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MSNBC Shifts Its High Standards for Guests to Allow Jailed Lawyers

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Apr 10, 2024
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Presentation Paradox – MSNBC

  • Forgive us if we have trouble grasping your standards by this point.

Let's harken all the way back to a week or so ago when the pundit staff at MSNBC had an existential meltdown over former RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel being hired as a commentator on NBC News. It was already declared that Ronna would not appear on the cable channel, yet most hosts saw a need to dump their purses out on the table and wail about the woman they would not be working with in any fashion.

Hold all that fainting coach histrionics in mind as you behold who was a guest with Ari Melber last night. For reasons that could only make sense to Ari and his producer, they decided to have on disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti, who appeared via phone interview – due to being currently incarcerated. Suuurrrrre, there's a valid voice of reason you need to put on camera.

Somehow a known lying, disbarred, and jailed opportunist lawyer is fitting for what Nicolle Wallace had declared were MSNBC's "sacred airwaves."

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Race to the Bottom – CNN

  • Sure, he shot police, but isn't the real issue the police enforcing road violations?!

The network and the reporter behind the most risible image from the George Floyd riots are at it again. In a report concerning a motorist who was killed in a police shooting, Omar Jimenez repeats this same blueprint, as he attempts to generate the problem having begun with police. 

In the story, a 26-year-old was pulled over for a driving infraction, and in the course of the interaction, he drew a gun, fired about a dozen rounds, and injured an officer before attempting to drive off. Then, after defying instructions and exiting his vehicle, he was ultimately gunned down. While Jimenez delivers a fractured interpretation, he suggests that, while the driver was in the wrong, perhaps none of this would have transpired had the police not stopped him for a seatbelt violation.

Democratic Custodial Services – UNIVISION

  • Next step – an animated version of presidential interviews.

To see how the propping up of President Biden is not reserved for English-speaking networks, Jorge Bonilla delivers this amusement from Univision which recently interviewed Biden. Instead of providing subtitles for the president's speech (understandably a challenge at times), the network went with a voice overdubbing, which masked his impacted vocal stylings and instead gave Joe the countenance something closer to Ricard Montalban in a car commercial.

Legalized Press-titution – CNN

  • It's just confounding why networks would want to broadcast a historical meeting like this!

As the evidence that Joe Biden needs to be in environments that are more controlled and scripted becomes more and more obvious, this also presents a challenge for normal election decorum. The need to hide Biden's challenges in impromptu settings flies directly into a problem: How would he appear in a presidential debate?

As far back as last Fall, his campaign indicated an unwillingness to engage in the traditional format, and the fallback excuse is a refusal to dignify Trump and blame the resisting on not wanting to normalize a democracy-defying entity like Trump.

In his analysis of this, CNN's Oliver Darcy follows the Democrat strategy to the letter – even as a letter from all major news networks is written to compel the candidates to join in a debate. Mr. Darcy cannot fathom why networks might be interested in hosting these events. He finds this desire to attract an audience to be "curious." 

DNC PR Firm – CNN

  • Are we not doing the science thing any longer?

Jake Tapper interviewed a reporter from ESPN to discuss the issue of trans athletes in women's sports. This stemmed from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics deciding to ban trans individuals from competing in women's disciplines. 

The first sign of trouble is that reporter Katie Barnes identifies as non-binary and is operating from an activist position. Then Barnes goes on to say that "scientifically" it has never been proven that biological males have a physical advantage over women. 

That Tapper just lets this blatantly inaccurate comment go unchallenged or even explored further is almost amazing.