Showing posts with label phil griffin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label phil griffin. Show all posts

Friday, February 6, 2015

How MSNBC Has Failed The Viewers - and it's not just Morning Joe

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Previous Related Posts:
Joe Scarborough Attacks Unite Blue
Morning Joe Quarterbacking for Chris Christie
Krystal Ball Freaks Out Over Obamacare Website
MSNBC Ratings Fall as Hosts Go Emoprog
MSNBC Chooses Tea over Truth in Sacking of Martin Bashir
Chuck Todd Admits Truth Isn't Part of his Job Description
The Uppity Stranger ~ Chuck Todd's Book Slams President Obama
President and Malia Obama: Chuck Todd's Book is "Sad"
Chuck Todd Shills for Mitch McConnell
David Gregory Has Man-Crush on Paul Ryan

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I've been watching MSNBC ever since it first appeared on my local cable TV. I was a huge fan of Keith Olbermann, and sad when he was asked to leave the channel. I won't go into all that here ~ read this article for some background. Keith is still a TV icon to the Left because he would stay on a story for weeks after it was dropped by other networks, and he never backed down in his attacks on rival Fox News, especially Bill O'Reilly. While obviously his personality was too strong for some, and maybe too strong for cable news, he wasn't just a mouthpiece for a bunch of talking points like say, cough, cough, Joe Scarborough, cough.

I will always miss Keith's commentaries, but I got over it and became a fervent MSNBC watcher again during President Obama's 2012 campaign. I loved their "Lean-Forward" message, and Rachel Maddow's speech to the Tea Party about all the things that weren't going to happen now that Mitt Romney had failed as a candidate.

But just after the election something changed. Time and again from 2013 till now, MSNBC has disappointed their main viewership, made up of Democrats and Liberals like myself who voted for Barack Obama. It's not just one thing, it's an accumulation of wrong-headed mistakes. If I had a dollar for every time someone on Twitter told me to turn off MSNBC and boycott them, I would have a chunk of change.

The bottom line is this: MSNBC has forgotten who their demographic is. In their quest to steal from Fox and CNN, they think they have to become a right-center network. But in doing so, they are offending the very people who have stuck with them since before Keith Olbermann got the boot.

A little background on the long decline of MSNBC:

From PoliticusUSA
MSNBC’s decline can be traced back to one decision. At the time, when he let Keith Olbermann walk out the door, MSNBC boss Phil Griffin believed that his network’s brand was strong enough to replace the former 8 PM host. Griffin was wrong.

After Lawrence O’Donnell had failed, Griffin put Ed Schultz in the 8 PM slot. Griffin shuffled Schultz off to the weekends because he believed that MSNBC could attract more young viewers by developing several clones of Rachel Maddow’s successful 9 PM show. Phil Griffin decided to go wonky with Chris Hayes at 8, which led to many former MSNBC viewers leaving and not coming back.

Hayes has been a disaster at 8 PM, and viewer demand for Schultz was so strong that the blue collar populist was put back on to the weekday lineup at 5 PM.

MSNBC was floundering, and Griffin made things worse by caving to Sarah Palin and the right by defacto firing Martin Bashir for some blunt comments that he made about the former half term Alaska governor.

Bashir never has the audience that Olbermann did, but his removal from 4 PM sent a message to MSNBC’s viewers. Lean Forward was just a marketing slogan. When push came to shove, MSNBC easily caved to right-wing pressure.


Martin Bashir was fired after reading a historical document about slavery on the air in response to Sarah Palin, who had tossed slavery into her word salad about GOP oppression caused by President Obama. Bashir was disgusted with Her Royal Stupidity misinterpreting history, and he made a choice to speak some serious truth so she would understand the demeaning tortures that real slaves in the South had to endure.

While it's true that some details of the history lesson were distasteful (so-to-speak), the far-right on Twitter spread the untrue story that Bashir had told Palin to "eat sh*t" on the air. The Tea Party kept the pressure on until the President of MSNBC, Phil Griffin,fired Martin Bashir.

Phil Griffin has a long history of pandering to the Right:







Griffin is known for having "pets" at MSNBC, and they know who they are. Take Joe Scarborough, please. He did an interview last year, after the firing of Bashir, explaining his relationship with Griffin:

Via Mediaite
Appearing on Steve Malzberg‘s NewsMaxTV show Wednesday, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough spoke out about the controversy surrounding his colleague Martin Bashir...
. . . Malzberg asked Scarborough why MSNBC hadn’t suspended Bashir or publicly reprimanded him. Obviously hesitant to comment on internal matters, the Morning Joe host suggested that, much like how Fox chief Roger Ailes doesn’t allow his hosts to attack each other, MSNBC’ers are unable to do the same.
However, he did say:
Every time something horrific is said like that, I go in and I talk to Phil Griffin, who I’m good friends with. And I say, Phil, this is unacceptable. Either they apologize for it or I’m going to bring it up myself.

Personally, I can't stand "Morning Joe" and I usually only see clips of it on Twitter. But apparently it started out to be MSNBC's one right-leaning show to "balance" the rest of the network. Maybe that would work if the namesake of the show had an ounce of humility and a willingness to learn from others. Unfortunately, Joe Scarborough is a loud-mouth bully who dominates not just sidekick Mika, but anyone else who shows up in the morning.

Last year, Scarborough verbally attacked the large and growing Democratic and Liberal-leaning Twitter group Unite Blue, of which I am a member. He called our members "freaky fringe haters" or something like that, never thinking for a minute he was shooting himself and MSNBC in the foot. Somehow he thought it was a good idea to attack the very demographic that was keeping his job available to him, since Dems and Liberals watch most of the other shows.

That display of arrogance should have been enough to get him fired like Martin Bashir, but we soon found out that "pets" get to stay, and the feelings of a huge group of Democrats don't mean very much to Phil Griffin, compared to someone important like the Tea Party's Sarah Palin.

But Lean Forward, right? LOL.

BINGO!







For a long time many have called for Joe Scarborough to be fired to save the rest of the network, but instead, Griffin tried him out on the night shift last week, in place of Maddow and Chris Hayes. It's unbelievable.





This recent article warning of impending doom at the network makes no mention of Joe Scarborough, choosing to blame mainly Chris Hayes, and warning that Ronan Farrow and Joy Reid may be on their way out. Looks like he wants to "save the pets" while kicking off the strays.

From The Wrap
January ratings revealed double-digit declines compared with January, 2014 in all ratings measurements. During the day, MSNBC was down 20 percent in viewers and 37 percent in the advertising-coveted 25-54 demo. In primetime, it fell 23 percent in viewers and 39 percent in demo.

From Politico
In October, MSNBC President Phil Griffin said the network was "experimenting" with new ways to regain momentum, spawning widespread speculation that he planned to make significant changes to the lineup. Ronan Farrow's show, which debuted last year and has received dismal ratings ever since, is one program that is widely believed to be up for removal. On Tuesday, it brought in just 11,000 viewers in the demo.
An MSNBC spokesperson declined to comment on the Tuesday ratings.


But Morning Joe isn't the only problem at MSNBC. Even the mainstays of the network seem to lean some other direction besides Left.

Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes, for all the good they do night after night, often go a little nuts and out of step with ordinary liberals out here in the heartland, to the point that real Democrats just turn them off. This has become more of a cumulative effect since the 2012 elections. Yes, they have a right to their opinions, but if you want to know why the ratings are so low, look back over the past two years at topics that may seem unimportant in the scheme of things, but which made viewers angry enough to boycott MSNBC.

I love Rachel Maddow and I really enjoy her show. She is witty, entertaining, funny, and at her best, her show has the spirit of Keith Olbermann.

But unfortunately she sees herself as a "War Historian," and whenever President Obama seems to be on the verge of doing something with American firepower or diplomacy anywhere in the world, Maddow goes berserk. I remember the first time I went "click" on her show. She was saying that President Obama had every right to intercede in Syria, but that he needed to ask permission from Congress or he might get us trapped into another war in the Middle East. It still makes me go "huh?" She sounded just like the nuts on Fox who didn't want that uppity President to do anything like any other President who has ever lived.

And what's worse, Maddow seemed to have no sense of irony that the Congress she was suggesting he ask for "permission" is the same wingnut Congress she reported on every night as a bunch of warmongers obsessed with guns and Benghazi. He was supposed to ask them? She even invoked the Constitution, which is right up there with Sarah Palin!

Some people forgot to watch her show after that. Oh, and they were really mad at her. Some of them still are. Some viewers just aren't coming back.










There are some problems with Chris Hayes too. His chirpy, giddy and cerebral persona were more appropriate for his Saturday morning show "Up," but Griffon thought he could save their prime-time lineup and attract the younger demographic. It was soon apparent that it didn't work out that way. I think he means well and much of his reporting is excellent, such as his work during the Ferguson marches.

What I didn't expect was that he would become the sudden champion of an out-and-out traitor to the United States, Edward Snowden, the Russian "patriot" defector.

Viewers didn't leave the show because Hayes criticized the NSA. Viewers just got fed up with MSNBC's elevation of Snowden's partner/mentor/witness/whatever Glenn Greenwald as some kind of hero journalist and paragon of virtue who wants to save the world. The real Greenwald is a raging Anti-Government Libertarian and Near-Anarchist who calls the President an "Imperial Emperor" (just like the rightwing nutjobs) and thinks anyone with allegiance to any country is a "statist." After a few weeks of Greenwald worship, Chris Hayes figured out that most Democrats don't like him, but by then Hayes was like a little boy whose balloon got deflated all of a sudden by criticism on Twitter and the falling ratings.











DUH!






Griffon can blame Ronan Farrow, Joy Reid, or anyone else he likes for low daytime ratings. But he should look at his pets, for instance the ever-exasperated Andrea Mitchell and the ever-smarmy Chuck Todd. Day after day since the last election they have been going into hysterics over President Obama's "Optics" - "Why is he playing golf" or "Why is he going out for dinner?" "Why is he drinking coffee?" "Why doesn't he care?" "Why is he on vacation?" - stuff no one ever said about George W. Bush or any other President in history.










Krystal Ball from "The Cycle" is another problem. She is so far-left, she is nearly to the right of Rand Paul sometimes. She's not that horrible sometimes, but other times, she is. I don't hate her, but I don't watch her anymore either.

Ball went on a crazy tirade about the Obamacare website back when it was having problems, helped along by some whining by then MSNBC fixture, Ezra Klein - who wanted background music while waiting on the phone. Of course now that the same website is enrolling millions of new people into health insurance,and yes, Krystal Ball does seem to take pride in that - NOW. But back at the beginning, Ball certainly helped the Far-Far Right by slamming ACA Obamacare because it wasn't working automatically.

Considering that just this week, two years after Ball and Klein attacked the Obamacare website, my own state of Tennessee just turned down Medicaid expansion again due to Obamacare haters in the GOP, it was never a good thing that Krystal Ball decided to attack ACA from the left. Maybe MSNBC has chosen to forget this wrong-headedness, but it's harder to forget here in a red state.






She also praised Libertarian Nutcase Rand Paul as "courageous, and begged Hillary Clinton not to run for President. . Last year, she said President Obama's State of the Union "depressed her." What. The. Hell? Is it any wonder that viewers sometimes wonder whose side she is on?













Last year, Chuck Todd wrote a book about President Obama called "The Stranger," which the President and his daughter mocked just before Christmas as "a sad book." Todd is famous for stating that he had no obligation to report "the truth" about Obamacare to the GOP - that tells you all you need to know about his life as a "journalist." He replaced the lame David Gregory, another Phil Griffin favorite, on NBC's Meet the Press, and I'm sure the ratings have plummeted even more. Todd also turns up frequently on MSNBC shows such as Morning Joe and Hardball to discuss "Lame Duck" or "Weak" President Obama. What Democrat wants to hear that stuff day after day? Not this one!



My point here is that there are many problems with MSNBC, and they are so deep it may not be fixable with Phil Griffon at the top. Unfortunately he seems to be tone deaf to the viewers, and incapable of firing his pets. They can turn the network into another version of Fox News and probably lure some wingnut viewers if that's what they want, but it would be a shame to see the network of Keith Olbermann go completely down the toilet.













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Monday, May 26, 2014

Scarborough Attacks #UniteBlue as Freaky Fringe Extremist Haters - UPDATE: Non-Apology-Apology

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"Morning Joe" Scarborough of MSNBC decided to launch an attack on the Progressive Twitter group #UniteBlue on Friday's show, and the members, including myself, did not take kindly to being called "fringe freaks" and "hate-mongers."

Even after the Unite Blue blog and countless tweets tried to set him straight about the group, Joe doubled down on Twitter. Maybe his real problem with us is that many Democratic candidates are joining to gain exposure and retweets, and it is helping them, especially in the South. We are the people who re-elected Barack Obama as President and ruined the nasty plans of the GOP. Sorry, Joe.

Unite Blue members are the most valuable demographic to most shows on MSNBC, and we haven't forgotten that Scarborough bragged that he helped get Martin Bashir fired for insulting Sarah Palin. Joe's pal, MSNBC Chief Phil Griffin, pandered to Palin when she got far-right Tea Party Twitter (#tcot) riled up, and Martin Bashir was thrown under the bus. But wait, Phil - isn't it the Dems and Obama supporters who are the entire "Lean Forward" Demographic?

Joe Scarborough, meanwhile, is leaning backwards and many liberals inside and outside of Unite Blue are calling for his resignation. Others just want Phil to make him apologize. I'm just glad to know how he really feels, and now we have it on the record.





Joe's Insult Via #UniteBlue Blog
“I could just take people who use the hashtag #UniteBlue and make a sweeping condemnation about America’s labor movement if I wanted to, but I don’t because I know that these people are on the fringes; they’re freaks; they’re hate mongers; that there are a lot of people who are in America’s union movements that are good, decent, hardworking people who actually would agree with me on a lot of issues.”



Response from Unite Blue:
After displaying his willful ignorance of normal, hardworking Americans, Joe Scarborough owes an apology to the mothers, fathers, retirees, millennials, activists, professionals and all other members of UniteBlue. Calling tens of thousands of good, decent people ‘freaks’ is a sweeping condemnation and makes you a hate monger.

Half a million Tweets per month use the hashtag #UniteBlue, more than #GOP or #TeaParty. It seems this has been getting under somebody’s skin. Nothing scares the Right more than a united Left, and its Joe Scarborough’s job to make progressive grassroots movements like UniteBlue look like a crazy, fringe group. That’s why he makes $100,000 per week while opposing a $10.10 per hour minimum wage.

Supporting unions and workers rights is not a fringe cause. This attack merely demonstrates how far the right has drifted, how out of touch Joe Scarborough has become with the mainstream, and how much the working class coming together scares certain people.

My Graphic that has gone Viral on Twitter:



Joe Strikes Back, Without Apology



Unite Blue Responds Again:



On Monday he started Back-Peddling Slightly
But No Apology


Change.Org Petition for MSNBC to Fire Joe

Politicus Petition to Make Joe Apologize

Open Letter from #UniteBlue to Phil Griffin:
Mr. Phil Griffin
President, MSNBC
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY
May 26, 2014
Dear Mr. Griffin:

Last Friday May 23, Joe Scarborough insulted thousands of honest, hardworking Americans who choose to organize under the banner of #UniteBlue, falsely alleging on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show that “these people are on the fringes; they’re freaks; they’re hate mongers.”

Mr. Scarborough owes an apology to the mothers, fathers, retirees, veterans, soldiers, activists, professionals and all members of UniteBlue. Calling tens of thousands of good, decent people ‘freaks’ is a sweeping condemnation and makes him a hate monger.

Half a million Tweets use #UniteBlue each month, more than #GOP or #TeaParty. Many of us are MSNBC viewers who were personally offended by these demeaning words and petty attacks. In response to the unprecedented outrage that resulted, Mr. Scarborough decided to double down instead of apologizing. This time he called each of us ‘extremists,’ and it’s really deeply offensive. Your entire network is being poisoned thanks to this behavior.

At this time, we are considering a number of petitions that have arisen calling for boycotts of Morning Joe and its sponsors. We have stood firmly against the promotion of hatred on the airwaves from others such as Rush Limbaugh, and cannot find any attempt on behalf of Joe Scarborough to move the political conversation forward meaningfully.

We respectfully request that Mr. Scarborough personally and publicly apologize for his comments on air and offer the opportunity for a UniteBlue representative to explain who we are; real people who want a voice in our democracy.

UPDATE: Joe Issues Non-Apology Apology

Via Unite Blue
“I brought it up on Friday… I brought up UniteBlue, and I could find people in UniteBlue who said some terrible things about me over the past two, three, four years, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t great people in the union movement, that doesn’t mean there aren’t great vets and great people in UniteBlue, that there aren’t great people in these organizations… Don’t we at some point realize that there are some people who will try to associate them self [sic] with a bigger group and say hateful things that shouldn’t be associated with the labor movement or UniteBlue?” Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe, 5/27/2014.

While this was not the full-throated apology that thousands requested, this display of respect is a promising first step, and we will continue to hold him accountable when political commentary devolves into disparaging and divisive attacks.
Now it’s time to move forward. We must continue to fight against the conservative politics of hate, division and fear, and once again affirm the audacity of hope, compassion and love.
Thank you to everyone who joined in our efforts this weekend. Way to go #UniteBlue!


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Now Joe is blocking #UniteBlue members.
He can dish it out, but can't take it.









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Friday, January 31, 2014

Cheerios Tweet Riles Reince into MSNBC Boycott

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Previous Related Posts:
Tea Party Traumatized by Obama's SOTU - Maddow vs. Huelskamp
Reince Priebus Warns Networks Not to Show Hillary Clinton Movies
Epic Smackdown by Chris Matthews vs. Reince Priebus
Reince Priebus: When Caterpillars Eat Your Brain

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Lately there's a media pattern in which someone on MSNBC criticizes a conservative and immediately there is a huge brouhaha backlash calling for that person to be fired. It happened to Martin Bashir for criticizing Sarah Palin. Melissa Harris-Perry had to apologize to Mitt Romney. And now someone has lost their job over a tweet about a sequel to the biracial Cheerios ad that was met with racist backlash last year.

I guess Reince has shaken his etch-a-sketch so he can pretend the GOP has nothing to do with racism, nor did anyone associated with Republicans write nasty comments on the Cheerios YouTube account last year. He can live in a state of denial but wasn't MSNBC the network that was supposed to be leaning "Forward" and away from the Republican Party? Well, not lately! Phil Griffin will bend over backwards to apologize to any Tea Partier who has a gripe about MSNBC. Twitter is getting revenge, though, with a parody account: @MSNBCApology


From Huffington Post
The controversy began Wednesday, when MSNBC tweeted about a new Cheerios ad similar to one that was met with racist backlash last year.

"Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family," the tweet read.

MSNBC later deleted the message and apologized.


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RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was Perturbed:

Until you personally and publicly apologize for this behavior, I have banned all RNC staff from appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC. I have asked Republican surrogates and officials to follow our lead.
~ Message from Reince Priebus to President Phil Griffin of MSNBC

The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable. We immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it. We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet. I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended. At msnbc we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change.
~ Statement from Phil Griffin to Reince Priebus





































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Saturday, December 7, 2013

MSNBC Chooses Tea Over Truth in Sacking Martin Bashir

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MSNBC Host Martin Bashir was shown the door, fired, sacked, "allowed to resign" after a week of unfortunate events brought about by Tea Party Diva Sarah Palin's obsession with Slavery as a metaphor. When she decided to compare the National Debt to slavery, Bashir read a brutal passage from a history book and suggested that if Sarah Palin could dish out the BS, then maybe she should take a dose of it, too. Unfortunately, Bashir sealed his fate with that episode, because thanks to push-back from the poutraged Tea Party and Fox Noise, not to mention inner pressure from MSNBC zealot Joe Scarborough and whining from recently-fired Alec Baldwin, MSNBC head honcho Phil Griffin caved and fired Bashir in spite of a heartfelt apology.

But we have to recall that Palin has been bashing President Obama with one slur after another ever since her 2008 Vice Presidential campaign. She has encouraged Birtherism, flatly stated several times that Obama is "palling around with terrorists, and recently wrote on Facebook about Obama's "Shuck and Jive" over Benghazi. Oh and then there was her brilliant display of patriotism during the government shutdown when she posed with Ted Cruz near some Tea Partiers with Confederate Flags. But hey, babe, it's all good - she can still be on the Today Show - wouldn't want to offend her or anything, even if she hates the President because he's a colored fella.

But wait, this is MSNBC - the "Librul" Network, right?

Forget that another pundit, Mark Halperin, called President Obama a "d*ck" on the Morning Joe show, yet he has been allowed to stay, even after an interview in which he seemed to imply that Obama is setting up Death Panels.

It's all up to MSNBC. If they want to keep firing or shuffling their best pundits or lose progressive viewers by courting the Right Wing Tea Party Nut Jobs, hey, go for it. We don't have to watch. *click* Now Please, Proceed.






Via Howard Kurtz on Fox
Bashir chose to tell his audience of the diary of a plantation overseer in Jamaica named Thomas Thistlewood.
In 1756, he records that a slave named Darby ‘catched eating kanes had him well flogged and pickled, then made Hector, another slave, sh** in his mouth.’
“This became known as ‘Darby’s Dose,’ a punishment invented by Thistlewood that spoke only of inhumanity. And he mentions a similar incident in 1756, his time in relation to a man he refers to as Punch. ‘Flogged punch well, and then washed and rubbed salt pickle, lime juice and bird pepper, made Negro Joe piss in his eyes and mouth.’”
When Mrs. Palin invokes slavery, she doesn’t just prove her rank ignorance. She confirms if anyone truly qualified for a dose of discipline from Thomas Thistlewood, she would be the outstanding candidate.”

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Howard Kurtz on Fox: Palin Kills Today Interview
The former Alaska governor and Fox News contributor was scheduled to sit down with Matt Lauer for a Christmas season interview. That's now toast.
Palin has now canceled Lauer's scheduled trip to Wasilla, a source close to her tells me. It's not because Palin is upset with Lauer or the "Today" show, but as a protest against NBC for not taking action against Bashir. In fact, Palin once sat in as a "Today"co-host.
Tim Crawford, treasurer of Palin's political action committee, had told NBC News President Deborah Turness and MSNBC President Phil Griffin that "Americans deserve to know that your network doesn't condone violent and hateful rhetoric."

Martin Bashir Apologizes:
I wanted to take this opportunity to say sorry to Mrs. Palin and to also offer an unreserved apology to her friends and family, her supporters, our viewers, and anyone who may have heard what I said.
My words were wholly unacceptable. They were neither accurate, nor fair. They were unworthy of anyone who would claim to have an interest in politics. And they have brought shame upon my friends and colleagues at this network, none of whom were responsible for the things that I said, and and at a place where we try every day to elevate political discourse and to focus on issues that matter to all of us.

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I agree with Martin Bashir’s apology. It was a deplorable thing to say, and he has every reason to be ashamed for saying it.
I’m glad that he went out and said it, and I will guarantee you he didn’t write all that by himself.
Every time something horrific is said like that, I go in and I talk to [MSNBC President] Phil Griffin, who I’m good friends with...
And I say, Phil, this is unacceptable; either they apologize for it or I’m going to take it up myself. 
And I can tell you that didn’t happen in this case, because I was in the middle of a book tour and I didn’t even really hear about it until after Bashir’s apology.”
~ Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” on Newsmax TV, via InsideCableNews


The fringe right has a bad case of slavery Tourette’s, a mean and offensive obsession with likening the imaginary oppressions of contemporary society to the most horrific, systematized, actual oppression in this country’s history.
. . . In short, it turns slavery into “slavery,” a portable complaint that can be arrogated by anyone gauche enough to do so. Cue Palin. From “palling around with terrorists” to “death panels,” Palin is what we on the interweb machine call a troll....
. . . Bashir took the bait. It’s hard to blame him, as the cynical misuse of slavery as a moral referent is enough to drive any person with an historical awareness batty. But Bashir made the mistake of thinking Palin was serious, and so he seriously responded, reminding Palin of the horrors of slavery as a means of denying her the use of the concept.
. . . Now here MSNBC is, getting heat for not disciplining him. Somehow Alec Baldwin is involved. Note, nobody’s talking about the debt, because Palin was never serious about her analogy. But neither is anybody talking about slavery, because Palin was never sincere about that, either. Her aim was to drag someone exactly like Bashir, and an institution exactly like MSNBC, into the mud with her, and it worked like gangbusters. Palin now gets to play the victim, and just in time to hawk some copies of her Christmas book.
~ Evan McMurry on Mediaite


If MSNBC keeps Martin Bashir — right now he’s getting a nice little vacation, they say, that was already planned — but if he comes back, then I think they’ve got, as Rickey Ricardo would say, they’ve got some ‘splaining to do as what their standards are.
~ Conservative Radio Host Mike Huckabee

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Martin Bashir Resignation Statement Via Mediaite
After making an on-air apology, I asked for permission to take some additional time out around the Thanksgiving holiday.
Upon further reflection, and after meeting with the President of MSNBC, I have tendered my resignation. It is my sincere hope that all of my colleagues, at this special network, will be allowed to focus on the issues that matter without the distraction of myself or my ill-judged comments.
I deeply regret what was said, will endeavor to work hard at making constructive contributions in the future and will always have a deep appreciation for our viewers – who are the smartest, most compassionate and discerning of all television audiences. I would also wish to express deepest gratitude to my immediate colleagues, and our contributors, all of whom have given so much of themselves to our broadcast.’

Martin Bashir resigned today, effective immediately. I understand his decision and I thank him for three great years with msnbc. Martin is a good man and respected colleague – we wish him only the best.
~ MSNBC President Phil Griffin Statement Via Mediaite

From EZKool.com:
"Sarah Palin's Victory Lap"
“My role is to accept his apology and be humble enough to accept it and move on,” Sarah said. “But I just hope that unprovoked attacked like that don’t result in people being hesitant to jump in the arena anyway. To get out there and serve the public or start a business or commit themselves to changing within their family their community their world doing whatever that they can despite the fact that in this world you are gonna be hurt and attacks will come your way. I don’t I just hope that an attack like that doesn’t make people hesitate.
Egged on by the hosts at Fox News to comment on why MSNBC didn’t fire Bashir instead of allowing him to resign, Palin stated that she was indeed happy that the same “lame stream media” she attack every chance she gets, came to her rescue.
Well it was refreshing to see though that many in the media did come out and say ‘look our standards have got to be higher than this.’ Those with that platform with a microphone a camera in their face they’ve got to have more responsibility taken.
The entire interview felt like a victory lap for those sitting on the Fox News set, as Palin took the bigger person role in a battle she quite frankly started.

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Mia Farrow pushes forward her son, Ronan Farrow,
for Bashir's Time Slot - how conveeenient!





















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#BoycottMSNBC






























































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