Taking another leap toward the dark side, MSNBC announced today that they have hired Kevin Magee to serve as executive in charge of Morning Joe, the three hour block of programming hosted by former Republican representative Joe Scarborough. Magee is a former executive vice-president at Fox News.
The immediate ramifications of this staff change will not be particularly earth shattering. The program is already a bastion of right-wing propaganda with predominantly conservative punditry. However it does represent a congealing of the Fox Effect on the mainstream media. It is an advance of the virus emanating from Fox to infect other networks with their deliberately deceitful approach to journalism.
Morning Joe already has a weakened immune system. Last year they added Amy Holmes to their roster of contributors. Holmes is also the anchor of Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze Internet Video program. Scarborough himself is hopelessly biased and nearly oblivious to the right-wing dominance of the press. In November he went on an extended rant demanding his guests to name a single Republican on a nightly news program (they couldn’t, but I could). And Morning Joe is the MSNBC home of Donald Trump, who has become a regular fixture on the show – and nowhere else on the network.
One thing that this should put an end to is the talk that MSNBC is the liberal answer to Fox News. That has never been true, mainly because, while MSNBC was generally more progressive, it remained fact-based as opposed to the blatant lying that is the hallmark of Fox. More to the point, Fox News would never give a three hour block of airtime (soon to be expanding to four hours) to a liberal ex-congressman, but Scarborough not only has that, but is also featured on NBC’s Meet the Press. Just imagine if Fox & Friends was hosted by Anthony Weiner or if Sean Hannity were replaced by Rachel Maddow.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
Since NBC/Universal was bought by Comcast, MSNBC has undergone some troubling changes. Comcast’s owners, the conservative Roberts family, insisted that there would be no substantive changes, but Ed Schultz, Joy Reid, and Alex Wagner lost their shows shortly after the acquisition. And now they are beginning to stuff the deck with right-wing pundits and producers. This cannot possibly lead to anything positive for the network. If they were smart they would recall that when Keith Olbermann was on in primetime, his show regularly challenged, and occasionally beat, Fox’s O’Reilly Factor. And Olbermann just happens to be available now.
I am a fan of MSNBC. especially when Keith Olberman introduced a new voice in Rachel Maddow and she was his guest host on occasion, then getting her own show. She is truly a breath of fresh brilliant air. I read this quasi-bio on Megyn Kelley where she says she’s bigger than Rachel Maddow. Well, dear Megyn, popularity may not mean quality. Joseph Goebbels were extremely popular in Nazi Germany as he told people what they yearned to hear. But I have never been able to watch Morning Joe. I liken it to an old-fashioned expression for defecation, a morning constitutional. NBC, its parent, can’t afford another Brian Williams episode/catastrophe and Morning Joe Azzhole may lead them to it.
I will stop watching Morning Joe if Kevin McGee from Fox is in charge. The show was always pretty conservative but now with McGee in charge, the lies will,permit the show.
Stopped watching MJ years ago. Total bloviateing moron that Joe asshole. Might just as well be Hannity in drag.
They won’t bring Olbermann back – he does have a bad habit of burning his bridges whenever he
leavesgets fired from a network…I think MSNBC really went over the deep end since Comcast took over. It didn’t take long for them to get rid of their most contentious … and most entertaining … yakkers, with the exception of Rachel Maddow. I don’t have cable, but I haven’t found anything worth watching on the network except for checking in occasionally on Maddow.
Morning Joe has turned into Morning Blow for Trump. If there are panel members who disagree with Joe, he simply talks over them and shouts them down much like O’Reilly does. I quit watching.
The Fourth Estate is quickly disintegrating before our eyes.
Yeah. I stopped watching MSNBC when Ed and the Rev were relegated to the weekends. I could see the writing on the wall. The corporatocracy is almost fully in place. They just have to deal with this pesky Internet-web thingie. Stand by. The revolution will not exist, because it won’t be televised.
One thing about the article I would disagree with is the idea that MSNBC is more fact based than Fox. It certainly is, however from what I have read (need to find a source) MSNBC sometimes has more opinion based content than Fox. But the real alchemy in the Fox News Frankenstein is the talent that they have for confusing fact and opinion. Just look at a “Fair and Balanced ” debate if you want a good example.
I think you’re implying that if something is an opinion that it isn’t fact-based. That’s not true. Opinions can be fact-based (as they generally are on MSNBC). The opinions on Fox are often based on blatant falsehoods.
But don’t forget that Fox Spews is fair and balanced. They have liars on one side articulating the Rethuglican position, and morons on the other side defending the Rethuglican position. See, fair and balanced. 🙂
MSNBC is becoming irrelevant. I rarely watch Morning Joe, as with previous commentors, he is cut from the same cloth as Hannity. Rachel is the only one with value. I now watch CNN, when they screw up they do it big time or NPR. Our local paper with a supposed Libertarian bent, read to the right of Fox, make having an intelligent conversation impossible. The cable channels are using the programming model of headline news, taking the 30 minute news cycle and stretching it out to an hour. Report, Rinse, Repeat.
This means even more of Scarborough speaking over his guests that usually have something far more interesting to say!!