The thrill within the media world continues to be about MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealing that they visited President-elect Donald Trump late final week at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The 2 married-to-each-other co-hosts, who frequently skewered Trump prior to now, are getting bashed on-line and elsewhere for assembly with Trump.
The Wall Street Journal’s Isabella Simonetti wrote, “The change in stance by Scarborough and Brzezinski was met with a backlash from the left and proper, starting from former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann to conservatives like former Fox Information host Megyn Kelly and right-wing pundit Scott Jennings.”
In his Standing e-newsletter, veteran media journalist Oliver Darcy famous that on the present, Brzezinski stated, “For these asking why we’d go converse to the president-elect throughout such fraught instances. I suppose I’d ask again: Why wouldn’t we?”
“Uh,” Darcy wrote, “have you ever watched your personal present?”
“The Day by day Present’s” Jon Stewart additionally answered Brzenzinski’s query by saying, “Uh, since you stated he was Hitler.”
The “Morning Joe” co-hosts defined their reasoning behind assembly with Trump, saying it was to “restart communications.”
And, look, one could make an argument that if co-hosts of a well-liked morning program on cable information have an opportunity to take a seat down with the president-elect, it will be irresponsible not to take action.
However was there extra to all of it than restarting communications and doing the precise factor journalistically?
CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote in his “Reliable Sources” newsletter, “Based on two sources with direct information of the matter, Scarborough and Brzezinski had been credibly involved that they may face governmental and authorized harassment from the incoming Trump administration. Realizing that Trump has threatened retribution towards his perceived political opponents, and that Trump has promoted lies about Scarborough and Brzezinski prior to now, the MSNBC hosts determined to achieve out to the president-elect.”
Scarborough stated on the air Tuesday that every one the unfavourable response on social media isn’t reflective of “the true world.” Hmm. Properly, true, social media generally is usually a little bit of a distortion of the true world, however that additionally feels like Scarborough is keen to dismiss among the very actual criticism. It wasn’t just some individuals on X.
He added, “We had been flooded with telephone calls from individuals all day, actually around the globe, very optimistic, very supportive, going ‘I perceive what you probably did,’ etcetera. All of us will do the perfect we will do and we’re all working in the direction of a greater America.”
Normally, a lot of the criticism towards Scarborough and Brzezinski is from those that assume they’re normalizing Trump.
But in a piece for The Daily Beast, Keli Goff wrote, “To their credit score, by reaching out to Trump, Scarborough and Brzezinski are proving that they’re lastly placing their viewers first once more. Their job is to not reinforce their mates’ biases, however to report and analyze the reality. You can’t do this for those who insult and disengage with anybody who disagrees with you or try and bury something unflattering to your pals. And in addition to, talking to real-life individuals you disagree with is the one strategy to perceive their standpoint — so you’ll be able to change it, if that’s your objective.”
However Mediaite’s Colby Corridor makes some extent that many critics are making within the wake of the Mar-a-Lago assembly. Hall wrote, “There isn’t a query that Scarborough and Brzezinski have been among the many most vocal — and influential — voices sounding the alarm a couple of second Trump administration, generally resorting to shouting on the digital camera or holding again tears. Charlie Spierling lately unearthed a video of Scarborough shouting at an viewers that ‘there is no such thing as a assembly within the center’ with anti-democratic Trump. The sudden pivot to creating good with the man they had been ill-afraid to check to Hitler definitely undermines the ferocity of their former criticism. It additionally raises the query of whether or not these criticisms had been fueled by opportunism slightly than a principled place: are these simply pundits who misplaced the struggle and are actually toadying as much as the winner, as a result of that’s the place the facility lies?”
Mehmet Oz, proven right here in 2022. (AP Picture/Matt Rourke)
As soon as once more, Donald Trump is including somebody to his staff who’s greatest identified for being on tv. Trump nominated Dr. Mehmet Oz to guide the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers.
Oz ran an unsuccessful 2022 marketing campaign for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, shedding to Democrat John Fetterman. However he’s greatest identified for being a visitor on Oprah Winfrey’s present after which internet hosting his personal program, “The Dr. Oz Present.”
Media Matters’ Matt Gertz noted in a tweet, “Oz made at the very least 81 Fox weekday appearances throughout 2020, changing into a key supply of data for Donald Trump throughout the early stage of the coronavirus pandemic.”
CNN’s Kate Sullivan and Alayna Treene wrote, “Early on within the pandemic, for example, Oz talked up the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a strategy to deal with the coronavirus — regardless of the shortage of agency scientific proof that it was an efficient therapy.”
They added, “Oz, who’s an advocate of different medicines and coverings, has been skewered by the medical neighborhood for years. In 2015, a gaggle of physicians wrote Columbia College, saying they had been ‘dismayed’ Oz was a member of the varsity’s school. And in 2014, Oz was scolded by senators throughout a congressional listening to over his promotion of weight-loss merchandise on his tv present.”
However, hey, he was on TV quite a bit — by no means a nasty factor in Trump world.
So what’s going to Oz be overseeing, assuming he’s confirmed by the Senate?
The New York Occasions reported, “The Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers oversee a number of of the nation’s largest authorities applications, offering well being protection to greater than 150 million People. They regulate medical insurance and set coverage that guides the costs that medical doctors, hospitals and drug corporations are paid for a lot of medical providers. A couple of quarter of all federal spending runs via the facilities.”
The Washington Put up lately instructed its workers members that almost all of them are anticipated to return to the workplace 5 days per week by June of subsequent yr. That information didn’t go over so properly with a great portion of the newsroom. The Washington Put up Guild known as the coverage “rigid and outdated,” including, “Guild management sees this for what it’s: a change that stands to additional disrupt our work slightly than to enhance our productiveness or collaboration.”
On Tuesday, Semafor’s Max Tani gained access to Put up inside Q&A the place one of many questions was, “What would you say to an individual who doesn’t want to return to a 5-day per week workplace schedule?”
The Put up’s reply to that: “If an worker decides they don’t want to work on the Put up on a 5-day per week workplace schedule, we perceive that and can settle for their resignation.”
Yikes.
In the meantime, New York journal’s Charlotte Klein has a brand new piece out: “Jeff Bezos Cracks Down on the Washington Post.” Within the story, Klein digs into potential candidates for who will in the end run the newsroom.
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