MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Scarborough, this morning unleashed an anti-Muslim rant which lumped the Muslim and Arab populations of all Middle East countries together, falsely claimed sentiment around the world for the U.S. has dropped under President Obama, as the “reporters” on “Morning Joe” sat there, silent, sans a few words of support from Mika Brzezinski, and a slight deflection from Andrea Mitchell.
“You know why they hate us?,” Scarborough began, as he used NY Times columnist Nick Kristof’s “The Foreign Relations Fumbler,” as a kicking-off point.
“They hate us because of their religion, they hate us because of their culture, and they hate us because of peer pressure. You talk to any intelligence person, they will tell you that’s the same thing. And all those people who think we’re going to go over there and change them are just naive. Think about the savagery — the sheer unrestrained savagery — that we have seen across the Middle East and the Arab world because of a crude film. They know what they’re doing.”
Scarborough is a moderate Republican who, rumor has it, is considering a 2016 run.
Calling the anti-Muslim YouTube film that set off the recent protests and violence that led to the killing of four U.S. foreign service officials and “excuse,” Scarborough said:
“One intelligence person told me, if you scratch the surface, and if you gave every street vendor to prime minister in that region a chance to throw a rock at the U.S. embassy, they would.”
Dylan Byers at Politico responds by writing, “[s]o… In Libya, where U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed, a majority of citizens (54 percent) approve of the leadership of United States’ leadership, according to Gallup. That’s up from 30-percent approval ratings in 2010 and 2011, and just one point below our current approval rating in Israel. 2011 approval ratings elsewhere range from 9 percent (Iran) to 37 percent (Algeria) — not a majority, but certainly far from “every street vendor to prime minister in that region” (though what you mean by “that region” is of course unclear.)”
But take it from NBC’s Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell: “It’s different from country to country,” she told Scarborough.
It is different from country to country. Meanwhile, in this country, Arabs and Muslims have the lowest favorable ratings (41 and 40 percent, respectively) when compared against all other religious groups, according to an August survey from the Arab American Institute. But if you want to keep touting this line about the savagery of “they,” I’m sure you could push it lower.
It’s time for MSNBC to actually become the progressive, liberal, Democratic network it’s supposed to be, which means, bye, bye, Joe Scarborough.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
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