The world may sometimes feel like a vast sea of greed, evil and misery, but surely the citizens of the planet have not done enough terrible things to deserve a having a fourth hour of “Morning Joe” foisted upon them.
Yet, according to Mediaite’s well-sourced Joe Concha, that is precisely what MSNBC is about to do. In the latest of what is looking like a near wholesale clear-out, Concha writes that the network is going to ditch its current 10 a.m. hour, hosted by Jose Diaz-Balart, and give viewers an extra helping of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski instead.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the only fourth hour of a morning show that has ever worked is the fourth hour of the “Today” show. But Joe and Mika are no Hoda and Kathie Lee. The latter bring joy and delight to the world; the former lay waste to all that is good and true.
Alright, so that may be pushing it a bit. Things could be worse. MSNBC could be hiring Chris Cuomo away from CNN, for instance. But the fact remains that “Morning Joe” is the perfect representation of so much that is wrong in our media world. Most TV shows at least pretend like they’re speaking to Jane Public out there, but “Morning Joe” openly gloats about its insularity and elitism. It is explicit in its disdain for the world beyond the establishment. It treats sneering arrogance as a positive thing. It has never met a billionaire CEO it couldn’t venerate or a warmongering pundit it couldn’t toast.