(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) As MSNBC hemorrhages viewers, Joe Scarborough launched a desperate attack against journalists on social media platforms like billionaire Elon Musk’s X, accusing them Monday of trying to “stir up s**t” rather than report the facts.
Morning Joe hosted Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei after he and co-founder Mike Allen were honored by the National Press Club.
In a speech he delivered after accepting the honor, VandeHei lashed out at Musk and X users who he claimed are not reporters.
Scarborough, whose show is notorious for prioritizing insults and spin of President-elect Donald Trump over the truth, echoed the Axios co-founder’s criticism of independent journalism on social media.
“Why this is so important right now more than ever is because critics of the press are feeling more empowered more than ever to lie more than ever,” the Morning Joe co-host began, seemingly unaware of the irony of his comments.
Joe Scarborough blows off steam about Elon Musk’s social media “gutter” as MSNBC tanks.
“Social media people lying every day, every hour, every minute about the news. What you do matters… What MSNBC news and MSNBC reporters do matters.”pic.twitter.com/bO2XdKmNwC
— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) November 25, 2024
Scarborough blasted individuals overwhelmed by the news, suggesting those who look to websites like the Epoch Times—the name of which prompted an audible “Oh God” from wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski—are more prone to this reaction.
“Social media? People lying every day, every hour, every minute about the news. What. You. Do. Matters,” he lectured. “What the New York Times does matters. What the Wall Street Journal does matters. What Jonathan Lemire does matters. What the Financial Times does matters. What NBC News and MSNBC reporters do matters. It matters.”
Scarborough’s rant comes less than one week after Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, announced that it would separate MSNBC, among other channels, from NBC News by offloading it into a new company.
VandeHei responded by acknowledging that reporters make mistakes, saying they have “no time to whine.”
“There is an information war out there, and there’s still tens of millions of people that depend on great reporting, and it’s our job to make sure we create viable businesses around it, and that we really do try to get to the closest approximation of the truth,” VandeHei said.
The Axios co-founder told Scarborough reporters should be “more curious than condescending” and “more fearless than foaming at the mouth.”
Scarborough said his viewers, which have rapidly declined following the election, were his “family.”
MSNBC averaged only 599,000 viewers on Nov. 13—the smallest Wednesday audience since June 29, 2016, according to Fox News, which averaged 2.3 million viewers on the same day.
“Morning Joe” hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough reveal they visited President Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
“Joe and I realize it’s time to do something different. And that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him.”
— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) November 18, 2024
“If somebody pops off on Twitter or some other social media and they lie, they made mistakes. You know what the cost of that is? Nothing. They do it again,” Scarborough ranted. “In fact, it helps them because algorithms are rigged so you stir up s**t, and the more you can get people angry, the more followers you get. But also, now, it’s monetized.”
Brzezinski quipped, “The more you hate, the more you make,” before Scarborough continued to complain about the social media “gutter.”
“There’s no cost for them lying to you,” he said. “But if Jim VandeHei has a reporter that gets it wrong, well, there are editors.”
He added that the legacy media will still sometimes get a story wrong.
“If the New York Times gets something wrong or the Wall Street Journal reporters get something wrong, there are editor after editor after editor. And they check it,” he continued. “And they make sure it’s right, they make sure it’s doubled and triple sourced. And still, sometimes, they get it wrong.”
Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and The American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.
