Longtime MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was back on the air this morning, and he was not a happy camper about the reason he was taken off the air on Monday. The former congressman, who has hosted Morning Joe since 2007, criticized the explanation the network gave him and even dropped an ultimatum, saying he wouldn’t host the show anymore if the situation repeated itself.
Making sense of exactly what happened is still a little complicated at this point, but it seems everyone involved at least agrees on a rough outline, starting with the failed assassination attempt against former President Trump on Saturday. The major broadcast networks and politically-oriented cable news channels altered their programing to cover the shooting, many for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday night, MSNBC tweeted from the Morning Joe account that the program would return on Tuesday and be replaced by ongoing coverage of the tragedy.
Rival cable news network CNN ran a story claiming the real reason Morning Joe was benched was because network executives were worried about what one of the hosts or their guests might say. Scarborough, on the other hand, claims he was told by network executives that all MSNBC programming would be preempted by a news feed covering the assassination attempt that would be simulcast on all NBC stations. That never happened, however, and Morning Joe was mostly replaced by more standard breaking news coverage specific to MSNBC.
Watching other people report on what will almost certainly be the biggest story of the year during Morning Joe’s timeslot didn’t sit very well with Scarborough, nor with co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist, who also questioned the decision on the air this morning. Scarborough, however, was more vociferous than the others, and when they tried to move on, he circled back and delivered a clear ultimatum to the network…
Next time we're told there's going to be a newsfeed replacing us, we will be in our chairs. The newsfeed will be us or they can get somebody else to host the show.
We may never know the exact specifics behind why Morning Joe was given the day off on Monday, but it is clear the decision created a lot of confusion amongst both fans and those working on the show. The hosts addressed the topic for almost three minutes on Tuesday in a very candid way, and thousands of users on social media openly talked about what a curious decision it was. The longtime talker, which has been running for more than fifteen years, is arguably MSNBC’s flagship show and Scarborough is maybe its most famous talking head alongside Rachel Maddow. Typically in moments of great crisis, viewers expect to see familiar faces. No doubt many turned on the TV on Monday morning expecting to see Joe, Mika and Willie.
The decision to replace them would make sense if this wasn’t their beat. A lot of programming across television was preempted, modified or removed following the assassination attempt if the tone didn’t fit with the moment, but talking about politics and the political ramifications of world events is exactly what Morning Joe seeks to do every day. Given the evolving nature of what happened, maybe a decision was made and plans changed. Or maybe there’s a larger lack of trust here in the Morning Joe crew from MSNBC management. We really don’t know, but at least the team made it very clear how they feel and where they stand.
