From the February 14 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources:
Media Critic: MSNBC's Joe Scarborough's “Unbelievable” Relationship With Donald Trump Is “Inappropriate”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
Video file
BRIAN STELTER (HOST): “Morning Trump,” because that's Joe Scarborough speaking there at 92Y, actually many months ago. But our colleague Dylan Byers wrote about it for CNN Money earlier this week. He's been all over this really important story, which is the Donald Trump-Joe Scarborough relationship. What we see sometimes on-air is a very cozy relationship between the two men, and in fact I've seen the name “Morning Trump” being used to describe Morning Joe recently. I want to get your take on whether this is appropriate or inappropriate, because certainly Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, others at Fox News have close relationships with Trump. What do you think of this Scarborough-Trump relationship?
DAVID ZURAWIK: Inappropriate, Brian.
STELTER: Why?
ZURAWIK: And if I had any hair, it would be on fire as I said it. Listen, even somebody like a morning show host plays a role, at least a quasi-journalistic role -- I'd argue it's journalistic -- plays a role in setting the parameters of the national conversation around these candidates. You shouldn't be so involved with them that you're going down and giving them tips. I love the video you just showed. I'm so happy it got played, because it shows how unashamed Scarborough is, how proud he is of the fact that he's in the tank for him. Back in August I wrote about this relationship and it was unbelievable, because it was just before the Alabama open-air rally that Trump was going to hold. And Scarborough was talking about Trump letting his brother, who I guess lives in Florida, on his plane when it landed in Mobile. And then the next day, he was on Facebook saying how great it was that Trump let him on the plane, and then he started talking rapturously about what a great candidate this is and it's the future of American politics. He doesn't even know how damning that is to the credibility of MSNBC that almost every morning this guy gets out and behaves that way. And hey, what about the executives at MSNBC that don't call him in and say stop it? What's going on with that? This is outrageous. Now certainly --
STELTER: I did ask for a new comment from MSNBC this morning, and I didn't hear back. Dylan Byers has a great story online, I do recommend reading it. What's interesting to me is that when Dylan's story came online, Scarborough attacked CNN, and he pointed out Morning Joe's ratings, which is very Trumpian thing to do, kind of like pointing to poll numbers. You know I do think there's others in media that are giving advice to Trump like Bill O'Reilly perhaps. But this Morning Joe relationship is intriguing. I think it's going to keep getting attention.
Previously:
Morning Joe Hosts Fault Fox News For Donald Trump's Debate Boycott
Joe Scarborough Slams Fox News' Response To Donald Trump Dropping Out Of Debate