Morning Joe mocks Bernie’s Hillary endorsement

Morning Joe mocks Bernie’s Hillary endorsement

Stunning pro-Trump and anti-Clinton bias was on display Tuesday during Morning Joe, MSNBC’s flagship daytime program. The anti-Clinton bias was way over the top, much more than usual from host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough. His bullying, self-righteous demeanor on this day was expressed with a malicious tinge that wafted across all segments and into or out of the control room.

The list of unfair journalistic practices and poor taste grievances during the 3-hour program is long and must be addressed if MSNBC is to be taken as a serious media outlet rather than an imbalanced, clownish outfit like Fox. When a transcript is available, I urge you to point out bias and deceptions and complain.

One of the worst offenses was the omission of Bernie Sanders’s long-waited-for endorsement of Hillary Clinton during the first hour of the program. Endorsement footage was demoted until the end of the third 30-minute block – halfway through the 3 hour program, almost 90 minutes into the show! And worse, much of the paltry 5 minute segment was spent mocking Bernie for being selfish and angry. This is not news or opinion but it is poor journalism… and a shocking display of bias in the highest order.

The following is a tic-toc of the program’s political coverage timeline with minute marks and segment content notated:

FIRST HOUR OF BROADCAST:

• 0-4: President Obama and former President George W. Bush attend the memorial for slain Dallas police officers
• 5-26: New polls show Clinton slips in swing states; Trump is connecting with the anger in America; Trump compared favorably with Reagan
• 26-27: Guests and videos profess support for Trump versus Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• 30-35: Trump talks up four VP candidates
• 42-44: Who will address Trump’s convention?
• 45-48: More criticism of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for her criticism of Donald Trump; Trump calls for her to step down; Republican House Majority Leader Paul Ryan weighs in but no support for Ginsburg shown
• 52-55: Cameron resigns and Great Britain welcomes a new Prime Minister

MISSING FROM THE FIRST HOUR: A full screen image of Clinton. There were several full-screen images and videos of Trump, some with him speaking, others with voice overs. Trump’s image was always presented positively. Clinton’s image was always associated negatively, with problematic poll graphics showing a thumbnail of Clinton and side-by-side images of Clinton and Trump. There was no full-screen image of Clinton or any discussion of presumptive Democratic nominee’s landmark endorsement by former opponent Senator Bernie Sanders.

OBSERVATION: Trump received excessive and unwarranted favorable coverage much like has been reported over the course of the entire election campaign. Summarizing the first hour of this program and extrapolating similar coverage elsewhere, when Trump gets 100% of the positive political coverage it’s not surprising that Clinton’s poll numbers would suffer.

SECOND HOUR OF BROADCAST:

• 60-63: REPEAT: President Obama and former President George W. Bush attend the memorial for slain Dallas police officers
• 63-65: REPEAT: New polls show Clinton slips in swing states
• 66-70: Negative Clinton discussion included the graphic: “Polls: Trump Leads Clinton on Honesty;” amazingly the first full screen images of Clinton appear in minute 66 during discussion of here dishonesty and continue during talk of Trump’s positive message to change Washington (Note: seriously, other than a few side-by-side images shared with Trump, there were no full screen Clinton images in the entire first hour).
• 70-82: Pro-Trump feature discussion included multiple video segments from yesterday with these graphics: “Trump: Police are Best of our Society… Trump Touts Himself as Law & Order Candidate… Trump Talks Compassion in Indiana … Behind Trump’s Appeal to American Voters.”
• 85-91: Sanders-Clinton Rally: the segment included only 2 graphics: “Bernie Sanders Endorses Hillary Clinton” and “Sanders Lists his Victories as he Backs Clinton.” The short segment included a full minute of Trump tweet coverage and the host and panel mocked and laughed at Sanders. “It finally happened and no one noticed,” teased Scarborough. Katty Kay agreed. Joe mocked Bernie further to more laughter including journalist Andrea Mitchell, “Andrea, I’m sure there were times during Bernie’s heartfelt endorsement there were times when you had to get your handkerchief out and wipe tears away.”
• 91-100: REPEAT (again): New polls show Clinton slips in swing states. (Somehow, a single set of 4 swing state polls is worthy of a triple-dip and 5 times the news coverage).
• 106-112: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)
• 112-116: REPEAT: President Obama and former President George W. Bush attend the memorial for slain Dallas police officers

THIRD HOUR OF BROADCAST:

• 120-175: REPEAT OF FIRST HOUR:
• 178-179: Pro-Trump video of yesterday’s rally

The fix is in

Astonishingly by repeating the first hour of pro-Trump coverage, MSNBC found yet another way to make today’s broadcast one of the most pro-conservative biased shows ever. Positive coverage metrics for Donald Trump were way out of bounds for fairness and respectability. Additionally, other conservative guests were idolized compared to Clinton and Sanders. Speaker Ryan and Sen. Cotton got more time and favorable coverage than President Obama.

Observations of cable news lead me to conclude shockingly that the fix is in for Donald Trump. I hope Democrats and progressives are fighting back somewhere, somehow.

Remember when there was a liberal press? No, I don’t either.

~ Jeff

Jeff Washington is Washington Underground

Twitter: Follow Jeff @WashingtonUG

Email: shameyawards@gmail.com

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