Joe Scarborough Suspended From MSNBC Over Political Donations

MSNBC has suspended "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough for the same violation that took Keith Olbermann off the air earlier this month.

In a statement, MSNBC President Phil Griffin said he has suspended Scarborough for making political donations to candidates in Florida without seeking prior approval:

This morning Joe Scarborough informed me that he made eight contributions of $500 each to local candidates in Florida between 2004-08. In my conversation with Joe two weeks ago, he did not recall these contributions. Since he did not seek or receive prior approval for these contributions, Joe understands that I will be suspending him for violating our policy. He will be immediately suspended for two days without pay and will return to the air on Wednesday, November 24th. As Joe recognizes, it is critical that we enforce our standards and policies.

Under NBC News policy, employees must seek prior approval if making political donations.

Scarborough apologized in a public statement, saying, "I recognize that I have a responsibility to honor the guidelines and conditions of my employment, and I regret that I failed to do so in this matter." His full statement appears below.

It was recently brought to my attention that I made political contributions over the past several years that are not consistent with MSNBC's guidelines. These contributions were to close personal friends and family members and were limited to local races.

Despite the fact that these races were local and not relevant to my work at MSNBC, I have been told they violated MSNBC guidelines.

I recognize that I have a responsibility to honor the guidelines and conditions of my employment, and I regret that I failed to do so in this matter. I apologize to MSNBC and to anyone who has been negatively affected by my actions.

I gave a number of $500 contributions to my brother and three longtime family friends. These contributions were nothing more than simple acts of friendship. I gained nothing personally, politically, or professionally from these donations.

To be blunt, I had no interest in their campaigns other than being kind to longtime friends.

Because the contributions involved local, non-competitive races--and were given for personal rather than political reasons--I mistakenly believed I did not need approval from MSNBC. I also apologize for that oversight.

After learning of this situation, I called Phil Griffin and agreed with Phil's immediate demand of a two-day suspension without pay.

I am proud to work for the NBC News family. There is nothing more important than maintaining the integrity of its highly respected brand.

I apologize to Phil Griffin, Steve Capus, and my colleagues. This will not happen again.

Comments

[Jazz88105]

07:35 AM on 11/24/2010

Question how much more free press is Morning Joe going to give Donald Trump ? Seems to me Trump has been on a lot more since it came out he may run in 2012; I know the thought of Trump and Palin running in 2012 makes me laugh also. However I think having him on so much should be considered a political donation.

[joel123]

09:44 AM on 11/24/2010

Yes, i was thinking the same thing. Between Mika and Joe gloryfying Trump, I thought to myself what the F, I don't have to listen to this and turned the chanel to local news.

[booki]

08:02 PM on 11/23/2010

i am glad to see Joe back tomorrow!
i miss him....he spunks up the rhetoric!
plus, he is good guy.

[Mahmoodcohen]

10:55 PM on 11/23/2010

Yeah...spunk is the right word!

[adnull29]

04:54 PM on 11/23/2010

Can his audience be suspended from him returning? You can't get a word in edgewise with that dolt on the air. It'd give Mika a break from rolling her eyes, and clenching her jaw too. Can't be good for her nerves.

[Max Shaw]

03:51 PM on 11/23/2010

Didnt Keith's mistakes teach you ANYTHING??

[joel123]

01:24 PM on 11/23/2010

Please don't bring him back, I actually started watching morning Joe when I found out he is not on it. The tone is so much calmer and professional without him. He is a bully, loud, and I really don't want to hear about his days in Washingtion back in the 90's.

[splashy]

11:04 PM on 11/22/2010

I'm thinking this was set up to make Phil Griffin to look better, to try to make it look like he wasn't targeting Olbermann. Griffin is a conservative, from what I have read, and was hoping to take Olbermann down. It backfired, and this is clean up.

[goodgirl301]

05:04 PM on 11/23/2010

Agree completely!

[tttony]

10:19 PM on 11/22/2010

AGAIN? Didn't he learn anything from getting suspended two days ago? Oh, wait. Old story. My B.

[Ron333wood]

07:57 PM on 11/22/2010

He didn't advocate "on air" for this individuals. What he does privately is his own business. The Constitutions rights can't be abridged by "contractual" obligations...but then it's the same logic that enables gays to be deprived of their Constitutional rights because of group that believe that God speaks directly to them and is an advocate of their position to deprive others that they perceive are "less deserving"...like anyone that isn't a wasp. It's the "employment policy that is un-Constit­utional...­your Constitutional rights can't be allowed to be "bargained" away. How do you explain Fox...most of their commentators are Republican candidates...they sponsored the tea-party...their ownership financed the Republican Govenors in the last election.

[tttony]

10:22 PM on 11/22/2010

The only reason for contracts is to modify or abridge rights. You don't have the right to sieze my property, but if we have a contract and you fulfill your half I'm obligated to pay you or you sue me. I could claim that you may not sieze my money; says so in the Constitution.

[Ron333wood]

08:47 AM on 11/23/2010

Contracts are agreements that both parties expect to be bound by. The essential elements are:

Offer.

Acceptance.

Consideration or detrimental reliance.

Capacity of the parties to contract.

Legality of the contract.


Sometimes contracts have to be in writing. Sometimes they have to be witnessed. Sometimes they have to be acknowledged before a notary public. Sometimes they have to be registered with a special office. A contract is created whenever the parties intend to be bound by their agreement. However, contracts are not "legal" that are for illegal activities. So I guess the question is are your Constitutional guarantees for sale? Should they even be allowed to be on the table? With the present "Supreme Court", everything is "for sale".

[tttony]

09:15 AM on 11/23/2010

No, genius. Not saying something is not illegal and if you sign a contract stating that you will not say something you violate that contract if you say that. Companies that have confidentiality agreements will sue and fire their employees if they exercise their constitutional rights by telling someone else about their work. You sign away the right to talk about your work, but you do so voluntarily.

[texlib2112]

03:42 PM on 11/22/2010

i think joe scarborough should be back on the air asap just as keith was put on the air asap. I was upset when ko was suspended and the same with joe scarborough.

I think the problem lies with NBC News and that there needs to be some refresher training to the entire news staff.

[panamarine]

01:52 PM on 11/22/2010

Okay, we all know that Joe is a Republican (or Conservative, as he calls himself); and we know that Keith O. is a Democrat. Good so far...Now here is my point. SO WHAT if they donated $$$ to candidates of their preferred party? Are they allowed to even vote? If I sent OBAMA $25.00 in 2008, and my employer found out....do I get suspended without pay for two days? If Hewlett-Packard contributes money to a Republican cause and they advertise on MSNBC, does MSNBC refuse their advertising dollars? Or if they contributed to a Democratic candidate and advertised on FOX, will fox cancel their account? Political correctness of the absurd, if you ask me.

[jwoww]

03:41 PM on 11/22/2010

you are right it is no big deal but it was a violation of their contracts which stated no contirbutions unless first approved by mgt. all in all it is a slap on the wrist although I do think it was a trial balloon to see if they could have unload KO

[tekno2600]

01:46 PM on 11/22/2010

MSNBC is still missing the point by applying a policy that applies to journalists, who are supposedly impartial, to commentators, who are obviously not impartial. Phil Griffin, like many Wall Street CEOs, is obviously an empty shirt who doesn't really know the first thing about the business he supposedly runs.

[Trackerinblue]

01:42 PM on 11/22/2010

What a w****e. How about hanging him out on an "indefinite" suspension, not knowing whether he will get his job back or not, like they did to KO.
And how is someone running for office "non-competitive" and also a "race" in the same sentence? Joe, you are a complete braun_nose.

[stillbarbi]

10:49 AM on 11/23/2010

Yes, and let's not forget he is a former congressmen (R) FL.

[Ron333wood]

01:22 PM on 11/22/2010

I don't particularly care for Joe...but this is nonsense. No employer should have the right to restrict your right to privately support whichever candidate, party ballot initiative that they want. It's seems more inappropriate that an employer would attempt to "control" it's employee's political activities.

[Pennsylvanianne]

02:00 PM on 11/22/2010

Media employers are a little different. The reporters, pundits, etc. they employ are supposed to have the appearance of neutrality though of course with Scarborough this is complete nonsense. However, the MSNBC policy apparently applies to all, regardless of whether their political views are clearly known to their audiences. Scarborough violated that employment policy. I've heard of newspapers that have forbidden employees to put campaign bumper stickers on their cars for the same reason. Freedom of speech? Only if you aren't a reporter (irony of ironies).

[Ron333wood]

07:48 PM on 11/22/2010

He didn't advocate "on air" for this individuals. What he does privately is his own business. The Constitutions can't be abridged by "contractual" obligations...but then it's the same logic that enables gays to be deprived of their Constitutional rights because of group that believe that God speaks directly to them and is an advocate of their position to deprive others that they perceive are "less deserving". The "employment policy is un-Constitutional...your Constitutional rights can't be allowed to be "bargained" away.

[jwoww]

03:43 PM on 11/22/2010

if you have a contract with an employeer or agree to their private sector employment regualtions they have every right to limit what you do and even in this case they did not say they could not contribute all their contracts say they need to disclose and have mgt approval.

this way they can monitor to see if there is unfair bias towards one particular candidate

[Ron333wood]

07:51 PM on 11/22/2010

What's next...you need approval to vote? Do you have to disclose that candidate for whom you cast your vote? If it's in the contract? Shades of Wal-Mart.

[ehorth]

01:05 PM on 11/22/2010

OK noted: Phil Griffin is an equal opportunity chastiser - he applies his HR rules to both Left and Right leaning employees. Next.

[splashy]

11:07 PM on 11/22/2010

That is what I was thinking. This is a whitewash, trying to make it look like Griffin is not partisan.

[Trackerinblue]

01:44 PM on 11/22/2010

...and how is it the same when KO was given an "indefinite" suspension that only turned out to be two days....