The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi created a bit of a media storm Friday after he reported that MSNBC Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, and company, pre-taped Friday’s show on Wednesday. Despite their “day-after Thanksgiving kibitzing,” as Farhi wrote, none of what they kibitzed about had yet occurred.
Farhi quoted a “longtime viewer of the program” who reached out to the Post to “inquire if Morning Joe was presenting ‘fake news.'”
“I was quite flabbergasted by the way they were so deceptive about this…especially when they are always so quick to castigate lying [or] deception they attribute to others,” said the viewer, who probably works at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The resident of that address also made note of the pretape this morning on Twitter.
The good news is that their ratings are terrible, nobody cares! https://t.co/I7h4Ryin3h
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2017
“They’re having fun with the pretense that it’s live,” an MSNBC spokesperson told the Post.
But, as it turns out, this is nothing new. Morning Joe has pre-taped its Black Friday episode for at least the past eight years.