Is There a Coverup in the Coffee at MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”?

Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarsborough

On the set of “MORNING JOE: brought to you by Starbucks” on MSNBC, the story on Rush Limbaugh took a turn for the worse. Donnny Deutsch (@donny_deutsch) may have committed a faux pas in American media that might otherwise have cost him his job. Instead, I suspect his employer orchestrated a cover up with the hopes of the story dying down. Well, maybe this story will die down, but not until we, the people, have had a chance to contribute our two cents.

The segment started with host Joe Scarborough (@joenbc) arguing that perhaps the general public was too harsh on Rush Limbaugh when he lost his job on ESPN. Limbaugh’s comments in 2003 were about Donovan McNabb’s benefitting from affirmative action policies towards black quarterbacks. These comments were brought up amidst Rush’s recently announced desire to acquire a controlling stake in the NFL St. Louis Rams. Given that 67% of NFL players are African American, it makes sense for MSNBC to explore the racial bias’, if any, of the potential owner. For this, the network should be commended.

Donny Deutsch - what did he really say?

Joe felt that Rush was unfairly branded a racist because he said “on the air what most people say off the air.” In a mid sentence supplement to Joe’s comments, Donny Deutsche chimed in with an audible “yeah” and followed with a demonstrative comment that was immediately bleeped. His hand gesture suggests that his perspective was aligned with that of Joe but we’ll never really know what was said. Co-anchor Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) then joined the conversation and suggested that Donny apologize to contributor Eugene Robinson, an African American, who was due to speak next.

The resulting chatter was immense, with many wondering what Donny had said. At the end of the show, he intimated that he had called Rush Limbaugh a “douchebag” but we are not so sure. The verbal and body language of all the anchors immediately afterward suggest that a comment had been made that might be construed as racially offensive. But again, we’ll never know. It seems strange, though that Mika would request that Donny apologize to the only African American on the set if in fact he had made a comment that was offensive to women. Again, we don’t know what was said. We smell a cover up but unless an MSNBC staffer reveals the truth, we’ll never know.

Washington Post Journalist Eugene Robinson

This incident highlights the sensitivities associated with discussions on race. On the one hand, these are hard discussions to have given the depth and strength of racial attitudes in America. On the other hand, if we don’t ever discuss them, we’ll never get past them. MSNBC’s Morning Joe may actually be the perfect media vehicle for discussing tough topics because of its ideological balance and demographic diversity. Talking is as much art as it is science.

For dialogues on tough subjects to take place, we, the general public, have got to give the network and its anchors greater lattitude to make mistakes. In a national conversation, they are bound to uncover known attitudes that exist on the surface but also latent attitudes that are below the surface. Until all ideas get brought to the surface, we may never get passed this 400 year old issue.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I have not come to bury MSNBC, but to praise the network for taking an initial step towards an honest conversation. We don’t condone a coverup but we understand it. In a world of tight ad budgets, disappearing sponsors and short term gotcha journalism, it is understandable why MSNBC would want to bury this incident. But maybe it is time to turn the page on how we talk about race, gender and other difficult subjects.