MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Tuesday mourned the "absolutely dreadful" behavior of journalists and politicians who have compared Tea Party Republicans to "terrorists," among other things. But as NewsBusters previously reported, the "Morning Joe" co-host repeatedly ignored such transgressions when they occurred on his own show.
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"Everyone's been calling Republicans terrorists and Nazis and fascists and Stalin and Hitler," noted Scarborough, who went on to issue a blanket condemnation of the "mainstream media," even though he has a history of sitting idly by while his guests employ vitriolic language to denigrate conservatives.
The trend dates back to at least July 6, when Newsweek editor Tina Brown smeared congressional Republicans as "suicide bombers" for not supporting tax hikes in a deficit-reduction deal. Moments earlier, co-host Willie Geist had remarked that conservatives were "holding the hostage."
While Scarborough was not on the set that morning, he has still yet to directly criticize Brown for the insult and co-host Mika Brzezinski, who was present at the time, did not object to the comparison.
On July 27, even though House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) claimed House Republicans "want to shoot every bullet they have at the president," none of the "Morning Joe" co-hosts protested against the House Minority Whip's choice of words.
Two days later, disgraced former Obama car czar Steve Rattner got away with asserting the Tea Party was engaging in "economic terrorism" over the debt ceiling:
You know, the problem with this is it's like a form of economic terrorism. I imagine these Tea Party guys are like strapped with dynamite, standing in the middle of Times Square at rush hour and saying, 'either you do it my way, or we're going to blow you up, ourselves up, and the whole country up with us.' So you tell me how those kinds of standoffs end.
Aside from failing to practice the civility he preaches, Scarborough on August 2 complimented Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for displaying a "profile in courage" with his handling of the debt-limit debate.
"I got to say, profiles in courage, Harry Reid, coming out very quickly, supporting a bill he did not like," gushed Scarborough, omitting the fact that Reid, as Senate majority leader, hasn't proposed, let alone passed, a budget in over 800 days.
[H/T RealClearPolitics]
A transcript of the segment can be found below:
MSNBC
"Morning Joe"
August 2, 2011
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Let me ask you this question because, and I hate to say this, because everyone's been calling Republicans terrorists and Nazis and fascists and Stalin and Hitler and all the things that – I mean, the mainstream media is just, no seriously. And actually, I guess Joe Biden, did Joe Biden call?
WILLIE GEIST, co-host: He denies it.
JOHN HEILEMANN, New Yorker: He's denying that he said it.
SCARBOROUGH: Four Democrats said he did call Republicans terrorists. I certainly hope that's not the case. That would be dreadful for the Vice President of the United States to be saying that, absolutely dreadful. So with that precursor, let me just ask this question: if you're a Republican in the House, how do you vote against this bill? How can you vote against, listen, I just said it doesn't cut that much. But you're running the country. I think every one of those Republicans that voted against the bill, and let's start with Michele Bachmann, need to go out on the campaign trail and explain to us the economics of allowing the United States of America to default on its debt obligations, which were racked up, in large part, over the past decade under Republican leadership. I got to say, profiles in courage, Harry Reid, coming out very quickly, supporting a bill he did not like. As many House Democrats voting for this as voted against it. I mean, if I'm sitting there taking note as a small government conservative, that the Democrats are acting like grownups, I got to say there have got to be some independent voters out there that notice the same thing.
--Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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