Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Morning Joe:Scarborough, Brezinski, Burnett





Iran’s President Amadinajad gave a much-needed boost to the morning news/talk/social networking shows. At this point, I must concur with all the lofty talk about “free speech” which preceded the visit. I did learn two things from Amadinajad’s visit:

1) Iran has no homosexuals. (They are all sent to America or killed)
2) Women are highly prized in Iran, and completely free to operate within the restrictions imposed by Sharia. (They are all sent to America or killed)


I like Fox News, and tune into it as a matter of routine, just as I tune into all the others in a paroxysm of morning channel switching. Fox’s coverage of the visit was straight forward and negative toward the hirsute public face of Iran’s ruling Ayatollahs.

Sometimes I like to tune into the morning show called “Morning Joe” feature Joe Scarborough, Mikah Brezinski, and Willie Geist.

Willie Geist is the latest addition to the program and he is a welcome addition. Pulled down from the production staff, Geist has an intelligent and deadpan crossover manner which plays simultaneously to trend and tradition.

Scarborough is a Republican of some sort. I think he represents a disenchanted element of the “Reagan Revolution”. He’s all over the charts, but then what else could you be on a show that would identify itself as “center-liberal-left”, if that is a proper category.

Mika Brezinski, daughter of Zbigniew Brezinski (national security advisor under Carter’s failed presidency), was put on earth to make people feel uncomfortable, especially morning news guys. Mika found the lost chord of American television back in July of this year when she refused to do a story on Paris Hilton’s release from jail. Not only did Ms. Brzezinski refuse, but she grabbed a cheap plastic cigarette lighter from co-host Willie Geist’s pocket and proceeded to ignite the baloney script on live tv.

Willie Geist must have trained with Homeland Security because he defused the incident by snatching the torch from the hands of the rebellious Mika. Undaunted by the intervention, Mika proceeded to push the script through a paper shredder. You’ve got to admire a woman with that kind of determination.

Today, Mika Brezinski’s Carter state-department Old World mentality was piqued because Lee Bollinger introduced Amadinajad on the point of a pike. Mika Brezinski didn’t think that was polite. She said so too many times, and I expect she considers polity the weapon of choice against the blunt truths of a terrorist regime.

The “Morning Joe” went downhill from there except that now I must reveal a state secret and my strongest reason for tuning in: the appearance of Erin Burnett. In a bewildering blitz of information, wit, and sharp business instinct, Ms. Burnett righted the listing ship of morning news babble with the following news:

• The half-percent federal rate cut was not the “panacea” folks expected, as Burnett previously told viewers.

• Retail spending at stories like Target, Lowe’s, and some others had shrunk to worrisome levels.

• Home builder and financial services provider Lennar announced severe losses for the third quarter and a cut of 35% of its work force.

• G.M workers want job security, having lost 34,000 workers in the past year.


• The first new application for a nuclear power plant since 1968 was submitted today.

Purple is the new black which is the new brown. Or something to that effect. Having no fashion taste, and caught flat-footed by THE most intelligent and witty and well-dressed woman in the history of daytime television, I missed that.

All of this was delivered in less than 2 minutes along with some quick repartee arising from Joe Scarborough’s probe about Burnett’s television partner, the affable Mark Haynes. Unlike herself, Burnett wryly remarked, Haynes was probably not aware of the roadblocks near the United Nations home on the east side of Manhattan.

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