Hypocrisy comes in at least as many flavors as ice cream. You probably saw or at least heard tell of power couple Joe and Mika of Morning Joe going to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring of the incoming monarch. They decided to worm out of the past four years of calling him Hitler and now they’re talking about making a kind of peace with the man. Some people think the pilgrimage was a network management decision, because Morning Joe’s ratings tanked right after the election. Everybody’s did. I can tell you right now if this website had to exist on the number of clicks we got for three, four days post election, we would not be in business — or not at the same level. I would have to renegotiate deals with everybody and I mean everybody, from the hosting provider to Michelle, our pootie/woozle columnist on Sundays who already works for a handful of beans (not magic ones, either.)
I share this with you to let you know that I empathize with Joe and Mika. There is a commercial aspect to all this. If you’re a broadcaster, podcaster, blogger, whatever in the political world, if you are showing up every day to talk about these issues, and money is involved, you experienced the collective Democratic recoil/shudder as soon as things went south on Election Night. So while I get their panic and the reason for it, I also get that nothing has changed — except to get worse. Trump is still the monster he was November 4. Except now he’s on his way back to Pennsylvania Avenue to wreak more havoc than ever.
So copping a conciliatory attitude and acting like this is all a matter of diplomacy, rather than America facing what could well be the worst four years in her history, is utter bullshit. And Joe and Mika are being perceived as being utterly full of shit. Â And there’s a monetary price to be paid for what they did. Moral of the story: this is not a money first or money only proposition. Your heart has to be in this. Speak your heart. Be an advocate for decency and competence, which means being anti-Trump. Or be pro-Trump. Because this is a black and white binary choice. And you can’t have your cake and eat it, too.
During the 6am-7am block, the show averaged 839K viewers, 113K of which were in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen. In the hour after, the total audience number fell to 694K, a 17% drop. In the 25-54 demo, the ratings plummeted a staggering 38% to 70K. It’s highly unusual for a morning show to hemorrhage viewers from the 6am hour to the 7am hour. The normal trend is for a program to see viewership grow as more people turn on the television later in the morning. And, to be fair, in the 8am hour, the ratings grew to 775k. But that’s much lower than usual and still down from the 6am number.
At one time, it would take the left and Democrats days and weeks to get their outrage unified into action. Remember, the advertiser boycotts that ran Glenn Beck off of Fox News? That campaign lasted for months.
In 2024, the reaction happens in minutes. People cancel their Washington Post subscriptions. They turn off Morning Joe. There is no time wasted. A fed up audience that has long been taken for granted by mainstream media while they placate and chase after conservatives is not messing around anymore.
Much of the Morning Joe audience has never forgotten that normalizing of Trump that Morning Joe did during his first run for the presidency, so their tolerance for a relapse was low.
We are at a stage in this country where the going will be very rough for at least the next couple of years. It is possible we can do a turnaround in 2026, like we did in 2018. And it is also possible that people will be sufficiently burned out by inflation, problems with healthcare, issues with housing, mortgages, the awful realization of what a tariff really is, that they may be howling against the Republicans. It could be a 40-seat pick up in the House. We don’t know right now.
The only thing I can say with complete assurance at this point is this is no time to play it safe or figure out a way to mitigate your damages. The only thing that works at this point is sticking to your guns. Pick a side. Period.
I hope Morning Joe goes down in flames. Why? Not to be nasty at all, but simply because watching that happen might serve as a wakeup call to other media that if integrity matters less than the bottom line, there isn’t going to be a bottom line to worry about. Joe and Mika could have just as easily come out of the gate screaming and vowing to tell the truth about Trump every day, as they had been — and if they had had that level of guts, their ratings would probably have soared.
Now another thing that has been said is that Joe and Mika were afraid of Trump and wanted to placate him, for their own safety. Maybe so. But in many ways I think it would have been a better idea if they had taken a position of leadership and just hired security guards. Anthony Fauci or Mitt Romney could tell them who to hire, I’m sure.
Politics has never been an endeavor for the faint of heart but that is absolutely the case now.
Since they are apparently lining up for the privilege, Mika and Joe can line up and kiss my lil blue ass on nationwide TV. What a disgusting display by them and MSNBC.
I did read that Comcast is spinning off CNBC and MSNBC to form a new company under new management……perhaps the birth of a Fox 2.0.
I’m sure this somehow plays into that.
What’s next, Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow to MAGAt-Lardo for tea and Big Macs???
I have a feeling they both have more integrity than that, and the fact ol’ Joe is a Republican tells you all you need to know about his integrity……he has NONE.
Karma has decided to act faster in case people ignore her.
With those numbers, it’s obvious they’re not.
Okay. Maybe I’m being really dense and just not quite getting the point but I’m HIGHLY confused by this:
“During the 6am-7am block, the show averaged 839K viewers, 113K of which were in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen. In the hour after, the total audience number fell to 694K, a 17% drop. In the 25-54 demo, the ratings plummeted a staggering 38% to 70K.”
During that first hour, the show “averaged” 839K viewers but only 113K were in that “coveted 25-54 demographic.” Really? So 726K viewers were either under 25 or over 54? And the advertisers are more interested in a (wide, I’ll grant you) demographic that only accounts for a mere THIRTEEN PERCENT of the total audience?
I’m sorry. But Mr Darcy has SERIOUSLY screwed up some numbers somewhere. I CANNOT believe that MSNBC is attracting so FEW people in the “coveted” demographic while so many more people under and over that age range are tuning in to watch. (I did check the actual link and, for as much as I could read–so much is limited to paid subscribers–the numbers in the original post match what’s posted here. Not that I’m accusing Ursula of any kind of hanky-panky. My original thought was along the lines that the original story may have been “corrected” after Ursula posted.)
I watched them every morning even though I wanted to strangle Joe for his constant praise of Reagan. They had good pundits who spoke truth to power but I can’t tolerate them sucking up to an adjudicated sex offender, liar, thief, democracy hating and terrorist loving traitor. I haven’t watched MSNBC since their ass kissing jaunt to land of lard but I’ll check in on the afternoon shows and hopefully, they’ll have kept their integrity and continue to call out the in coming for the POS he is. And hopefully, the station will allow them to.
I stopped watching, listening to or reading the news the day after the election. MSNBC and CNN helped Trump win the election. All they ever talked about was Trump.
Mika and Joe are prime examples of how tainted the news business really is. They won’t feel the least bit of shame for their hypocrisy. They’ll just go right on run in’ their mouths. We are being talked to death. The news ought to be one hour a day for national news and one hour for local news.
You mentioned them perhaps trying to ‘have their cake and eat it to.’ It made me think they made their trip hoping Trump would offer them a (thin, very thin) slice of his “beautiful chocolate cake” they could share while he wolfed down the entire rest of the cake. What he’s given them instead is (for each) a giant shit sandwich. Like it or not they’re having to eat every bite and they and their show are choking on it.
Yesterday was another rough day on the personal front and trying to make sense of news I read was difficult so I might not have understood something that might be important. It’s about Comcast plans to spin off divisions. It seems one big thing in the works is to spin off MSNBC and CNBC from NBC news as in no longer sharing resources. The former are PROFITABLE and Comcast wants to take advantage of that by not forcing them to waste resources with what the Comcast bosses feel is a failing, “old school” news model. How things will work with some shows hosted or carried by NBC people is yet to be determined but it seems that the political commentary hours that start with Nicole Wallace’s show coming on at 4pm are revenue producers and pretty good ones. Comcast seems to want to build on that.
I can see why some of those who work on the shows that have as much (or more) commentary as straight news have apprehensions but plenty seem to see opportunity to really take off. And from the article I read outsiders are seeing and thinking the same thing. And that hosts/shows that air prior to 4pm and Wallace have reason to be concerned – especially Morning Joe. I recall Joe being quoted as “joking” about being on the chopping block. Well, he and Mika CHOSE to put their own heads on the damned thing!
I think of who Mika’s father was (Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor), his getting out from the old Iron Curtain and his hawkish views, the enviornment (and visitors to) the home she grew up in and thinking her dad would be both horrified and furious. Joe has spoken about the man too, and in glowing terms. Yet they chose to capitulate to Trump to try and gain some favor, even though Trump is enamored of a dictator hell bent on creating a USSR 2.0 but meaner and more powerful.
Both Joe and Mika might want to avoid ever visiting his grave – they might find the ground beneath them split wide open and fall into the bottomless pit of oblivion.
would people even watch mica & Joe say if they had a podcast on their own? I don’t really see how they offer anything worthwhile anyhow and yes Ursala you are on it when you state pick a side!
you have very good pov’s
It seems a given, the slime balls all gather into the biggest knot of pig shit EVER …
I like and trust Rachel Maddow to tell it like it is or was, very simple language and carries a big stick when it comes to putting Trump and his trash in reality terms …
Anyone that praises Trump for anything, should go see their doctor about possible brain damage … The Magas are so pissed because the shit for brains cannot be reasonable or truly friendly with anyone, they were blind to all things Trump has done … FOR HIMSELF ONLY …
The marches on the White House may exceed the Dumb attack on our Capitol … Every thing that Trump touches fails bigly, the Magas are an example of Trump’s fake promises on steroids … Too bad they went out and voted before their thick skulls let Trump’s reality shine in …
Darryl, please email me. I’ve been trying to email you. I hope you see this comment and get back to me.
I’ve never watched Morning Joe. Just the commercials for the show tell you how obnoxious and arrogant the guy is, with everything out of his mouth a grandiose pronouncement in capital letters and exclamation points. A jerk, in other words. What they will find out the hard way is that when you kiss the ring today, tomorrow you’ll have to kiss ass. Good luck with that, sell outs.
Well we aren’t in journalism or punditry, just average citizens. But we haven’t had CABLE TV for 9 years and do not miss it at all.
But yes we all agree, its Black or White time… you are with AntiTRUMPER or pro..
THERE IS NO INBETWEEN. and karma is getting very quick … FAFO works in minutes now.
PS Do join Bluesky. IT is a very nice comfortable place to share being AntiTRUMPERS.
You could just post a blurb and link to each of your pieces. Build a whole new audience.
AOC has 700K followers Geroges TAKEI and CONWAY over 300K.
Jack E Smith is there and posts a number of times a day.
Heck even CLAUDE TAYLOR the billboard guy..just got there and yes he is doing billboards