More than half a year into Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough was reflecting on the campus protests against the US-backed war that had multiplied across the country — ones that, just days before, had seen what one faculty member called “heavy-handed, unnecessary violence against our students” by police.
“Among these white, woke, pampered, elitist — I’m not supposed to use that word — let’s say children from these wealthy families, that decide . . . that they’re going to play radical for a weekend and then go home to mommy and daddy’s mansion — there’s a complete ignorance about the complexities of this issue,” he told the audience of Morning Joe. “Of course, if you listen to this show, you would understand many of the complexities of this issue,” he added.
Fortunately for Scarborough, many people do listen to Morning Joe, which is watched by a little less than a million people each day. And MSNBC’s morning show has a prominence beyond its ratings, with what the New York Times called a “fervent audience of Washington insiders,” known as the program you go on if you want someone important to hear what you have to say.
In the last four years, the show added one particularly important member to its roster of elite and influential viewers: the president of the United States.
Donald Trump had Fox and Friends; the Biden administration has Morning Joe, which the president, his aides, and vice president Kamala Harris reportedly watch religiously, even consulting directly with its guests and the hosts when the cameras are off. Aides reportedly book themselves on the show to speak directly to the president. Over the past year, the show has spotlighted one issue in particular: Israel’s…
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Auteur: Branko Marcetic
