The way that MSNBC Morning Joe presenters Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with President-Elect Donald Trump last week sparked a lot of outrage, and one of the most notable aspects of that reaction was how cutesy their defenses sounded.
Jim VandeHei, co-founder of Axios and Politico, stated on social media that it is absurd for critics to not believe that all of us in the media need to know more so that we can share/report more.
The hosts of a morning television news show would be guilty of journalistic malpractice if they did not meet with the president-elect. However, Morning Joe isn’t traditional journalism, and the incident from last week is a clear example of how opinionated news and the expectations it creates are displacing objective fact-finding in the marketplace.
From their four-hour daily perch, Scarborough, a former congressman, and his wife, seasoned newswoman Brzezinski, discussed more than simply the presidential campaign. They fervently and relentlessly supported Democrat Kamala Harris, comparing Trump to an impending dictator.
According to Frank Sesno, a former head of the CNN Washington bureau and current professor at George Washington University’s department of media and public affairs, they have presented themselves as defenders of integrity opposing a potential dictator. The show’s followers witness the daily parade of individuals discussing Donald Trump’s vices, followed by the appearance of Joe and Mika, who drink high tea with him.
A swift and severe backlash from the audience
The backlash on social media was immediate and severe. One of the more pleasant lessons was that you could effectively cover Hitler without speaking to him.
Those who have taken action in response are more telling.
Like many MSNBC programs, Morning Joe’s audience of 770,000 viewers last Monday was lower than its annual average of 1.09 million. This is because some of the network’s liberal-leaning viewers have stopped watching after what they perceive to be disappointing election results. Scarborough and Brzezinski announced that day that they had met with Trump the Friday before.
According to the Nielsen firm, Morning Joe’s viewership dropped to 680,000 by Tuesday, and it reached 647,000 on Wednesday. recovered to 707,000 on Thursday. Even though the data only spans three days, television executives are worried about those kinds of figures.
Kate O. Brian, the departing head of news at the E.W. Scripps Co., claims that the audience for the divisive news-industrial complex has grown intolerant.
The Washington Post lost a whopping 250,000 subscribers last month, most likely non-Trump supporters, after declaring it would not back a presidential candidate. There had already been a draft editorial supporting Harris.
The practice of combining news and opinion is not new; in the 1800s, many American newspapers were openly partisan. However, there was a strong attempt to keep the two apart during the most of the previous century. Fact-based news divisions were established by broadcast television, which was licensed to serve the public interest. Fox News’s success in cultivating a conservative following that felt underappreciated and underserved was what started to shift things.
People who want to see their opinions represented and are less interested in reporting or any anything that challenges them are now catered to by a thriving industry.
The most prominent trend in 2024 campaign coverage was the decline in the power of so-called traditional news brands in favor of platforms like podcasts that provided politicians who were desperate for exposure with a welcoming, if not encouraging, home. For instance, Trump paid visits to a number of podcasters, including the well-known Joe Rogan, who gave Trump his endorsement.
Sesno declares, “I won’t even call it journalism.” It’s a narrative.
One example of how opinion can be profitable in the current environment is Megyn Kelly’s journey over the last ten years. She was once one of Fox News’s more combative reporters, and in a 2015 debate, she infuriated Trump by asking a direct question about how he treated women. She transferred to NBC News, a legacy organization, but that didn’t work out. Since then, she has launched a successful podcast with conservative and Trump-friendly viewpoints.
Even though many conservatives disagree, CNN has made the greatest effort of any cable TV-based news brand to project an impression of objectivity. The network’s audience of 4.7 million for its election night coverage was about half of the 9.1 million it had for the same night in 2020, therefore the drop in ratings has been significant.
O After discovering that impartiality was a difficult business, Scripps is shutting down its 24-hour television news network, therefore Brian is leaving at the end of the year. A news streaming service is being maintained by Scripps.
What role does nonpartisan news play in the modern world?
Scarborough and Brzezinski work in that setting on Morning Joe.
According to Sesno, they are incredibly gifted show hosts. However, unlike a professional journalist, they are not on the front lines conducting journalism and looking for the truth.
Katie Phang, an MSNBC colleague, legal contributor, and correspondent, stated on X that normalizing Trump is a poor idea just hours after the hosts announced that they had met with Trump. That was not what Scarborough was trying to do, he had made clear.
Normalizing or not normalizing any leader who wins an election by fair and square is not your responsibility or that of your corrupt industry. Christina Pushaw, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s abrasive aide, responded to Phang. Americans had a say; whether you like it or not, Trump will be your president in January. I would advise journalists to embrace reality.
Quaintness alert: According to Sesno, the Morning Joe hosts made the correct decision.
“It makes business sense to open a line of communication to ensure that a show based on politics is not completely cut off from the thinking of a presidential administration,” he says, despite the hosts’ concerns that a Trump administration might make their lives extremely difficult. It doesn’t hurt to be humble.
Scripps O. Brian has witnessed enough focus groups of individuals who long for a more conventional journalism-based approach to believe in its relevance, despite the fact that her own profession has demonstrated that it isn’t a great business anymore.
The former longtime ABC journalism producer believes that there is still a need for nonpartisan journalism, and that perhaps the current hyperpolarized environment will be the catalyst for it to return to its former level.
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For the AP, David Bauder writes on the media. Visit http://x.com/dbauder to follow him.
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