Following a twitter dust-up between “Morning Joe” anchor Joe Scarborough and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, MSNBC President Phil Griffin has stepped in and asked his staff to “take a break from booking [Moulitsas] on our shows for a while.”
In late May, Moulitsas responded to Scarborough’s tweets about Joe Sestak by tweeting, “Like story of a certain dead intern. RT @JoeNBC: Luckily for the White House, the media has been negligent on this story since Day 1.”
Scarborough took exception to the remark — which references the tragic 2001 death of former staffer Lori Klausutis — writing, “Unbelievable. You have a long history of spreading lies suggesting I am a murderer. This is the 3rd or 4th time by my count.” (Full exchange here as well as Moulitsas’ account of the story.)
“I found the comments to be in poor taste, and utterly uncalled for in a civil discourse,” Griffin wrote in an email to Moulitsas. “I’m hoping this will be only temporary and that the situation can be resolved in a mature fashion, but until then I just don’t know how one could reasonably expect to be welcomed onto our network while publicly antagonizing one of our hosts at the same time.”
It’s unclear how long the “blacklist” will last, but with Moulitsas claiming in his response that the president of the network “lets Scarborough call the shots” probably won’t win him back an invitation anytime soon. For now, Moulitsas claims he’s “often uncomfortable” on television and, in part, “would be grateful” if he never appeared on TV again. “I did as much MSNBC as I did because I like and respect Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz,” he wrote.
The full email from Griffin to Kos after the jump.
Markos,
Blog if you must, but here is my on the record statement to you which I ask that you print in full:
Yes, after I became aware of the ugly cheap shot you took at Joe on Twitter, I asked the teams to take a break from booking you on our shows for a while. I found the comments to be in poor taste, and utterly uncalled for in a civil discourse.
I’m hoping this will be only temporary and that the situation can be resolved in a mature fashion, but until then I just don’t know how one could reasonably expect to be welcomed onto our network while publicly antagonizing one of our hosts at the same time.
The DailyKos community has been among the most supportive of MSNBC, and we continue to appreciate that support.