Avenue - July 2009

With a lineup including staunch Democrats like Keith Olbermann, Rachel
Maddow and Chris Matthews, MSNBC is not where you’d expect to
find a show hosted by former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough.
You might even call “Morning Joe” the “Elephant in the Room.” With
a breakthrough TV format, the potential for yet more political screaming,
and hate mail from angry conservatives shouting ‘traitor’ at one of their own
for switching sides, the show seemed doomed. Now, one year later, Joe has
proven all the naysayers wrong with ratings that have outdone his predecessor,
Don Imus. On the road with his new book, The Last Best Hope: Restoring
Conservatism and America’s Promise, Joe has been talking to a fractured GOP,
hoping to save them from themselves. He stopped to talk to author and
editor Harold Evans about “Morning Joe,” his book, whether or
not the Republican party has a future and if he is it. “Morning Joe” co-host
Mika Brzezinski has something to say first:

There are easier ways to make a living as a public figure than the route Joe Scarborough has chosen. On this particular June morning, the retired Republican congressman has spent his first three hours broadcasting on “Morning Joe” while brushing away one liberal argument after another. In a media world that I have come to see as dominated by left-of-center journalists who still seem smitten by the new president, there are times when Joe Scarborough appears to be the last honest sheriff in town.

But don’t tell that to his conservative radio audience, who listen to him every morning from 10 a.m. to noon. Joe usually spends those hours beating back an angry mob of conservative listeners who are convinced that Scarborough is too liberal to be on WABC radio.

Today, Joe Scarborough will be attacked on his own station by conservative host and author Mark Levin, who chides the “failed politician” for being too liberal. Never mind the fact that Joe was the first Republican elected in his district since 1872 and got re-elected three more times by an average of 80 percent.

The same week, The New York Times will blast Joe Scarborough as the “leader of the Republican attack machine.”

When I worked as a correspondent for the “CBS Evening News,” we defined a good, balanced story as one that neither side was satisfied with. So Joe Scarborough must be onto something when it comes to his view of what ails American politics. He may be on a lonely mission to bring true bipartisanship back to Washington, but he’s not alone.

His vision in creating a show like “Morning Joe” is being rewarded. The show’s ratings have eclipsed the Imus show he replaced, and was the only news show to make The New York Times’ top TV shows of 2008.

While other news hosts seemed intent on becoming more shrill, “Morning Joe” lowered the volume on public discourse and brought a real sense of intellectual “accessibility” to the national conversation. When others seemed more interested in talking about Britney or Paris, Joe Scarborough booked Pulitzer Prize winners and experts in foreign affairs, and allowed me to find my own voice, one that mirrors his disgust for fake news and false “objectivity.”

I am a fed-up newswoman, tired of being asked to sell ridiculous garbage stories as legitimate news. That’s why my fit with his vision for the program is perfect.

It was a bold gamble that keeps paying off. The same can be said with his radio show. Ratings continue to shoot upward and more callers are embracing Joe’s call for a return to civility in public service. You can hear it in the callers’ voices. Some are turned around before they hang up the phone.

Now, he takes his mission to the publishing world, where political rhetoric has been the harshest in recent years. With his new book, The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America’s Promise, Scarborough is once again taking a gamble that Americans will want more than harsh hyperbole and dogmatic screeds. About the book, Christopher Buckley says in the Daily Beast: “Joe Scarborough can save the GOP. I have found the new face of the Republican Party: Joe Scarborough.”

Hmmmm.

Selfishly, I would prefer if he stays in television, but some say the party needs him. Judging from his track record, Joe’s confidence in the American people will be rewarded.