It is entirely possible that I have been, believe it or not, too charitable to our friends on the left. In my recent article, Will Bunch uses his Freedom of Speech and of the Press to tell us that he hates Freedom of Speech and of the Press, I mocked The Philadelphia Inquirer’s far-left columnist Will Bunch for his tirade against MSNBC’s (supposed) journalists, Joe and Mike Scarborough for having gone to Mar-a-Lago and meeting with former and future President Donald Trump. Mr Bunch told his readers about the brave “journalists left who do plan, in a moment of increased risk, to keep asking the tough questions in this muddled new era,” but trashes two (purported) journalists who have gone to cover a story about the next President of the United States as somehow “supplicants,” showing fealty and making obeisance to him. Uhhh, you can’t “keep asking the tough questions” to Mr Trump if you are unwilling to talk to him in the first place.

I would have thought that a journolist, oops, sorry, journalist like Mr Bunch would appreciate freedom of the press and the willingness of journalists to go into hostile territory, to get their stories, to report the news, even from people who didn’t like or respect them.

Then again, the distinguished Mr Bunch really is one of the spittle-flecked crazies when it comes to the credentialed media, further to the left than even his newspaper’s Trump-hating Editorial Board.^[1]While the newspaper’s Editorial Board itself endorsed the second most left candidate for Mayor of Philadelphia, Rebecca Rhynhart McDuff, which I mocked would have Mr Bunch “grinding his … Continue reading

I still thought that the left would want to hear MSNBC’s take on the upcoming second Trump Administration. Viewers of the cable news channels do tend to be creatures of habit — though Robert Stacy McCain said he watched MSNBC so that we wouldn’t have to — and I check the Weather Channel when I wake up, but it seems that even talking to Mr Trump angers MSNBC’s viewers:

MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ delivers lowest-rated show since 2021 amid lefty meltdown from Trump meeting

By Alexandra Steigrad | Friday, November 22, 2024 | 12:32 PM EST

The fallout at MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” continued to worsen this week after co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski told viewers on Monday that they met in person with President-elect Donald Trump.

Viewership fell to a new low Wednesday — just two days after the MSNBC duo said they trekked to the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. to “restart communications” with Trump after years of being highly critical of him, stunning their left-leaning audience.

According to Nielsen data, the MSNBC duo delivered their lowest-rated program since 2021 in the advertiser-coveted 25 to 54-year old demographic, cratering 41% on the demo and 16% in total viewers since the hosts announced their meeting.

Scarborough and Brzezinski have come under fire from both liberals and conservatives this week who accused them of hypocrisy for routinely denouncing Trump, only to then seek his company after he was elected.

Further down:

The show’s audience peeled off almost immediately after the husband-wife team broke news of their trip on Monday.

Nielsen data also showed that less than an hour after the hosts gave their rationale for the trip, viewers were changing the channel and clicking away from MSNBC.

Between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Eastern time, viewership of “Morning Joe” fell 17% — from 839,000 to 694,000. Viewership dropped 38% in the demo from 113,000 people to 70,000.

Meanwhile in the 8 a.m.-to-9 a.m. hour, the audience picked up somewhat as viewership hit 775,000 people, but ratings dropped in the 9 a.m.-to-10 a.m. hour as the audience shrank to 770,000 viewers.

Really? If “Morning Joe” was these people’s primary source of news before the election, what are they doing now? The Washington Post lost a quarter-million subscribers, and perhaps more subsequently, following owner Jeff Bezos’ decision that the newspaper wouldn’t endorse a presidential candidate, and the newspaper could certainly use the lost MSNBC audience, but people have to do something really radical and pay for the Post.

Had the Scarboroughs not gone to mend media relations with Mr Trump, MSNBC would still have to report on him: he’s going to be the next President of the United States, just two months from now. Were the departed viewers afraid that Mr and Mrs Scarborough might do something really radical like reporting fairly about Mr Trump?

The freedom of speech does carry with it the freedom not to listen, so those who want to dwell in just the leftist echo chamber have a perfect right to do so. But, despite many of them having been on Twitter — which they hated once Elon Musk made it much more a freedom of speech site — it seems as though they were truly shocked that Kamala Harris Emhoff lost the election. If they had been paying attention to the news, they had to have known that such was at least a possibility. Perhaps our friends on the left aren’t quite as smart as they think they are!

Now comes the news that Comcast will spin off MSNBC and several of its other cable channels. Perhaps Elon Musk will buy it!