Morning Yo-Yo

It's early in the morning of America's economic collapse, and Joe Scarborough is trying to get to the bottom of it all by shouting, once again and several times over, "Erin Burnett, international superstar!"

Now that's a stimulus package--woogah-woogah, hubba-hubba-hubba!

Forget O'Reilly, Hannity, or even Fox and Friends. MSNBC's Morning Joe is the most entertaining expression of how far behind the curve the Obama election has left the mainstream media, whose cable personalities multiplied like toadstools in the damp darkness of the Bush presidency. Unable to adjust to the new sunlit era or match the president's suave wonkiness, they crawl back to what's familiar.

And for Morning Joe, that means a reprise of the great American family sitcom, reincarnated this time as a political talk show.

Joe Scarborough is the clueless suburban dad, always trembling on the edge of age-inappropriate behavior, like Chevy Chase in the long-running National Lampoon's Vacation series. The comely Erin Burnett, who visits daily from next-door neighbor CNBC, is the Christie Brinkley character, tempting dad away from the cougarish but perhaps ho-hum mom, Mika Brzezinski--ho-hum because she's more intelligent, and frequently undermines him.

The supporting cast includes Mike Barnicle, as the crusty old uncle who drops in to grouse that the average guy's getting a bum deal! (true to type, this uncle has amusing blind spots--like raging against executive pay caps for bailed-out bankers without disclosing, until bloggers shamed him, that his wife is the chief marketing officer for Bank of America); and, of course, on-air son Willie Geist, an Eddie Haskell figure, who pretends to enjoy the adults' company but can't wait to sneak off with someone his own age, like Courtney Hazlett, to talk pop culture in their wired-in-youth segment, "News you can't use."

The key to most family comedies is the bumbling dad. The innovation here is that Scarborough was elected to Congress as a hard-right soldier in the Newt Gingrich revolution of 1994, and just below the surface he can be a poorly informed bully. The tension between his past and America's present, and between his rejection and acceptance of new political realities, are what make the show irresistible to both reds and blues.

You tune in because Joe is unpredictable. Is he zigging--damning the stimulus bill as "a socialist agenda," and declaring that for Obama "it's been a disastrous three weeks"? Or is he zagging, as he did the morning after Obama's impressive first press conference, when Joe groveled that perhaps "we don't know what we're talking about"? You never really know in advance, just as you don't know whether Mika is going to humiliate him with a fact or simply wink at his loudmouthed assertions.

Lately--especially since December, when Joe and co-host Mika debuted their own national talk-radio show on WABC-AM, the New York outlet for Hannity, Limbaugh, and Morning Joe forerunner Don Imus--the real tension has been with "the girls," meaning Erin and Mika, and occasionally others in the NBC family, like Andrea Mitchell (who was looking daggers at him the other day when he wouldn't let her get a word in edgewise). When will Joe lose all control and start chasing Erin around the desk to pinch her behind? When will he make Mika submit and start barking GOP talking points? (Wait, she's doing that, repeatedly insisting that nutrition programs in the stim bill are "welfare" that do nothing to save or create jobs.)

The gender tension is certainly more civil than it was in the time slot's "nappy-headed ho" era. What gave the final shove to Don Imus two years ago were the women, black and white, at NBC and MSNBC, the producers, techies, and secretaries who allied with Al Sharpton and conducted a virtual management sit-in for Imus's defenestration. To replace the I-man, MSNBC wanted jock but less shock, and Joe pushed hard for the job, escaping his solo-hosted, evening-slated (and so low-rated) Scarborough Country for a fun, party-like early morning show.

It became a surprise hit, at times outdrawing Imus. But keeping that spark of gender tension can be tricky (just ask Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis about their old detective show, Moonlighting, which nosedived once they went from fighting to fawning over each other). An audience needs to wonder about character intent, and as a show grows more familiar with repeated viewings, that mystery gets harder to keep alive--the temptation to revert to type is remarkably strong.

The radio show has only made this tendency worse. You can imagine Rush and Sean taunting Joe behind the trackhouse over at WABC: "You're not a real man, you're on MSNBC! You work with liberal girls and lesbos. Joe likes girls, Joe likes girls..." And Scarborough, who has the insecure performer's instinct for where the sympathies of 51 percent of any crowd lie, is very susceptible to hazing. (He's written, as the New York Observer points out, that he quit his frat at the University of Alabama because he didn't want to dodge Scotch bottles tossed from third-floor windows and have upperclassmen yell at him, "Hey, queerball, pick dat up!")

Anyway, Joe gets closer to shaking his fist and yelling "To the moon!" every day. Usually Erin has his number, because she knows that when boys can't admit they like you, they act out and call you stupid or "international superstar" over and over again. So she simply gets back at Joe by reporting on her meetings with really rich, powerful men and what they reveal to her about the market.

But last Friday, she finally looked like she'd had it with his passive-aggressive flirting game. Erin told a very inside joke, which Joe said only about "two and a half people understand," and he was right; but then he taunted her, asking, What else have you got? Nothing, she said, with an awkward hurt pause. "At times, Erin, your pacing is a little suspect," he patronized her, quickly adding, "but you are a superstar."

The worst of Joe's woman problem, however, is how he's been slowly filing down Mika's edge. At first, when she was anti-war and he was so very pro-, there was a natural tension between them. But he's made an artful retreat on Iraq, and of late she's been reduced to making distracting, kittenish faces straight at the camera while the others argue. Or she even joins her partner in railing against the hypocritical bank-bashers and perpetuating the false story that Nancy Pelosi pushed $30 million into the stim bill to protect some marsh mice in the Bay Area ("What's that about?" Mika tsk-tsked on radio Thursday).

Look, Joe is no Rush. He can be sensitive and even gentlemanly, and that side of him starts to grow when do-good kids, like Obama or his press secretary Robert Gibbs, seem like winners. Joe wants to be accepted in their new world--he does work at MSNBC, after all.

But he's torn. When he smells weakness, it's like a shaving cut in front of Dracula, and he falls back on his years of training as a Contract with America guy.

You could see it all played out on Thursday's show during the closing segment, called "What have we learned today?" Kevin Bacon, on to promote a movie, said he learned that Mika was "hot." Mika learned that "We're all idiots" when it came to spending our way into this financial crisis, giving bankers a moral holiday while suggesting the rest of us are "hypocrites" for blaming those vested with oversight of high finance.

Joe, maybe not listening too closely and always hungry for reassurance, talked over her, asking something like "You're not a hypocrite if you say you don't know what you're talking about, right?"

Comments (32)

1. I'm sorry, Ms Savan...but,

   Mika Brzezinski is no Beverly D'Angelo!!!

   heheh

   Posted by Mask at 02/17/2009 @ 1:35pm

2. Zbigniew Brzezinski Calls Joe Scarborough "Stunningly Superficial"

   (Late in the clip but well worth the wait.)

   http://tinyurl.com/a85vph

   Posted by drhammer at 02/17/2009 @ 1:48pm

3. turn off the t.v.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 02/17/2009 @ 1:50pm

4. very-well written article, thank you

   Posted by darladoon at 02/17/2009 @ 2:07pm

5. Since when is The Nation doing TV show reviews? Cant wait for their review of "He's Just Not that Into You" or of the kids show "Handy Manny". Slow day eh?

   Posted by Extraneous at 02/17/2009 @ 2:25pm

6. I love it, I love it. And here I was thinking I was alone. Poor Mika,hard having brains and being white blond and female and will Erin tolerate ol joey. I keep watching my wife adjust her bra as she watches ol joe. That's O.K. I have Sarah once in a while. Speaking of a cast of soapy character loud mouths How about Buchanan.Why the hell did they scuttle Imus. Ah ya Al the "poor me" black comedian guy. Thank God for NPR at five to nine. I'm beginning to hate the British accent, but those people think well.

   Posted by julien38 at 02/17/2009 @ 2:47pm

7. I watch it because it is funny.

   Scarborough is a conservative like Joe Biden is a conservative (both are not). Scarborough may like to still call himself a conservative but he is a moderate at best.

   Mika however is very much a leftist, having been well indoctrinated by her father (who also did some mentoring of Obama). She is just as wrong on most things as her father and is rather ingratiating as a personality. But I'm sure it works well with the ignorant (which is most of the American public).

   Posted by antisocialist at 02/17/2009 @ 3:08pm

8. I like the show..its entertainment and not to be raken seriously as is NPR.

   .at the early time slot I thing they do better than maddow or Dobermann...I could be wrong, tho...maybe if Mika got a boob job it would increase ratings....as it is I think they are rating better than Maddow and Obermann, the other 2 comedy shows on the "news network"..

   Posted by YourJomamma at 02/17/2009 @ 3:12pm

9. i hear rush had a boob job.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 02/17/2009 @ 3:23pm

10. i'm sure you've done a splendid jobs indoctrinating your kids, larry.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 02/17/2009 @ 3:24pm

11. Posted by antisocialist at 02/17/2009 @ 3:08pm

    Then again, Larry thinks Grover Norquist is a "moderate"!....heheh

    Posted by Mask at 02/17/2009 @ 3:28pm

12. i'm sure you've done a splendid jobs indoctrinating your kids, larry.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 02/17/2009 @ 3:24pm

    Like any responsible parent, I certainly did my best to ensure that they had a well rounded education.

    They are all grown men now who are doing well and have given me 6 grandchildren also (so far). My youngest will be 30 next month.

    Posted by antisocialist at 02/17/2009 @ 3:31pm

13. The networks, most especially NBC, is in the tank for Obama. Even Mark Halpern of Time admitted it.

    And so does this Leslie Savan. She finds a single objective voice on NBC, too much, and needs to mock him. And she does this by pointing out how politicized all the other commentators and reporters are.

    It is a sad state of affair when network television journalism is in tune with The Nation.

    Posted by Hugo_Pirovano at 02/17/2009 @ 4:39pm

14. Our government rules through fear!

    Posted by abell12ct at 02/17/2009 @ 7:25pm

15. But I'm sure it works well with the ignorant (which is most of the American public).

    Posted by antisocialist at 02/17/2009 @ 3:08pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    whew antisocialist, you sure got that ignorant part right...we had shrub for 8 years.

    Posted by jarshadow at 02/17/2009 @ 7:39pm

16. great take on the whole thing.

    i watch it regularly and find your analysis almost perfect.

    and MASK...

    big fan of bev, but mika is hot in that blonde, high cheekboned, slavic way...imagining her in a fur coat and hat in the snow with nothing on underneath...mmmm...maul me, cougar!

    sorry, but OINK OINK OINK!!!

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 02/17/2009 @ 9:35pm

17. big fan of bev, but mika is hot in that blonde, high cheekboned, slavic way...imagining her in a fur coat and hat in the snow with nothing on underneath...mmmm...maul me, cougar!

    sorry, but OINK OINK OINK!!!

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 02/17/2009 @ 9:35pm

    sorry, wrong skin color for me.

    Posted by antisocialist at 02/17/2009 @ 11:28pm

18. Posted by antisocialist at 02/17/2009 @ 11:28pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    used to have my preferences too, but i've come to appreciate beauty in all its forms.

    gettin old, i suppose...

    lol...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 02/18/2009 @ 12:27am

19. It seems to me that Scarborough is one of the few fanatical Bush supporters especially during the 2004 elections, when he was writing for Slate, who saw at least to some degree just how very wrong he was. But the fact is, in my opinion, that realization is a bit too late, and anyone who was one of the Bush supporters has some responsiblity for the disaster Bush made of America. And that includes Joe Scarborough.

    Posted by ROinReno at 02/18/2009 @ 01:00am

20. "The networks, most especially NBC, is in the tank for Obama. Even Mark Halpern of Time admitted it. And so does this Leslie Savan. She finds a single objective voice on NBC, too much, and needs to mock him. And she does this by pointing out how politicized all the other commentators and reporters are. It is a sad state of affair when network television journalism is in tune with The Nation."

    Obviously you do not watch the actual news which by just about any standard is largely oppositional to Obama. Republican guests outnumber Democrat guests--never mind actual people far more progressive than just about any politician--as well. My god, on CNN the other day, after one (1) commentator suggested that just maybe the Republicans were protesting a bit too much about not being able to read the stimulus plan, the hosts of the next three shows bent over backwards to support the Republican position. Bad enough as was, but it also obscured reporting on how most economists say this now law does not go far enough.

    Posted by onthehelm at 02/18/2009 @ 09:54am

21. This was a great read, and it describes the show perfectly. Joe gets on my last nerve but for some reason I feel compelled to watch that train wreck of a show. You have Pat Buchanan some mornings being the voice of reason and other mornings just pure crazy. I think the GOP talking points would bother me more, but the show has like zero credibility at this point.

    Posted by Tzimisce at 02/18/2009 @ 11:02am

22. I see that in my absence the level of tinfoilasshattery from those from Wingnuttia has in no way subsided.

    I think the lesson we learned from the media was not that it was liberal or conservative over the stimulus fight, but that it was 100% out of touch with what people want to know. Did anyone besides those that are political junkies give a rat's ass about the process and whether or not Obama was bipartisan enough. Or that the house republicans "won" the week because they posted two goose-eggs. I think people wanted to know substance. So we had the horse trading over getting rid of some of the funding to states and adding in the annual AMT fix, there was no discussion or reporting about what effect that would have on the stimulus aspect of the bill.

    But to add to that when they reported process they got that wrong. Gallop numbers and other polling institutions show a dramatic drop in republican approval and a flatline or slight increase in democratic numbers.

    So to recap 1) the MSM reported a story about which no one cared and 2) the story they did report was refuted by polling data, so it was wrong. *Golfclap*

    Posted by Tzimisce at 02/18/2009 @ 11:11am

23. Wow. To say anyone on MSNBC parrots GOP talking points shows how truly deluded you are. I guess if you don't speak or thank the good lord for the Chosen One after every sentence, you must be a GOP shill.

    Leslie - please enjoy your koolaid.

    Posted by Weyld1 at 02/18/2009 @ 12:13pm

24. onthehelm, thanks for a great post. I get really tired of hearing how the media is in the tank for Obama. Before McCain became such a total disaster, he was the darling of the media. Never heard any wingnuts complaining about the free ride he got.

    I had sincerely hoped that, once Obama was elected and the Democrats were in the majority (I was going to say "in control," but that appears to be an exaggeration), the media would at the very least have balanced guest lists. But no. The conservatives (true conservatives - who are now referred to by the media as "moderates"), regressives, and absolute batshit wingnuts (now referred to as "conservatives") far outnumber the moderates (often referred to as "socialists" and "communists"), progressives and liberals on the Sunday talk shows and other "news" programs.

    No matter how many times they scream about liberal bias, and no matter how progressive reporters may even be, the regressives own and run the media. It's big business, more accurately called corporate media, and it obviously is going to support that agenda.

    Posted by LeeAnnG at 02/18/2009 @ 12:43pm

25. And anyone who doubts that moderates, of which Obama is a member, are called Socialists or Communists by the far right, I've heard it said more than once by working class people who consider themselves to be conservative. During the election, I was in a doctor's office while a real ignoramus was pontificating about Obama.

    He said, "That's all we need, for America to elect a Communist as president. Yup, that's what he is, a Communist. He's sure not a patriot."

    And just a couple of weeks ago, a player at a poker game said he agreed with Rush and, as a registered Republican, he hopes too that Obama will fail because Obama is a Communist. (Of course, this guy was a back-to-the-lander who quit his teaching job, married a woman with 8 kids and then had another, and raised the kids on food stamps. He's now on SSI!!! Hypocrite seems like such an inadequate word for this.)

    Nutjobs come in all sizes and flavors.

    Posted by LeeAnnG at 02/18/2009 @ 12:49pm

26. Wow. To say anyone on MSNBC parrots GOP talking points shows how truly deluded you are. I guess if you don't speak or thank the good lord for the Chosen One after every sentence, you must be a GOP shill.

    Leslie - please enjoy your koolaid.

    So this "argument" essentially calls someone a hack for pointing out a specific instance of GOP talking points being accepted wholesale (re: Pelosi mice), but accepts as its premise that to point this out is an exercise in being a political hack. Meanwhile this argument uses loaded, and I would say hackish language, like "koolaid" and "the Chosen One." Bravo.

    Posted by Tzimisce at 02/18/2009 @ 1:12pm

27. My observations on Morning Joe, which I've watched off and on for a couple of years now:

    1. For a while, it seemed to have replaced Imus as the show where establishment figures - political, economic and media - went to share their thoughts with each other and a higher income demographic than the other morning shows. While the spectrum of opinion was always pretty narrow, it at least allowed a little air in so it wasn't the same cast of characters bloviating every morning. With semi-permanent guests like Harold Ford and that handsome, tanned corporate-type whose name I can't remember, it's become less lively and more predictable.

    2. Scarborough is still an anti-tax conservative.

    3. Mika Brzezinski is a pure Inside the Beltway, centrist, establishment journalist. She's against the economic interests of the working class (Let the auto companies go bankrupt!), thought the stimulus package was not bi-partisan because it didn't include the same policies that got us into this mess, and continues to have a soft spot for poor Sarah Palin. She's about as much of a leftist as her anti-Soviet, hardline Cold Warrior father.

    4. See David Schuster stand up to Joe's bullying, with the facts on his side, and get his own show. Anyone know how the ratings are doing?

    5. Pat Buchanan is the cranky grandfather on the show, the one you love even if he is pretty nutty on some issues (like say, race). He plays the same role on The Rachel Maddow Show (!?!), proving that liberal-leftie lesbians can love their conservative (and anti-Semitic) grandpas, too. However, for all of his faults, Buchanan is an economic nationalist, like Scarborough, and a foreign policy "realist," so he at least has some sound ideas on manufacturing, trade and Iraq.

    Posted by cka2nd at 02/18/2009 @ 2:41pm

28. Joe Scarborough is a Newt wanna-be who was a failed Politician, like Charlie Brown's teacher "wha-wha-wha".

    Erin Burnett is an empty head who simply reads the WSJ headlines daily--no insight at all. Like a sideline reporter on ESPN.

    Mika at least can string a sentence together.

    Posted by emglanz at 02/18/2009 @ 3:55pm

29. "They are all grown men now who are doing well and have given me 6 grandchildren"-ANTIAMERICAN

    why won't they keep them?

    Posted by crabwalk at 02/18/2009 @ 5:20pm

30. Scarborough is a chauvanist and so was that grizzled old fart, Imus. Oh yeah, so is that bloated pill popper, Limbaugh.

    I object to the statement that Erin Burnett is an empty head reading the WSJ.

    I don't think Ms. Burnett is empty headed at all. I've watched a lot of MSNBC the past few months and she enters into conversations with guests and castmembers which would take more knowledge than a news reader would have.

    Posted by koroviev at 02/19/2009 @ 01:45am

31. This was dead on about Morning Joe. I used to watch Good Morning America for gooness sakes, to see what, Emeril at 450 lbs. cooking some super-fattening food? Really, I just watched because Chris Cuomo is gorgeous. Now I watch Morning Joe -- Joe ain't no Chris Cuomo -- but I learn something every day from this show. Who cares who is a Republican, Democrat, etc. I watch to see Mika almost have a heart attack, daily, at Joe or Barnicle's antics. It was especially funny when Joe dropped the f-bomb one morning because he was exhausted and didn't even notice! The only thing I disagree with the article is Erin Burnett's role on the show -- she is on at 8:30 a.m. for a minute or two only. To be honest I find her to be quite annoying and start tuning out when she starts babbling trying to sugar-coat how bad stocks are going to do for the day.

    Posted by gnazario at 02/19/2009 @ 10:06am

32. I just wonder why you didn't mention his history while he was a congressman. He resigned early...citing needing to be home with his family. Except it was due to the fact he was caught in numerous affairs, and then there was the dead woman in his congressional office that was never explained.

    This isn't talked about but it is there. No one has ever mentioned it, and you don't mention in the article that he ended up divorced and is now remarried and is on a very short and tight string with controlled by his wife.

    http://www.americanpolitics.com/20010808Klausutis.html

    Posted by Asousley at 02/23/2009 @ 11:05am