“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough is getting the pariah treatment from some of his MSNBC colleagues after he challenged the martyrization of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American who was shot to death in August during a confrontation with white police officer Darren Wilson.
“It’s been fun, haha. If any booker calls me again, I’m down, but [don’t] ask me to ever do @JoeMSNBC. I have a conscience,” MSNBC regular and University of Pennsylvania professor Anthea Butler tweeted Wednesday, referring to the show “Morning Joe.”
“You have to know this is [really] bad. I’ve done some Fox News, but quietly decided [two years] ago not to do them again,” the unpaid contributor added. “So this is … [very] serious. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but this last week pushed me over an edge.”
She said she would be happy to appear on other MSNBC shows, including “The Reid Report,” “All in With Chris Hayes” and “Melissa Harris-Perry.” But don’t invite her to sit on the same set with Scarborough.
“I want no part of that kind of evil empire,” Butler said.
On Monday, Scarborough criticized the press’ handling of Ferguson and also questioned why activists like Rev. Al Sharpton are using Brown as the face of racial discrimination in America.
“Someone needs to tell me why Michael Brown has been chosen as the face of black oppression,” Scarborough said.
On Tuesday, Scarborough continued his criticism, this time directing his irritation at members of the St. Louis Rams for entering a game on Sunday with their hands in the air, a clear reference to the “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture employed frequently by Ferguson protesters.
“The St. Louis Rams think it’s cool for them to suggest that St. Louis cops shoot young black men who had their hands up in the air, when we know that that was a lie?” Scarborough asked.
“It’s a lie! And what was that gesture on Capitol Hill? More people like going, ‘it doesn’t matter whether it’s the truth or not, I’m going to suggest cops shoot people with their hands up in the air.’ What is wrong with this country? What is wrong with these people? What is wrong with these elected officials? They know it’s a lie! They know the cops didn’t shoot him with his hands in the air! They know it’s a lie and they are doing this on the Capitol floor? Unbelievable,” Scarborough said.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes was not at all happy with Scarborough’s remarks on the Rams and said as much on his show Tuesday when he disputed a grand jury investigation that concluded Brown’s hands were not raised in the air when he was shot by Wilson.
“I refuse to allow people to not be factual about what we did and did not learn from the grand jury testimony,” Hayes said. “There is a narrative that we see in certain quarters that the gesture itself of putting your hands up is to perpetuate a lie about the last moments of Michael Brown’s life, as if the grand jury testimony and the forensic evidence definitively show that Mike Brown was not shot with his hands in the air.”
To the contrary, Hayes argued, “While that is how the evidence has been framed by [St. Louis County prosecutor] Bob McCulloch and many others, that is not what is actually in the thousands of pages of grand jury documents.” Hayes did not cite any examples of misrepresentation by McCulloch — or Scarborough.
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Bloom agreed, saying separately in a series of tweets that Scarborough needs to “show some respect.”
“I missed the memo from black America asking a bunch of white folks to sit around a TV studio and wag fingers at them. But not [Scarborough],” she added in another tweet.
Scarborough seemingly reacted to these criticisms on Wednesday, saying: “It is not [a policeman’s job] to make a statement that makes primetime people on MSNBC feel better about America.”
(H/T: Mediaite)
