A Left-Wing Boycott Could Sink 'Morning Joe'
MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski visited Mar-a-Lago last week to visit President-elect Donald Trump, whom they've spent much of the past six months likening to Adolf Hitler.
The somewhat shocking meeting stirred outrage within the left-wing media ecosystem, including inside MSNBC. Network contributor Jennifer Rubin, a very unpleasant woman, called for a boycott of the show on Monday.
"Disgusting," Rubin wrote on the liberal hellscape Bluesky. "The market works great. You can stop watching Morning Joe anytime."
CNN media writer Brian Stelter reported that Rubin is not alone, adding that loyal "Morning Joe" viewers are furious about the Trump meeting, calling it a "betrayal of their colleagues, democracy, and us all. It is a disgusting show of obeisance in advance."
Oh.
Scarborough and Brzezinski won't take such threats lightly. A program like "Morning Joe" is uniquely vulnerable to boycotts because the audience is so partisan.
According to Pew Research, just 3% of MSNBC viewers vote Republican. No network's audience abhors Trump more than MSNBC's. And no show on MSNBC devoted more air time to anti-Trump coverage than "Joe" did.
So, don't be surprised if Jennifer Rubin is not the only TDS-suffering viewer to respond with a boycott. They were, after all, told Trump would end democracy and rule with an authoritarian fist.
Related: SNL’s Election Ratings Crater As 89% of Jokes Targeted Donald Trump.
Had Scarborough and Brzezinski actually felt that, they would not have sat with Trump two weeks later. Naturally, "Joe" viewers feel duped.
And because the show has been so overtly dishonest toward Trump, it's unlikely that "Joe" will be able to replace those viewers with moderates and/or Trump supporters.
CNN tried to shift more toward the middle – and we aren't sure that's what Scarborough and Brzezinski's plan is – under the tutelage of Chris Licht. It didn't work. CNN lost more ardent leftists with the shift than moderates and conservatives it gained.
MSNBC has already set generationally low ratings since Trump's victory over MSNBC fav Kamala Harris. Last Tuesday, one week after the election, the channel posted its lowest-rated total day viewership since August 7, 2001 – when George W. Bush was in the White House.
Since Election Day, MSNBC has averaged only 550,000 day viewers, a 39% decline from the network’s average in October. (CNN hasn't fared much better, averaging 413,000 viewers since the election and a 43% decline in primetime.)
It's not getting better for MSNBC. And now viewers have turned on their favorite does of morning propaganda.