Parker profiles Donald J. Trump's original top enabler: We chose to see it as a complaint when Kathleen Parker semi-profiled Mika Brzezinski in today's Washington Post.
We're so old that we call remember when Joe and Mika helped launch Candidate Trump. We became regular viewers of Morning Joe first half hour during that period, so weird did we think the program's performance was.
The lovebirds have spent a lot of time pretending they never did that. Their program grows ever more crazy, part of the growing dose of The Crazy with which our world is assailed.
We chose to think that Parker was almost saying, "Enough!" In a column headlined "Women's rage unleashed," she started describing Mika:
PARKER (12/13/17): The tweet heard 'round a world already agog about events in Alabama launched yet another cultural moment, at least along the Washington-New York corridor. On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," a female guest said the tweet made her "blood boil," while co-anchor Mika Brzezinski wagged her finger at the screen and launched a soliloquy of scold at Ivanka Trump and other White House women.We were glad to see Parker mention the nightmare of "Morning Trump." We think this program's original obeisance should not be forgotten.
It was her own version of a special place in hell for women, even a daughter, who persist in supporting Donald Trump.
It wasn't always thus, Mr. Irony interrupts. For months during the campaign, Brzezinski and her now-fiance, Joe Scarborough, gave Trump free rein on their show. "Morning Trump," some dubbed it. In recent months, perhaps in penance for helping Trump get elected with free airtime, the couple has become his morning nightmare.
Perhaps, too, Trump's personal insults of Brzezinski have turned her into a feminist avenger. On Tuesday, she peered piercingly into the camera, singeing the cameraman with her gaze, and schooled press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Within the guild, these things are typically done with tact. But we thought Parker might be starting to say that things have gone too far on Morning Rant when she said that Mika's "soliloquy of scold" had started to make her seem like a "feminist avenger."
In our view, the brainless histrionics of the program once called "Morning Trump" is a visible part of our deepening cultural problem. We chose to think that Parker was suggesting as much as she continued her semi-profile:
PARKER: Brzezinski's moment wasn't quite Walter Cronkite's "mired in stalemate" declaration of U.S. failure in Vietnam, but she clearly decided to part with journalistic tradition and make Trump's takedown her personal mission. As her message intensified, her male guests remained stoic while Scarborough had the look of a boy trying not to do anything that would attract Momma's attention.Was Parker mocking Mika and Joe? Fervently, one can pray.
If Trump, in his strange way, had hoped for such a reaction, Alabamians likely enjoyed the distraction after months under the microscope.
This morning, Mika ranted and railed about the way Judge Roy Moore rides his horse. She went on, and on and on, about this essential topic.
These rants aren't lovely, dark or deep. If we might quote a recent observer, her male guests remained stoic while Scarborough had the look of a boy trying not to do anything that would attract Momma's attention.
Our press corps has long been mired in various forms of The Crazy. Once, two stars made goo-goo eyes at their best pal, Candidate Trump. Now they "part with journalistic tradition" as they rant and clown.
The women guests all agreed with her about his horsemanship, and referenced their own personal knowledge in this area.
ReplyDeleteI -- for one -- never grew up with people like this. So why are they telling me what life's about?
Somerby seems to think there’s a special place in hell for Mika — not Mika & Joe, just Mika.
ReplyDeleteA woman tries to engage in political commentary on a TV show for that purpose, but her efforts are described in terms of gendered language using the metaphor of family dynamics:
ReplyDelete"PARKER: Brzezinski's moment wasn't quite Walter Cronkite's "mired in stalemate" declaration of U.S. failure in Vietnam, but she clearly decided to part with journalistic tradition and make Trump's takedown her personal mission. As her message intensified, her male guests remained stoic while Scarborough had the look of a boy trying not to do anything that would attract Momma's attention."
Mika talking makes Scarborough a boy, and she is his mommy. Men remain stoic in the face of women's words.
This reporting is garbage because it doesn't deal with the content of Mika's so-called rant, but instead casts it in a male-female dynamic with Mika being the one who is talking too much, too long, while men wait for her to stop, just like they wait out their mother's tirades when they transgressed as boys.
Why doesn't Somerby call out this aspect of Parker's reporting? Because he does it himself. Mika gets special attention and it isn't for what she says, but the fact that she dares to participate on a show where is supposedly a co-host.
What an ass Somerby has become.
"We're so old that we call remember when Joe and Mika helped launch Candidate Trump. "
ReplyDeleteOh yeah? Good for them. Аfter all, he turned out to be the best candidate of all those who managed to pass through the establishment filters.
We need more elected officials with dementia! Especially in our highest office!
DeleteBoth posts--
ReplyDeleteLike OMG. Like political junkies are supposed to be watching this show and would be delighted to see the equivalent of any of the very enjoyable "How Jones Won" stories published by the NYT last week.
MSNBC may just not have the on-camera staff to report any of those stories.
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