Monday 11 July 2022

I spent a good deal of the morning watching corporate network news.  I know.  I know, but it’s a habit, a habit people my age (71) have a hard time breaking.  People my age who are interested in politics have spent their entire lives watching the major networks.  It is hard to get it through our heads that the current iteration of network news is utter and complete trash, having little if anything to do with truth, impartiality, or news.

But, I just can’t stop being at one in the same time, fascinated, amazed, and thoroughly disgusted with the coverage.  And this is not because I have illusions about the corporate media.  I wrote a book in the 90s about media coverage of the invasion of Panama.  The invasion was, within an hour of the beginning, dubbed on all three major networks “Operation Just Cause” (the military’s name for what was happening). That one fact alone tells you a lot about the state of the corporate media. 

I also know better than, out of all the corporate news, to watch Morning Joe (a show that was terrible to begin with and now runs for four hours, FOUR HOURS, FOUR F…ING HOURS). 

First of all, there is the clear misogyny on display every morning.

This program is an insult to every woman.  Scarborough repeatedly, almost daily, yells over and talks over and is disrespectful to (the dreadful) Mika. 

Now, I have no respect for (the dreadful) Mika.  She has made a fortune hawking this “Know Your Worth” scam to women.  “Know Your Worth” is advice from a woman who had an adulterous affair with her boss and thereby assured herself of a job at least as long as he has one.  She knows her worth.

And, aside from this cynical scam, she participates in a show where she is clearly the subordinate of Joe Scarborough who is (as Mika’s father once said) stunningly superficial (and that’s a kind way of saying it).

The (dreadful) Mika sits on national television every day allowing herself to be treated as if she is an imbecilic and annoying addition to the discussion, by her (now) husband who is clearly miserable and most of the time is on a separate set.  So (the dreadful) Mika makes herself into a poster image of women knowing that they are worth so much they will allow themselves to be humiliated on national television with what my partner calls a “shit eating” grin plastered on their faces.  It’s a great role model for women, especially young women.

O.K. so that’s the verbal abuse of women, every morning.

Second, Joe Scarborough and (the dreadful) Mika were all over Trump when he ran for office. During the 2016 campaign, every program started off with recorded statements from Donald Trump.  Trump didn’t even have to come into the studio, he just phoned his seditious garbage in.  Scarborough and (the dreadful) Mika were caught on an open mic asking Trump for his permission to ask certain questions. 

Their break with Donald Trump came hot on the heels of Trump’s outing of their adulterous affair.  I am confident that had Trump not stabbed them in the back about the affair (who couldn’t see this coming) they would both be at Mar-a-Shitgo kissing his ass to this day.

But, they are not.  And I am willing to bet that this has nothing to do with any conscience or moral qualms.  Neither of them has a speck of morality.  It has to do with being thrown off the train.

So, even though they are never Trumpers, they are slavish proponents of conservative politics, especially Scarborough.  I don’t think (the dreadful) Mika has any politics, just random utterances.  I sometime wonder whether her father was referring to her instead of Scarborough when he used the “stunningly superficial” label.  Perhaps he thought they were a good match.

Scarborough never misses an opportunity to disparage what little left there is in the Democratic Party.  This makes him not much different from most of the MSNBC anchors (Joy Reid, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Andrea Mitchell, Dr. Jason Johnson of “island of misfit black girls” fame). 

This morning, his rant was about the so-called “progressives” in the Democratic Party who Scarborough accused of being so horrible and unreasonable that they kept criticizing Biden (how dare they?).  This was Scarborough’s way of handling the “fuck you I’m president” statement that came out over the weekend from Biden’s press people about abortion rights. 

Even though Jonathan Lamire (Morning Joe’s own reporter) pointed out that this statement not only angered the progressives, but people all across the Democratic political spectrum, Scarborough asserted several times that this statement was made because the White House was “fed up” with the carping and complaining of the progressives.  The clear implication was that the White House was justified.

The Progressives, according to Scarborough, never “liked Biden.”  Why should they?  Biden is not a progressive.  He is not even close to being a progressive.  Why should progressives “like” him?  I understand that the Democratic Party sincerely feels that everybody in the country should not only vote for Biden, but support everything he does and never criticize him because he’s a “nice guy.”  They made that clear in what was a policy free convention.  We were told that we should support Biden because he’s nice, a return to some mythical normal, three members of his family have died and he likes Republicans.  Yep, that’ll do it for me.  Those are the qualifications for President I think will change life for the population.  Besides, Joe Biden doesn’t “like” progressives, as his statement about abortion demonstrates.

Scarborough also condemned Progressives because they campaigned against Biden.  Who wouldn’t?  Why wouldn’t people who fundamentally disagree with Biden campaign against him?  This is supposed to be what a democracy is about, presenting competing ideas in an election campaign.  But, according to Scarborough, this makes them inconvenient and annoying children (sort of like the dreadful Mika). 

Progressives also had the audacity to claim that Biden was too old.  He IS TOO OLD.  He can barely string together a sentence.  Fox News plays a seemingly endless loop of Biden repeatedly stumbling up the stairs of Air Force 1.

Last, but not least, Scarborough claims that Progressives hate Biden because he won the South Carolina primary.  This is a complete and total lie.  Joe Biden did not win the South Carolina primary.  He was given the South Carolina primary in a deal between the DNC and James Clyburn.  All the center candidates as well as the way too ambitious and therefore easily bought off Elizabeth Warren agreed not only to bow out of the campaign, but to endorse Biden in a deal between people who would have burned the country down to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning another primary.

I’m just getting started….and this is one morning, one program…I hate, loathe, and despise corporate news.