Staff Reports
In a recent episode of MSNBC's Morning Joe, a guest made the outrageous claim that former President Donald Trump would order the Federal Communications Commision (FCC) to take host Joe Scarborough's programme off the air if he were reelected. After Scarborough delivered a lengthy monologue about the alleged "autocratic" nature of Republicans, this visitor went on a rant. Scarborough cited the recent Ohio ballot question battle and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' removal of a Democratic prosecutor as examples of this autocratic behaviour.
'IT'S OVER!': Morning Joe Guest Hilariously Suggests Trump Would End MSNBC Through The FCC If Victorioushttps://t.co/KmJ2xde6gI
— 🇺🇸🇺🇸Josh Dunlap🇺🇲🇺🇲 ULTRA-MAGA (@JDunlap1974) August 11, 2023
The guest continued by stating that if Trump were to prevail, everything else would be rendered irrelevant. They asserted that Trump has expressed a desire for the FCC to report directly to him and that he would use this authority to cancel Scarborough's programme. A Trump presidency, according to this visitor, would spell the end of freedom as we know it. It is a genuinely extreme viewpoint that exemplifies the left-leaning media's frequent use of hyperbolic language.
Not one to shrink away from dramatic comparisons, Scarborough compared the guest's apocalyptic fantasy to Hungary's President Viktor Orbán, who has been criticised for manipulating the media to advance his agenda. This sort of fear-mongering is all too common on MSNBC, particularly as President Trump gained ground in the Republican primary. It appears that any opportunity to cast Trump or his supporters in a negative light is avidly pursued.
Not for the first time has MSNBC made alarmist claims about the possibility of a Trump presidency. This week, a self-described conservative visitor warned that a second term for Trump would spell the "end of the Department of Justice's independence." They hypothesised that Trump would employ federal prosecutors as a weapon against his adversaries. Notably, these claims conveniently ignore allegations of identical treatment against Trump by prosecutors under the Biden administration. The discriminatory outrage is palpable.
On MSNBC, demands for the censorship of conservative voices are not uncommon. An ex-intelligence official even proposed a "new Patriot Act" that would permit warrantless wiretapping of conservative activists. In addition, the network has compared the events of January 6 to the Civil War and Pearl Harbour, and a Democratic congresswoman almost said that Trump "needs to be shot" before correcting herself. These occurrences only bolster the biassed and frequently erratic nature of the network's coverage.
This episode of Morning Joe displayed the fear-mongering and exaggeration that have become all too common on MSNBC. The guest's claim that Trump would order the FCC to cancel Scarborough's programme is unfounded and serves only to further denigrate the former president. The network's alarmist rhetoric and biassed coverage continue to contribute to our nation's political polarisation.
