G
Greg Brown
Guest
MSNBC Newsroom Booed Bush State of the Union
By Mark Finkelstein | August 16, 2007 - 06:36 ET
UPDATE: Joe and Mika discuss this NB item. See below.
Joe Scarborough has pulled back the curtain on the liberal bias at
MSNBC, describing an incident in which people in its newsroom
ceaselessly booed President Bush during a State of the Union address.
The revelation came on "Morning Joe" today at 6:02 A.M. EDT. Joe was
discussing a recent episode at the Seattle Times in which reporters
and editors cheered the news that Karl Rove had resigned. Scarborough
applauded Seattle Times Executive Editor Dave Boardman for issuing a
memorandum reproving his colleagues. For more, read NB items by Brent
Baker and Ken Shepherd.
Joe went on to describe a similar incident at MSNBC.
View video here.
http://newsbusters.org/static/2007/07/2007-08-16MSNBCMJScarborough.wmv
Note: that's newsreader Mika Brzezinksi heard murmuring in assent,
though one has to wonder just how thrilled she was by Joe's candor in
outing her fellow MSNBC liberals.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: There was a story out of Seattle, and the reason I
love it is that it's transparency in the news. You have an editor who
was actually outing his own people. The Seattle Times newsroom broke
into applause when Karl Rove resigned. And of course that's bad. What
I like about it is that the editor actually wrote about it and went in
and told the people in the newsroom that was unacceptable.
And I've got to say, my first night here at MSNBC was the President's
State of the Union address in 2003, and I was shocked because there
were actually people in the newsroom that were booing the president
actually from the beginning to the end. And I actually talked to [NBC/
MSNBC executive] Phil Griffin about it, and he said "how was it last
night?" Because he was the one that called me out of the Ace Hardware
store, got my vest on. He said "how was it last night?" I said "well,
it's OK, I understand it's a little bit different up here than it is
down in northwest Florida, but you had people in the newsroom actively
booing the President of the United States. Phil turned red very
quickly. That didn't happen again.
Great news: the MSNBC newsroom no longer actively boos the President!
But did Griffin replace any of the offenders and bring in
professionals, or is MSNBC still staffed by people who simply do their
booing on the inside -- and in the news choices they make?
UPDATE, 8-16: At 6:48 A.M. EDT Joe and Mika discussed this item.
SCARBOROUGH: Chris [MJ producer Chris Licht] told me something in my
ear during break, that we talked at 6:02 about the Seattle Times and
back in 2003, back in 2003, the newsroom at MSNBC booing George
Bush . . .
BRZEZINKSI: Some people, yeah [Mika wanting to make clear it wasn't
unanimous.]
SCARBOROUGH: A lot of the people that were actually charged with the
coverage.
BRZEZINKSI: Oh dear!
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, that's bad. And I talked about how Phil Griffin
found out, got very angry,
BRZEZINKSI: Right, as he should.
SCARBOROUGH: And cleaned that up. That never happened again.
BRZEZINKSI: N-o-o-o.
SCARBOROUGH: And this whole place has changed an awful lot since then.
But NewsBusters, already has a story at like 6:30.
BRZEZINKSI: Oh my God!
SCARBOROUGH: Ruthless efficiency!
BRZEZINKSI: I try not to look there. They don't like me.
SCARBOROUGH: They said I pulled back the curtain. You know what?
Sunlight's the best disinfectant.
BRZEZINKSI: Darn right.
I don't dislike Mika. I just wish she would admit the obvious: that
she is a liberal Democrat who occasionally lets her bias show, and
stop hiding behind the flimsy cover, as proof of her objectivity, of
having a Republican brother.
By Mark Finkelstein | August 16, 2007 - 06:36 ET
UPDATE: Joe and Mika discuss this NB item. See below.
Joe Scarborough has pulled back the curtain on the liberal bias at
MSNBC, describing an incident in which people in its newsroom
ceaselessly booed President Bush during a State of the Union address.
The revelation came on "Morning Joe" today at 6:02 A.M. EDT. Joe was
discussing a recent episode at the Seattle Times in which reporters
and editors cheered the news that Karl Rove had resigned. Scarborough
applauded Seattle Times Executive Editor Dave Boardman for issuing a
memorandum reproving his colleagues. For more, read NB items by Brent
Baker and Ken Shepherd.
Joe went on to describe a similar incident at MSNBC.
View video here.
http://newsbusters.org/static/2007/07/2007-08-16MSNBCMJScarborough.wmv
Note: that's newsreader Mika Brzezinksi heard murmuring in assent,
though one has to wonder just how thrilled she was by Joe's candor in
outing her fellow MSNBC liberals.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: There was a story out of Seattle, and the reason I
love it is that it's transparency in the news. You have an editor who
was actually outing his own people. The Seattle Times newsroom broke
into applause when Karl Rove resigned. And of course that's bad. What
I like about it is that the editor actually wrote about it and went in
and told the people in the newsroom that was unacceptable.
And I've got to say, my first night here at MSNBC was the President's
State of the Union address in 2003, and I was shocked because there
were actually people in the newsroom that were booing the president
actually from the beginning to the end. And I actually talked to [NBC/
MSNBC executive] Phil Griffin about it, and he said "how was it last
night?" Because he was the one that called me out of the Ace Hardware
store, got my vest on. He said "how was it last night?" I said "well,
it's OK, I understand it's a little bit different up here than it is
down in northwest Florida, but you had people in the newsroom actively
booing the President of the United States. Phil turned red very
quickly. That didn't happen again.
Great news: the MSNBC newsroom no longer actively boos the President!
But did Griffin replace any of the offenders and bring in
professionals, or is MSNBC still staffed by people who simply do their
booing on the inside -- and in the news choices they make?
UPDATE, 8-16: At 6:48 A.M. EDT Joe and Mika discussed this item.
SCARBOROUGH: Chris [MJ producer Chris Licht] told me something in my
ear during break, that we talked at 6:02 about the Seattle Times and
back in 2003, back in 2003, the newsroom at MSNBC booing George
Bush . . .
BRZEZINKSI: Some people, yeah [Mika wanting to make clear it wasn't
unanimous.]
SCARBOROUGH: A lot of the people that were actually charged with the
coverage.
BRZEZINKSI: Oh dear!
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, that's bad. And I talked about how Phil Griffin
found out, got very angry,
BRZEZINKSI: Right, as he should.
SCARBOROUGH: And cleaned that up. That never happened again.
BRZEZINKSI: N-o-o-o.
SCARBOROUGH: And this whole place has changed an awful lot since then.
But NewsBusters, already has a story at like 6:30.
BRZEZINKSI: Oh my God!
SCARBOROUGH: Ruthless efficiency!
BRZEZINKSI: I try not to look there. They don't like me.
SCARBOROUGH: They said I pulled back the curtain. You know what?
Sunlight's the best disinfectant.
BRZEZINKSI: Darn right.
I don't dislike Mika. I just wish she would admit the obvious: that
she is a liberal Democrat who occasionally lets her bias show, and
stop hiding behind the flimsy cover, as proof of her objectivity, of
having a Republican brother.
iJxi.14884$eY.12386@newssvr13.news.prodigy.net...