Joe & Mika: They Were Never Journalists

“Mika from Morning Joe has never met a follow up question she thought she should ask. And, why is it that this woman who advocates for women supporting women, seems to only be surrounded by men at her morning table? Coyly flirtatious, she acts like their mothers, not their peer in journalism. How about she pulls up a chair and invites some of the women who actually are journalists to ask the follow up questions?” - Christine Merser, 2015

I have always disliked the Morning Joe show. The dynamic between Mika and the men around her reminded me of my mother and father at the table, (anxious mother trying to keep volatile father calm). Besides, I just didn’t have the time to watch Joe reveling in what he considers his own genius assessment of what is happening in the world, not to be confused about a real assessment of it.

“Joe Scarborough is like so many men I’ve known in my life; anything short of total adoration is unacceptable.” - Christine Merser, 2015

But the best moment on the show, in my caustic-ridden opinion, was when Mika’s father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, put Joe in his place. Joe was interrupting him and telling him he was wrong about the Bush administration around their handling of Israel.

Here is what Zbigniew Brzezinski said in response. “You have a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on. It’s almost embarrassing to listen to you.” Mika looks at the camera raising her eyebrows, and all Joe could muster in response was, “Is it?” What happened next? Mika and Joe got married of course. She married her bully father. You can’t make this up.

But their real crime against humanity is giving DT45 credibility in 2015 and 2016. As CNNMoney and others have documented, Joe and Mika—who visited privately with Trump on multiple occasions during the primaries—were overwhelmingly supportive of the Republican candidate during that time, consistently praising his unconventional campaign and defending him from his critics.

Joe, especially, spoke about Trump in glowing terms, praising him as "a masterful politician." The Washington Post wrote that Trump had received "a tremendous degree of warmth from the show" and that his appearances on the show, in person and over the phone, often felt like "a cozy social club."

They gave him a platform without rebuttal over and over again, and never once made him accountable for the lies he was saying on air. And the people—we the people—watched and laughed, and that was the end of that.

"Morning Joe" has always existed at the crossroads of news and entertainment, leaning heavily toward the latter, if you ask me. Joe brings a thin veneer of political credibility from his brief stint in Congress thirty years ago, but his lack of journalistic experience is glaring. Scarborough served as a Republican congressman for Florida’s 1st district from 1995 to 2001, resigning abruptly just months into his fourth term. Officially, the resignation was to spend more time with his family, but it left many questions unanswered and underscored his tendency to leave unfinished business. In transitioning to television, Joe’s style often mirrored that of a politician seeking applause rather than a journalist pursuing truth, positioning him more as a pundit with a partisan past than a seasoned journalist.

Mika Brzezinski, meanwhile, has built a brand around advocating for women, particularly with her "Know Your Value" campaign. However, her on-air presence doesn’t back up her women’s advocacy. A critical journalist is measured by their ability to press for answers and dig deeper, yet Brzezinski routinely fails to ask follow-up questions, often letting evasive or contradictory statements from guests go unchallenged. Her lack of knowledge is glaring.

Her promotion of female empowerment also rings hollow when examining "Morning Joe" itself—a platform notably lacking in diverse female voices, particularly those outside the political and social elite. Despite the optics of her advocacy, Brzezinski’s actions suggest that supporting women doesn’t extend to creating a space for them to be heard on her own show.

Back to 2016. Scarborough and Brzezinski were actually cheerleaders for Trump during the 2016 campaign, giving him hours of uncritical airtime that some argue legitimized his candidacy. Their cozy relationship with Trump culminated in publicized visits to Mar-a-Lago, which critics described as sycophantic efforts to curry favor with the former president. While they later distanced themselves from Trump following his presidency, the damage was done—cementing their roles as entertainers who dabbled in politics, rather than journalists holding power to account.

And now they did it again after November’s election, and while there was a blip saying people were turning off the show in protest, the real numbers show they are not.

It’s on us, people! Why, oh why, are we giving these sycophants our time and brain space? Stop. Stop. Stop. Beg others to stop. Cultivate your news input. Put together your posse of journalists worth reading, watching, and learning through. I have a book coming out in the new year, Circles of Collaboration, which walks through a theory of how the success of our future in business and life will be determined by the circles of collaborators with whom we choose to surround ourselves. Are Mika and Joe really worth your circle?

"Morning Joe" isn’t journalism—it’s infotainment wrapped in a political talk-show format. Their inability to separate their personal ambitions and relationships from their public personas should be a deal-breaker for us. Start your morning with Heather Cox Richardson, for God’s sake. As Scarborough and Brzezinski continue to market themselves as thought leaders, it’s worth remembering their selective accountability and whose values their platform truly serves—and that we the people are giving them agency and oxygen in the political arena.