MSNBC

Morning Joe is still stuck on Massa. Really, it appears that Joe has some inner regret for not being one of Massa’s targets, but something they have been saying has really got me going. All morning they have been comparing Eric Massa to Mark Foley.

Massa is accused of making sexual advances towards male staffers – people over the age of 18. Yes it is wrong, but it is something that is very common in any workplace.

Mark Foley, well this guy was sending sexually implicit emails to House Paige’s. These are minors – children under the age of 18. They are sent to Capital Hill to learn from the leaders of our country, and while there they are considered wards of the House. Foley was supposed to be a mentor to these children, not a predator.

It amazes me that a talent on a major network news channel is so blinded by partisanship that he can’t make a distinction between the two. Either Joe is trying to make Massa’s case out to be much worse than it is, or he is trying to diminish the severity of what Foley did. If the reason falls in the later, then Scarborough should be really ashamed. There is no excuse for that and MSNBC should yank Scarborough for something so disgusting. This is, after all, the network that brought us Chris Hanson’s “To Catch A Predator”.

From Crawford’s blog:

For those who might be interested - and you have every reason not to be - I am no longer with MSNBC. Three months short of my current contract I sent the following to the boss, Phil Griffin:  "Phil, Just wanted to give you the heads up that my situation with MSNBC has become so unrewarding for me that I've decided to move on. -- Craig"

Short, sweet and to the point. But it doesn’t stop there. Mediaite, the site ran by former MSNBC host Dan Abrams, got even more info out of Crawford:

But he really expanded on the reasoning in the comments:

i simply could not any longer endure being a cartoon player for lefty games, just gotta move on to higher ground even if there’s no oxygen

i have never and never will forgive Chris for calling me a racist after the West Virginia primary (the last time I will ever go on air with him). Probably should have resigned then and there, but better late than never.

We asked Crawford what he was referring to regarding Chris Matthews, and to expand on why he left the network. He responded by email:

I haven’t felt like a good fit for MSNBC since the presidential campaign, and the hard turn toward point-of-view programming. No particular event brought this on, just my desire to try other outlets and have more fun. As far as Chris is concerned, on Morning Joe after the West Virginia primary he accused me of always defending Clinton and what he claimed to be her racially motivated campaigning. That’s the problem. Trying to be fair became seen as bias in the new thinking over there. But I do wish my many pals at MSNBC nothing but good things.

This appears to be that incident from Morning Joe.

This was the same point in time that I was getting fed up with MSNBC. Everyone who read this blog during 2008 knows I was behind Obama, but I couldn’t handle a news network showing so much support for a candidate like they did Obama. Sorry, but isn’t that one of the things we bitch about when it comes to FOX news? Isn’t that something the big names at MSNBC bitch about when it comes to FOX news? So what gives them the reason to engage in the very activity they so strongly denounce?

This is in large part a reason why I don’t watch MSNBC that much anymore. They no longer have any journalistic ethics or integrity. I know a lot of lefty bloggers like them because their political views lean more towards our side, but to me that causes more harm than good. MSNBC really needs a good shake up, but sadly I doubt Crawford’s leaving will spark that.

Watch this exchange yesterday between David Shuster and Andrew Breitbart:

I’ve had some Republican friends watch this and they all thought Breitbart was a complete moron. I hope we can see more of him on TV. Let’s start selling him as the new voice of the Republican Party. He can seriously become our biggest ally this year.

Chris Matthews just said that he “forgot he (Obama) was a black man for an hour tonight”. WTF does that mean?

Again – MSNBC must fire this idiot. He is way past his time.

Joe Scarborough’s tweet last week slamming Keith Olbermann has gained some attention, including from their boss:

Griffin sent a memo, obtained by the Huffington Post, to network talent and executive producers clamping down on infighting within the network.

"We have many strong personalities with differing, passionate opinions, but it is important to remember that we are all on the same team," Griffin said in the memo. "I want to reiterate my long-standing policy: We do not publicly criticize our colleagues. This kind of behavior is unprofessional and will not be tolerated."

Earlier this week, "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough blasted Keith Olbermann on Twitter for his comments that Scott Brown is "an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, tea-bagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees."

The Huffington Post has the full memo here. Mediaite, a site founded by MSNBC legal analyst Dan Abrams, adds:

We hear Scarborough apologized to Griffin for his comments. Griffin also talked to Olbermann, and Olbermann didn’t think it merited punishment. So the letter to staff (but really to Scarborough) went out instead.

We asked on Tuesday if it was “MSNBC civil war,” and it doesn’t sound like it. But with Scarborough’s private apology and Olbermann’s public acknowledgment that, yeah, maybe the Scott Brown thing was a little over the top (although because of what Stewart, not Scarborough said), it seems that both sides have dialed it back.

Scarborough has one of the worst rated shows on network news, while Keith has one of the best. I’m sure that thought was in Griffin’s mind when he sent out that memo and I wouldn’t doubt if Joe was reminded of that fact.

Chris Matthews proved again tonight that he in no way should have the job he does. First off he gets into with Alan Grayson, who is supporting the plan for the House to pass the Senate bill and then “patch” it through reconciliation. Matthews accuses Grayson of not being from the “real world” and instead being part of the Netroots.

This is some netroots plan? This is the exact plan that Nancy Pelosi was pushing Wednesday morning and even David Shuster talked about it.

Also tonight Matthews appeared oblivious to what the Supreme Court decision on campaign financing meant. He kept saying it means that corporations could give unlimited amounts of money to candidates, which is false. It means that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money for a candidate, such as in advertising.

It’s far past time for MSNBC to bring in some new talent and get rid of Matthews. His time is long past gone. The guy doesn’t even understand the basics of our system. He has also become impossible to watch. He doesn’t interview or even try to debate. Instead he just rambles on and on, hardly ever letting his guests talk. The guy is a total waste of two hours a night.

Last night Keith had one of his comments about Scott Brown, in which Keith called brown out on some of his reckless and hate filled comments and support of said comments:

Following that Joe Scarborough took to Twitter to slam Olbermann:

I got a feeling the powers to be at MSNBC won’t like the anchor of one of their lowest rated shows slamming the anchor of their top rated show.

So now the big question. How long before Keith names Joe as worst person for something?

Tonight Ed Schultz had Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY-29) and while talking about Cheney’s typical fear-mongering response, Massa decided it was time to call Cheney out. He challenges Cheney to a debate. When Ed told Massa Cheney would only do it on Fox, Massa said “so”. This was great and I wonder if Cheney will take him up on it.

For those not familar with Massa, he is a former Republican and retired Navy commander. While serving he was a top aide to General Wesley Clark when Clark was the NATO Supreme Commander. Massa was also a Republican, but left the party mainly over the issue of the Iraq War.

Massa has all the merits to debate how to fight and win this war on terror, so if Cheney feels he is so right about everything then he should have nothing to feat debating Massa. Can we get this scheduled now? I really think the American people deserve to hear a true debate about the war on terror.

Bob touched yesterday on the new meme going through the winutosphere that there is some big collustion going on between the White House and Morning Joe on MSNBC. I would just like to add that I now have evidence of this.

There you have Mika Brzezinski appearing with the President and the first lady. It’s a conspiracy I tell ya!

(h/t Mika’s tweet)

Chuck Todd tweeted about a new WSJ/MSNBC poll that is to be released later today:

That’s not good news for HCR at all.

I got a feeling tweety felt an awful lot of heat today.

Transcript via Think Progress:

MATTHEWS: Now I’ve heard too many politicians say things like, “oh that was taken out context” to explain something they wish they hadn’t said let me just say to the cadets, their parents, former cadets and everyone who cares about this country and those who defend it: I used the wrong words and worse than that I said something that is just not right and for that I deeply apologize.

As those who watch me regularly probably got right away, my point was that the military up at West Point was probably a skeptical audience for President Obama given his strong position against the war in Iraq and generally more dovish image. I was wrong to make that conclusion based on the lack of applause or apparent enthusiasm in the ranks of officers and cadets last night.

Tonight in his post speech analysis, Chris Matthews declared Obama "went to maybe the enemy camp tonight" at West Point. The reactions to this senseless comment have been very strong. The left and right have been tweeting up a storm about it and Matthews better retract that statement or face certain outrage from not only the political junkies, but also the military.

While going on about Tiger Woods again this morning, Joe Scarborough started defending Woods from the onslaught of media coverage and said it reminded him of balloon boy. What’s interesting is that this is happening on the very morning when Scarborough could only take 10 seconds to talk about the slaying of the Washington police officers by a man released from prison by Mike Huckabee. Instead of talking about this big story, Scarborough has decided to talk about the White House party crashers and Tiger Woods.

Exit question – How much longer before MSNBC cuts their losses with the major ratings bomb that is Morning Joe? All they cover is fluff pieces.

I’ve been watching Morning Joe for over an hour and they didn’t mention the killing of the Washington State cops or Huckabee’s involvement. They talked about Huckabee being the front runner in the GOP polls for 2012 and him maybe not running, but it wasn’t until guest Donnie Deutsch mentioned the case that Scarborough could bring himself to talk about it for 10 seconds. I guess they can’t be bothered to talk about one of the biggest stories in the nation now.

Adding….They are getting ready to cover the White House party crashers again, after spending about 30 minutes last hour on it. No wonder Morning Joe is the worse rated morning show on TV.

While many on the left side of the blogosphere seemed to enjoy Chuck Todd, I have never liked him. I don’t believe he is the “political insight machine” that so many credit him with and here is more proof of it:

John Cole, who caught this little tweet of <cough> brilliance from Todd, says this:

I guess he didn’t pick up on the fact that if they had failed to get the 60 votes, HCR would, for all intents and purposes, be dead in the short run, as the Republicans would filibuster. That is why this is such a big deal- they have overcome the obstructionism of the GOP, and the debate can advance.

Although in fairness to Chuck, he may be more concerned with why Obama didn’t reach out more to President McCain. Not to be too subjective, or anything.

When we see something as important as health care reform clear another hurdle then it is reason to celebrate. Todd’s just pissed because he doesn’t have some big failure to go on about. Screw the millions whose lives will be improved by this reform – Chuckles just wants something to give him more ratings and air time, and the more this babbling idiot is on TV the dumber America becomes.

It’s just another reason why my TV doesn’t turn to MSNBC as much as it used to.