_list_no_8_msnbc/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:48:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13149142 This year, my annual list of the worst of political media highlights not just individuals, but the institutions that enable those individuals. The 2012 Hack List will be counting down the 10 media outlets that are hurting America over the next two days -- stay tuned! (Previous Hack List entries here, here and here.)

MSNBC, we're told all the time, is the liberal Fox News. That's reductive and stupid. It isn't. MSNBC isn't the liberal Fox News for two very important reasons: It usually demonstrates a greater respect for the truth than Fox News, and it's not as good as Fox News. It's not as good at being liberal as Fox is at being conservative. Fox is rigidly ideologically consistent, with its "straight news" programs echoing the same talking points and pushing the same slanted stories as its opinion shows. While there's no doubt that MSNBC is more unapologetically liberal than it used to be, it's still all over the place, with a conservative anchoring its flagship morning show, objective Beltway "straight news" proponents like Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell dominating in the daytime, and weekends full of ... prison shows. But more important, it's not as good as Fox at being compelling TV, which is why millions more people watch Fox every day. (There are demographic reasons for Fox's advantage, too, but it's still a huge number.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/hack_list_no_8_msnbc/feed/ 72 Media elites: Cut Medicare! http://www.salon.com/2012/11/27/why_the_debt_debate_will_never_ever_get_anywhere/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/27/why_the_debt_debate_will_never_ever_get_anywhere/#comments Tue, 27 Nov 2012 19:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13108368 With various Republicans making headlines recently for suddenly, shockingly appearing open to considering small tax hikes on wealthy people, it can seem sometimes that some fundamental shift has just transpired in the national political conversation surrounding the national debt and government spending. I assure you, that is not remotely the case.

Joe Scarborough, America's blogger, made a very good point in his Politico blog, the other day: While Barack Obama did promise to raise taxes on rich people, and then he won the election, Republicans should continue refusing to raise taxes on rich people because they also won elections.

It may be the case that millions more Americans voted for Barack Obama than Mitt Romney. It may also be true that Americans voted for a significantly more liberal (and still Democratically controlled) Senate. And some crazy people have been pointing out that more people nationwide voted for Democrats to represent them in the House than for Republicans. And, sure, the thing Obama has been promising to do since 2008 -- when he also won the election by lots of votes -- is raise taxes on rich people. But Americans will totally understand if Republicans refuse to do this thing everyone wants to do.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/27/why_the_debt_debate_will_never_ever_get_anywhere/feed/ 18 Must-see morning clip http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/joe_scarborough_why_are_liberals_still_so_angry_on_the_twitter/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/joe_scarborough_why_are_liberals_still_so_angry_on_the_twitter/#comments Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:20:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13107393 "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough summoned his inner John McCain this morning when he asked, "Why are liberals still so angry on the Twitter?"  He added:

They are angry about everything. Like they won. They don't understand like when conservatives win, we go hunting. and drink beer. And know we're going to control at the same time, the country for four years. The liberals on the Twitter, on my machine, are so angry. And it doesn't bother me. I feel sorry for them.

When asked, "What did these people do before the Twitter?" Scarborough joked, "They kicked their dogs."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/joe_scarborough_why_are_liberals_still_so_angry_on_the_twitter/feed/ 5 Joe Scarborough to Nate Silver: “I’m sorry” http://www.salon.com/2012/11/21/joe_scarborough_to_nate_silver_im_sorry/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/21/joe_scarborough_to_nate_silver_im_sorry/#comments Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:13:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13104583

Joe Scarborough -- who called the 2012 election a "dead heat" on Twitter and mocked anyone who would predict how it would turn out -- has apologized to the man who correctly called every state for the second presidential race in a row.

In a column on Politico this morning, the "Morning Joe" co-host told Nate Silver he was sorry for doubting the methodology Silver uses on his fivethirtyeight blog.

"I do need to tell Nate I’m sorry for leaning in too hard and lumping him with pollsters whose methodology is as rigorous as the Simpsons’ strip mall physician, Dr. Nick. For those sins (and a multitude of others that I’m sure I don’t even know about), I am sorry," Scarborough wrote.

He added:

Politics is a messy sport. And just as ball players who drink beer and eat fried chicken in dugouts across America can screw up the smartest sabermatrician’s forecast, Nate Silver’s formula is sure to let his fervent admirers down from time to time. But judging from what I saw of him this morning, Nate is a grounded guy who admits as much in his book. I was too tough on him and there’s a 84.398264% chance I will be less dismissive of his good work in the future.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/21/joe_scarborough_to_nate_silver_im_sorry/feed/ 31 Hey, hacks: Nate Silver’s not taking your job http://www.salon.com/2012/11/02/dont_be_scared_of_number_wizard_nate_silver_pundits/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/02/dont_be_scared_of_number_wizard_nate_silver_pundits/#comments Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13060255 In terms of issues dividing the nation as we approach the long-overdue end of this endless campaign season, the raging War on Nate Silver is not as big a deal as, say, the war on poor people and minorities having their votes counted, or the fact that thousands of people on the Eastern seaboard have no power or, in far too many places, food. But it is one of the more entertaining diversions of the feverish week before Election Day. In short: Conservatives are outraged at Silver for "predicting" an Obama victory, and nonpartisan (but fiercely ideological) political press elites are all chuckling at his curious notion that fancy math can be used to determine what is most likely to happen in an election.

Nate Silver does not actually need his army of defenders. He is a wildly successful author and New York Times contributor with a huge audience, and he is smart and witty enough to fight his own battles. I also realize that any defense of Silver plays into the savvy politico notion that liberals are irrationally "clinging" to his projections because they are terrified of uncertainty and Mitt Romney's ineffable momentum.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/02/dont_be_scared_of_number_wizard_nate_silver_pundits/feed/ 134 Must-see morning clip: Obama talks debt cuts on “Morning Joe” http://www.salon.com/2012/10/29/must_see_morning_clip_obama_talks_debt_cuts_on_morning_joe/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/29/must_see_morning_clip_obama_talks_debt_cuts_on_morning_joe/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:08:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13055884 "Morning Joe"'s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski interviewed President Barack Obama during a recent New Hampshire campaign stop for a segment which aired Monday. The hosts lightly grilled the president over the Libya embassy attack and gave him the opportunity to talk about his immediate plans should he win a second term.

Obama told the hosts that "our first order of business is going to be to get our deficits and debt under control,” for which he said the Bush-era tax cuts' expiration would be a "forcing mechanism." He appealed to conservative undecided voters with talk of "steamlining" and questioning the size of government, but managed to slip in a back-handed compliment to Romney over healthcare. "I stole a whole bunch of ideas from a Massachusetts governor," he said.

Watch the full interview below, via MSNBC:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/29/must_see_morning_clip_obama_talks_debt_cuts_on_morning_joe/feed/ 9 Mika Brzezinski’s erotic dance http://www.salon.com/2012/09/17/mika_brzezinskis_erotic_dance/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/17/mika_brzezinskis_erotic_dance/#comments Mon, 17 Sep 2012 20:54:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13014377 Vanity Fair’s short profile of MSNBC’s Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough ostensibly depicts them as a dynamic duo reminiscent of the great screwball comedies of the 1940s (the article references The Thin Man’s Nick and Nora). But the sassy journalist heroines popularized by Rosalind Russell and Katharine Hepburn would have balked at a photo shoot like this one—which is both reflective of current attitudes toward professional and political women and jarringly anachronistic. The notion that women exist primarily for men’s amusement (both on and off the job) seems oh so Mad Men, yet the trend toward depicting public women (especially those whose jobs place them in the realm of politics) primarily as sex objects is alive and well in the 21st century. The pornification of political culture (a process in which some women participate willingly and others have foisted upon them after their image is conscripted) has depicted political candidates (e.g., Sarah Palin and Janice Hahn) and women voters (in viral videos like this one and this one from the 2008 campaign) as strippers.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/17/mika_brzezinskis_erotic_dance/feed/ 32 Quote of the day: Scarborough’s lesson http://www.salon.com/2012/09/13/quote_of_the_day_scarboroughs_lesson/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/13/quote_of_the_day_scarboroughs_lesson/#comments Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:50:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13010703 Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," wrote an Op-Ed in Politico last night called "The Problem With Mitt," where he sums it all up:

"And the lesson is clear: If we want to win the battle of ideas in the long term, we should be willing to face the fact that Mitt Romney is likely to lose -- and should, given that he's neither a true conservative nor a courageous moderate. He's just an ambitious man. Nothing wrong with that, except when you want to be president. Great leaders combine ambition and ideas and conviction."


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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/13/quote_of_the_day_scarboroughs_lesson/feed/ 17 Morning Joe for president! http://www.salon.com/2012/09/11/morning_joe_for_president/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/11/morning_joe_for_president/#comments Tue, 11 Sep 2012 22:46:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13008651 Oh, there is some exciting news buried beneath this incredibly demeaning and depressing photograph of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski in the latest issue of Vanity Fair. Morning Joe is going to run for president, guys!

After the presidential inauguration in January, Joe (no fan of Mitt Romney’s—”I’ve been very critical”) plans on publishing a memoir that will serve—no joke—as a vehicle to test the waters for a presidential run in 2016. Take that, Mr. Romney.

I can't wait to read this! "Morning Joe: The Amazing Story of How My Second-Place Cable News Morning Show Convinced a Dozen People That I Could Make a Go at a Presidential Run."

But I have some questions about this! Will Joe Scarborough run as a Republican? Because he would not win a Republican primary anywhere. I guess Washington, D.C., has a Republican primary. He might win that one. Or will he run as a Democrat? Because he is not a Democrat and therefore would run into similar trouble.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/11/morning_joe_for_president/feed/ 14 Joe Scarborough says New York Times is “thin skinned” for correcting his nonsense http://www.salon.com/2012/06/07/joe_scarborough_says_new_york_times_is_thin_skinned_for_correcting_his_nonsense/ http://www.salon.com/2012/06/07/joe_scarborough_says_new_york_times_is_thin_skinned_for_correcting_his_nonsense/#comments Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:54:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12934322 Joe Scarborough may have been totally, utterly, completely wrong this morning, when he incorrectly argued, based solely on his own general, vague impressions, that the New York Times was treating Mitt Romney fundamentally differently than it had treated earlier Democratic candidates, but, you know, Joe Scarborough doesn't really care. He is still right in his gut.

What happened is that on the "Morning Joe" show this morning, sponsored by the awful burned coffee company, Morning Joe Scarborough angrily rambled at length about a Times story - on the front page of the Home section -- about Mitt Romney's big, tacky house, and how his neighbors hate him and he is always calling the cops on people who smoke weed on the beach. The main problem is, Romney bought a big, expensive house by the beach, and then decided to quadruple its size, and predictably his neighbors have complaints about this. (His neighbors also have complaints about how Mitt Romney wants to ban gay adoption, because many of his neighbors are gay.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/06/07/joe_scarborough_says_new_york_times_is_thin_skinned_for_correcting_his_nonsense/feed/ 39 14. Joe Scarborough http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/14_joe_scarborough/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/14_joe_scarborough/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10325771 Nothing sums up everything hatable about cable news and politics and possibly America itself better than "Morning Joe," MSNBC's daily extended advertisement for Starbucks products and Joe Scarborough's odd belief that he is funny and charming.

The former Florida congressman and possibly attorney of some kind followed up his unremarkable political career by becoming a wildly successful moderate TV talker. ("Wildly successful" in terms of monetary compensation and publicity -- his show is watched by less than half the number of people who watch Fox's daily televised morning train wreck "Fox & Friends.") Joe's supposed to be some sort of maverick because he's not a doctrinaire Republican (anymore), but what he is is a totally doctrinaire member of the moderate Beltway political establishment.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/14_joe_scarborough/feed/ 31 Joe Scarborough writes bizarre 9/11 song, for some reason http://www.salon.com/2011/09/08/scarborough_song/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/08/scarborough_song/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/09/08/scarborough_song Joe Scarborough -- the former Republican congressman who now hosts a basic cable morning show -- wrote a 9/11 song. Why? I don't know. I really don't. It's called "Reason to Believe," and it comes with an insane, Americana-drenched video that also doubles as a parody of horrible Americana-drenched country music videos.

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/08/scarborough_song/feed/ 35 Joe Scarborough wonders where American dream went http://www.salon.com/2011/08/09/scarborough_column_2/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/09/scarborough_column_2/#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/08/09/scarborough_column This is Joe Scarborough's opinion column that he wrote and that Politico paid him money for the privilege of publishing, today. It is about how the American dream is in trouble because when Joe Scarborough was a kid his parents used to drive him past rich people's houses and tell him if he worked hard he could live in a rich people house, but now the rich people houses make Joe Scarborough sad, when he drives past them (or drives into the garage of the one he himself lives in, as a rich person).

Today, I still remember those Sunday morning trips to church -- not because my parents were striking out at the inequities of a system that created such economic winners (them) and losers (us) -- but because of what my mom would say as we drove past the glorious homes of doctors, bankers and lawyers.

"You see that house, Joey?"

"Yes ma'am."

"If you work hard in school and keep fighting every day to improve yourself, you can live in a place like that when you grow up," Mom would say with admiration in her voice.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/09/scarborough_column_2/feed/ 61 Mark Halperin’s triumphant return to saying nonsense on “Morning Joe” http://www.salon.com/2011/08/03/halperin_back_2/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/03/halperin_back_2/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:45:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/08/03/halperin_back Oh, happy day! Mark Halperin was back on "Morning Joe" this morning, and MSNBC's master political analyst didn't lose a step during his month-long forced vacation. During a discussion of the economy and the national debt, Halperin masterfully said a bunch of inane, contradictory nonsense.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/03/halperin_back_2/feed/ 17 Mark Halperin’s back on MSNBC! http://www.salon.com/2011/08/02/halperin_back/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/02/halperin_back/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/08/02/halperin_back Poor Mark Halperin's summer vacation ends this week. The famous political analyst who doesn't understand politics and is wrong about everything will be back on MSNBC sometime this week, after serving his month-long suspension for calling the president a "dick," on "Morning Joe," on July 30. I had sort of hoped, a month ago, that MSNBC would just quietly not ever lift the suspension, or maybe they would all forget that MSNBC ever even employed Mark Halperin. Not to be! Soon, Mark will be back on "Morning Joe" where he will cover politics like a horse race, as covered by someone who had never seen a horse race.

Mark has surely learned his lesson, and from now on he'll be politely wrong about everything, constantly.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/02/halperin_back/feed/ 15 Joe Scarborough is so mad at “media elites” http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/scarborough_column/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/scarborough_column/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/07/12/scarborough_column Joe Scarborough has an opinion column for Politico today in which he excoriates those damned "media elites" who keep "abusing" Republicans for refusing to "cave in to President Obama's demand to raise taxes." It is just as smart and well-written a column as you are probably imagining, based on that summary:

The reviews are in, and it’s safe to say that most media elites won’t be voting for Republican candidates in 2012. Of course, most of them voted Democratic in 2010, 2008 and in every other election in modern political history. But if you’ve scanned editorial pages and news shows in recent weeks, you know that this time conservatives have really, really offended the national press corps by their refusal to raise taxes.

Memo to Joe Scarborough: You host a political morning show on a 24-hour cable news network. You are a rich former politician who lives in Washington, D.C., and you write an opinion column for POLITICO. If you're not a "media elite" than I'm not sure who is.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/scarborough_column/feed/ 51 Mark Halperin comes up with great excuse to fire Mark Halperin http://www.salon.com/2011/06/30/fire_halperin/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/30/fire_halperin/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:40:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/06/30/fire_halperin It seems wrong, to me, that in a conversation involving Joe Scarborough and Mark Halperin, a third party was somehow called a "dick," but that is what happened on "Morning Joe" today, when MSNBC "senior political analyst" Halperin said, "I thought he was a dick yesterday," to much laughter and delight all around.

Halperin has apologized, and has been "suspended indefinitely." Scarborough, of course, blamed a producer for not hitting the delay button, instead of ... blaming the person who actually said it.

According to Scarborough, there had been a mishap with the seven-second delay button -- a new executive producer apparently didn’t know how it worked. "You are supposed to know how to do the job," Scarborough said of his producer. "I would tell you what I think of him, but he doesn’t know what button to push."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/30/fire_halperin/feed/ 171 Paul Ryan dons shirtsleeves, pushes back http://www.salon.com/2011/05/25/paul_ryan_medicare_fight/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/25/paul_ryan_medicare_fight/#comments Wed, 25 May 2011 17:37:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/05/25/paul_ryan_medicare_fight Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is scrambling to gain ground in the Medicare fray. Tuesday night's special election results in New York state saw Democrat Kathy Hochul defeat GOP candidate Jane Corwin in what is being seen as a referendum on Ryan’s proposal to overhaul the entitlement plan. Today, Ryan is trying to push back in the messaging war over Medicare with a host of talk show appearances and an "explainer" on YouTube.

Time's Kate Pickert aptly called Ryan's task "Sisyphean" -- his Medicare proposal handed Democrats a powerful hot-button campaign issue and alienated members of his own party. Ryan seems to appreciate the political quagmire engulfing him:. First, he donned the uniform of a politician "getting real" for his explainer video: shirtsleeves rolled up, no jacket.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/25/paul_ryan_medicare_fight/feed/ 27 The unseriousness of “No Labels” http://www.salon.com/2010/12/14/no_labels_silliness/ http://www.salon.com/2010/12/14/no_labels_silliness/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2010/12/14/no_labels_silliness The anti-partisanship nonprofit political organization No Labels kicked off its nationwide campaign for civility yesterday with panel discussions featuring MSNBC pundit Joe Scarborough and a theme song composed and performed by R&B superstar and conflict diamond profiteer Akon. (You are invited to use the song to create a music video, if you're a complete weirdo.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/12/14/no_labels_silliness/feed/ 52 Joe Scarborough must use the power of civility to save the debt panel report http://www.salon.com/2010/12/01/deficit_commission_civility/ http://www.salon.com/2010/12/01/deficit_commission_civility/#comments Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:15:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2010/12/01/deficit_commission_civility The release of the president's fiscal commission report on how to fix the debt is like triple-Christmas for your serious moderate Beltway types, because now is the time for empty rhetoric about "political courage" and the urgent need to do something dreadfully unpopular. It is time for America to shut up and take its medicine! You can download the report -- it is literally subtitled "The Moment of Truth," because "Report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform: 2 Responsible 2 Austere" was taken -- right here. And I hope you enjoy it, because even if they can convince enough elected Republicans to accept measures to increase government revenue to get this plan out of their little commission (convincing Democrats to accept the gradual gutting of the social safety net is the easy part!), I have a hard time imagining something sensible like the elimination of the mortgage-interest deduction making it through Congress without suddenly becoming the expansion of the mortgage-interest deduction.

So this entire process has been an exercise in the expression of Seriousness, which is the only thing retired Washington graybeards are truly good at.

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