In one of the more unintentionally funny yet still quite funny moments to strike cable news, MSNBC apparently decided not to have its “Morning Joe” program on with co-host Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Allegedly, the show was pulled over the fear that the hosts would say something dumb about the Trump assassination and get the network in trouble. Scarborough, then, speaking on Tuesday the 16th about the matter, threw MSBNC under the bus, freaking out about the decision.
As background, CNN reported that a source told it that MSNBC feared “one of the show’s stable of two dozen-plus guests might make an inappropriate comment” about the Trump assassination that would “be used to assail the program and network.” A spokesperson for NBCUniversal News Group said in a statement to CNN, “Given the gravity and complexity of this unfolding story, NBC News, NBC News NOW and MSNBC have remained in rolling breaking news coverage since Saturday evening.” That spokesperson continued, “As we continue to cover this story into the week, the networks will continue to cross simulcast, alternating between NBC News, NBC News NOW and ‘MSNBC Reports,’ so there is one news feed covering this developing situation.”
Scarborough argued during his Tuesday rant that he was somewhat surprised and frustrated with the media group’s decision to yank the show off the air for a day. “Before we start this hour. Willie, I just wanted to briefly talk to our friends and viewers that watch us every day and talk about what happened yesterday.” Scarborough began.
Continuing, he explained what he had been told, saying, “We were told, in no uncertain terms on a Sunday evening that there was going to be one news feed across all NBC news channels yesterday, and today’s show would be Lester Holt. Other people that, well, you worked with on Sunday and that was going to be one news feed across all NBC news channels that we were going to stay as a network in breaking news mode throughout, all day yesterday.”
The obviously frustrated and steaming host then explained that there was some degree of confusion throughout the day about the programming, saying, “That did not happen. We don’t know why that didn’t happen. Our team was not given a good answer as to why that didn’t happen, but it didn’t happen. We were also told it was going to happen throughout the day.”
He next said that there was enough blowback to get the network to change its decision, saying, “And I guess after there was such a strong blowback about yesterday morning, I guess they changed their plans, and so those plans changed, as well. So it didn’t — you know, we’ve talked about it off the air. We’ll talk about it on the air because we talk about everything on the air. We were very surprised. We were very disappointed.”
Concluding, he said that he would have done things differently had he known that the decision would be reversed, saying, “And if we had known that there wasn’t going to be the one news feed from NBC News across all NBC News channels, Willie, we obviously would have been in yesterday morning.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: By U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – MSNBC Morning Joe, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60975991
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