Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski surprised many of their fans Monday with their admission that they recently broke bread with Donald Trump—at Mar-a-Lago, no less. Over the last few years, the Morning Joe co-hosts have been among Trump’s most vocal critics. From my vantage point, they have also been among his biggest helpers. The question now is whether other loud voices in liberal media will continue aiding and abetting the president-elect in his second term.
Here’s what I mean.
For years, I defended colleagues against complaints from conservative friends alleging liberal bias in the press. But this past election, any semblance of objectivity flew out the window. There were too many examples to count, but the biggest was obviously the lack of serious coverage of President Joe Biden’s decline, which I’d heard rumors about well over a year ago—and I wouldn’t call myself one of the most connected journalists. The Morning Joe crew has known Biden for years, and could have been well-positioned to pick up on any slips in his mental acuity long before the rest of us.
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That wasn’t the only story where I believe the mainstream media lost the public’s trust. There was a lack of in-depth coverage on issues that mattered to working class voters; there was the dismissiveness with which major outlets treated seemingly credible allegations of abuse against Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff amid a broader, fawning narrative that he embodied the ideal modern married man.
To be clear, I consider Donald Trump’s track record with women highly problematic. But I’m sure you’ve heard that saying about glass houses and stones? Kamala Harris and her supporters made Trump’s treatment of women central to her candidacy; as such, she should have been willing to engage with the claims made against her husband head on—and refuted them in detail if they were not true.
Instead the campaign issued vague denials that didn’t actually address the allegations. Scarborough and Brzezinski helped by not pushing Emhoff on them.
But such attempts to run interference (or acquiesce to it) don’t work today. Long gone are the days where newspaper publishers could cover up JFK’s peccadillos or FDR’s wheelchair. There are too many camera phones, too many social media feeds and too many other news sources for voters to get information from. But not all of this information is credible, which brings me to my biggest beef with so many of my mainstream peers: They were so worried about playing to the crowd—or rather their crowd—that they forgot about their duty to their audience.
By trying to elicit “amens” from stalwart Twitter followers, they lost those who knew they were preaching to the choir—and that what they were preaching was not gospel.
In fact, this behavior is lending credence to a theory friends of mine have batted around for months: that there are public-facing progressives who actually love Trump and the rancorous partisanship he has instilled in our country, because it keeps them relevant.
Take Jon Stewart, for example—he’s an intelligent man. Watching him ridicule his peers—yes, on Morning Joe specifically—for finally admitting that “wokeness” hurt Kamala and down ballot Democrats was sad if you thought he was serious. The same could be said about John Oliver’s impassioned plea for trans athletes’ rights—and just-as-impassioned criticism of those with conflicting concerns. (After all, the debate about trans athletes would seem silly to someone who never had to rely on an athletic scholarship as their path to further education, like many underprivileged Americans do.) It was entertaining, however, if you presumed these speeches were simply performance art to get them clicks, which worked because I clicked.
There are few things more annoying than hearing someone better off than you complain about problems you wish you had. Listening to a rich media acquaintance whine about how little she earned as a journalist (while I was struggling to pay my rent) was irritating a decade ago. Listening to that same person in recent days pretend Trump’s re-election has destroyed her life has been, frankly, nauseating.
The two Jo(h)ns, as I’ll call them, represent much of what is wrong with the face of progressives and punditry today: Two really rich white guys, who therefore won’t be affected by issues most Americans voted on, showboating for attention by mocking those voters for not toeing their line. And look, thanks to that mocking, another really rich white guy just won back the White House. Trump should send them each a thank you basket.
To their credit, by reaching out to Trump, Scarborough and Brzezinski are proving that they are finally putting their audience first again. Their job is not to reinforce their friends’ biases, but to report and analyze the truth. You cannot do that if you insult and disengage with anyone who disagrees with you or attempt to bury anything unflattering to your friends.
And besides, speaking to real-life people you disagree with is the only way to understand their point of view—so you can change it, if that is your goal.
