Whether it's Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump, Joe Scarborough seems to agree with the GOP nominee that the media is biased against them.
According to Scarborough, ignore or outright mock supporters of extremist candidates like Sanders and Trump. With Sanders, he explained that the media ignored thousands of people showing up at rallies. When it comes to Trump supporters, the media focuses almost exclusively on the negative aspects of Trump and his supporters. When discussing his supporters, the media elites talk about the racism, xenophobia, sexism and homophobia. The "deplorables," co-host Mika Brzezinski, recalled. They miss the stories about how many of these supporters see hope in the Republican nominee.
Scarborough believes this split comes from a new division, not between Democrats and Republicans but between the haves and have-nots. "It's stunning how class distinction makes a huge difference in America, when we have long been, we think, more of a class-free society than Britain, France, and what Steve Schmitt talked about," Scarborough said, referencing the earlier guest.
Mike Barnicle agreed, saying that the media and the political elite doesn't understand people these days. "Too many people in the media, our business, close to elites where a lot of people live who are in our business don't understand the loss that has taken place in the country over the last 20 or 25 years."
Specifically, Barnicle cites those who took a hit on their 401(k), lost jobs or even homes. "If you have a 20-year-old son today serving in Iraq, or Afghanistan, that child was 5 years old when this war began," he noted. "That is 15 or 16 years ago... And what are they thinking along the course of the decades, they are thinking they have no voice in government, they are represented by a professional political class that keeps running for re-election to enhance their own status."
He explained that they instead go to Trump rallies and finally hear a message from someone who claims to understand them and that is why they connect so well with people like Trump, who is a self-described billionaire. But what they see in the media is different. "All they hear and read in the papers is that they are probably racists for going to the Trump rally, and they take great offense to this, and they ought to."
Scarborough said that the "media's broad brush of Trump and Sanders supporters have been offensive from the start, claiming that Sanders supporters were somehow young ignorant children that had no idea what was in their self-interests and that all Trump supporters were racist, bigoted xenophobic." Brzezinski jumped in quoting "deplorables" as well.
"The fact is, Willie, people that have been struggling for the last 30 years," Scarborough said, seemingly just learning of this fact. "What coastal elites have not figured out, this is an economy that has been on the decline for 30 years, 40 years, average wages for men in decline in real terms since 1973, and just look in this century, we were kept afloat by a tech bubble and then kept afloat by a housing bubble and the only reason we didn't sink into a recession was because of a government spending bubble."
He went on to say there's no "growth industry" and that there were more jobs available at General Motors in 1964 than there are if you combine Google, Microsoft and Apple workers in the United States. (Raw Story was unable to verify this fact)
"Instead of having that pain listened to and addressed by elites in Washington and also in the media, those supporters of Donald Trump feel like that pain has been mocked throughout this campaign," panelist Willie Geist said. "There's a reason when Donald Trump says the media is stealing this election from us and they are rigging the election, and they watch the late-night shows make fun of them and the press make fun of them and they are put on display and called racist in many cases, and that doesn't mean the things Donald Trump is saying is the right solution to their pain, and every time they hear themselves mocked, that divide that Steve is talking about grows larger and larger and we are pulled further apart."
The media elites on "Morning Joe" may have missed the numerous profiles the New York Times and Washington Post wrote about white Americans suffering in the heartland, and the ways in which Trump was appealing to their losses. These stories were always sympathetic portrayals, though they were left out of the discussion. Perhaps, that is why Washington Post writer Chris Cillizza disagreed with Scarborough and Geist.
"I disagree with you about the media coverage being unfair and let me tell you why in this last period," Cillizza began. "Donald Trump, every morning, gets on Twitter, and he does something like he did yesterday. He injects something that is not true, that there is wide-spread voter fraud that drives news cycles. People say to me on Twitter, why don't you just ignore him? We can't. He's one of the two people that can be elected president. He is creating news that we, then, cover. Am I biassed in favor of defending what we do? Yes, absolutely. As some of the media coverage, whether it's Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump been somewhat unfair at times? Sure, because the media is made up a bunch of humans that get stuff wrong. But, I don't think there's a concerted bias against Donald Trump. I think he is serving these things up."
Scarborough disagreed because Trump's outrageous statements seem to run the news cycle. As a result, he claims, Clinton would get a 15-minute story, Trump would get a 15-minute story and Sanders would get a quick mention while drawing in 15,000 person crowds.
Last night, "Daily Show" host Trevor Noah noted that it isn't the media that is rigged for Trump so much as Trump rigging his own system by saying the most absurd thing possible, getting free media coverage and of his absurd statement. Noah even noted that Trump's empty podium before rallies has seen more camera time than third-party candidates Jill Stein and Gary Johnson.
Scarborough's complaints come too little too late, however. Just three weeks out from an election, only now is he crying foul against the elite media, of which he is a member. If Scarborough had so many problems with the ways in which the candidates were covered, it's unclear why he's spent the last year running a television program that is doing exactly what he accuses of others of.
Check out the videos below:
Part 1:
Part 2:
