What happened to Joe Scarborough?

[ThumperDumper]

Is it just me or did he stop being a rightwing hack and start being a journalist?

I can't even remember the last time I heard him spout rightwing blather. I remember watching him during Katrina and thinking, "Holy shit, when did HE become a REAL journalist?"

I bring this up, because I just saw him on Bill Mahr's show and he seemed reasonable. But what I REALLY noticed was that, when talking about conservatives, he always said, "They", and never, "We".

Thoughts? -JJ

[LuCifer]

1. good question

Actually, too bad ALL of these turds won't just up and disappear!

So is his intern still dead?

Ain't it great how if you got that MAGIC R after your name, you can do damn near anything and nothing happens to ya? Sickening.

Lu

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. I thought he was being generally obnoxious

but he did make a few reasonable points...so I guess it's a start, it still doesn't change my opinion of him that he's a huge prick

[Cleita]

3. I haven't seen Maher yet. It's coming up for me in less than

two hours. The last time he was on Maher he dominated the debate with RW talking points and misinformation. It was like he was making up stuff while he spoke and none of it was true.

So did he have an Arianna type of epiphany?

[Reverend_Smitty]

7. no

he made a few reasonable statements during the show but was being quite disrespectful to a former head of state most of the hour

[musette_sf]

4. "reasonable"?

You mean that part about shouting down a former President and attorney like she was just some mouthy chick he had to put the smack down on?

Or the part where the eminently agreeable John Waters got shouted down all night?

Or maybe the parts when (1) he got all moist and creamy over the Reagan "legacy", (2) defended US torture, (3) dissed the suggestion of having UN interrogation efforts in Guantanamo Bay, etc etc etc?

To think Scareborough was in any way reasonable on Maher's show tonight, indicates one may be watching too much mainsteam media news.

[fooj]

10. I agree.

The good doctor from CNN offered the idiot valium.

I'd bet my home that in three years there won't be many giving Little Lord Pissypant's any accolades. No doubt about that one. Joe's dreaming.

Peace.

[peace frog]

15. Hear hear!

He's a sanctimonious dick.

[Maraya1969]

28. Oh yea, Bush's low poll ratings - Regan and Truman had low ratings

also in their second terms. I wanted to scream "Bill Clinton" was still in the 60's while he was being impeached"

[minkyboodle]

5. hmmmm

something about rats deserting a sinking ship comes to mind... Honestly I watched tonights Real Time and I found Joe S. to be just as offensive as ever, playing the same "middle america vs evil coasts" and mr fair and balanced shit that he always plays. I just think he has realized that defending this admin on all things will harm his career so he has adjusted the rhetoric accordingly.

[ClassWarrior]

6. Put it this way... I wouldn't turn my back on the guy.

NGU.

[rooboy]

8. He's been frightened from seeing all the Republicans getting indicted...

and has figured that if he gets a little more moderate that nobody will seriously investigate how he killed his intern.

[jane_pippin]

9. I have to disagree. He was so disrespectful and full of shit.

Yelling at a president, acting like Oooh, he didn't know that anybody in the administration knew about torture--just a few bad apples. Spare me, Joe.

He can act all "reasonable" by trying to compare this disaster of a presidency to recent history and circle back so he can say things like "it doesn't really matter what's happening now," and that might fool you into thinking he's not a prick for a minute, but he is, in fact, a total prick.

[NVMojo]

11. what I noticed was when he was arguing in favor of torture, few

applauded him in the audience and he was looking at the audience. After that, he seemed completely different ...

[davidwparker]

12. Did you hear him deny death squads in central America? Sounds like

he is still a RW hack.

[jane_pippin]

21. I thought he was bringing those up to shift the conversation from

U.S. torture in Iraq to the death squads so he could say, "well yeah, we do bad things all the time and you didn't say anything about it then."
So he could minimalize Abu Ghirab and give us this lovely gem:

"Is waterboarding torture?"

YES Joe, you prick, it is.

[Justitia]

24. Right! He actually expected them to say it wasn't torture - WTF?!? =eom

[Justitia]

22. No shit! Uh, crack a history book Joe - it's in there. -eom

[devilgrrl]

13. It's been mentioned but he's still a RW hack...

that needs a sock stuffed down his throat.

Typical chickenshit asshole.

[LostInAnomie]

14. He did a good job of fellating Reagen's corpse.

I wish the ex-Irish Pres. would have put his smug ass in his place when he was berating her. Like we have any room to talk about human rights anymore.

[Zen Democrat]

16. I don't think we saw the same show ....

Scarborough actually condoned torture by saying that it's always been done -- and his examples were Vietnam and Nicaragua. Apparently, because Reagan sponsored death squads in Nicaragua, there's nothing wrong with the US setting up torture camps in Europe.

I don't find anything reasonable in this.

[Garbo 2004]

17. He's never been a journalist. Those r talking head shows, not journalism.

Joe's a Republican politician turned talking head. He's not there to be a journalist or be objective.

Like Tweety, they may stray on occasion from the GE fold, but inevitably they go right back. Those programs are as authentic as pro wrestling. It's theater. They mix things up to keep people watching.

[oldlady]

18. He tried to blame Abu Ghraib

on too much responsibility for untrained YAHOOs in the National Guard. Dude......that is too disrespectful to soldiers for my taste & I'm a liberal. I want to see someone slam his ass for that alone. YAHOOs, YAHOOs???? F him and I never swear on the internets.
peace

[musette_sf]

35. don't forget the rhapsodizing

about the kinder, gentler torture in Central America, vs. current events. :puke:

[BamaGirl]

37. Yeah, that just burned my ass

I was in the Army and the Guard, and my husband spent two fucking years deployed as a Guard soldier. Yahoos my ass. :grr:

[kentuck]

19. He's promoting a " moderate" image because....

he wants to run for Senate from Florida... But tonight, he came across as a right-wing hack, imo...

[BJW]

20. Actually he was spewing

talking points and RW lies that if you're familiar with them you could identify them right away.

Like the one about supposedly The Guardian not carrying a front page story, but instead putting the story about the Iraqi election on page A24. This is another version of a discredited TP lie that Rush has previously claimed about the WaPo.

According to Rush, the WaPo didn't carry teeh story on their front page and issntead carried the story on p. A24 (or A22?)--which was complete bull and an outright lie! The "A24" claim comes from the fact that these stories were continued on farther back in the paper--a common practice. In addition, the WaPo carried other stories about it as well elsewhere in the first section.

There were a whole bunch of other TPs that he spewed out, rapid fire, but he wasn't called on them.

I thought he was extremely rude to Ireland's former president, and to John Waters (see my other post seeking discussion about Bill Maher's guests).

[Vinnie From Indy]

23. Scaraborough a journalist! LOL!!!

That is about the funniest thing I have ever read on DU! !

[Norquist Nemesis]

25. Are you in his voting district?

Because that's what he's schilling. He hasn't made a definite decision, but that's what his most recent 'moderation' is all about.

I'll agree with you that he didn't sound as extreme right wing as we normally see. But it's a strategy for a possible election run. And the trouble with that is it means strengthening the "shift" toward the Cons.

[Justitia]

26. He felt outnumbered on the torture issue, so he tried to recover.

by changing his tact with the prevailing audience opinion.
It didn't work,
Then he couldn't help himself and went right back to being the obnoxious asshole he really is.

Who the fuck defends torture? Oh yeah, sociopathic monsters.

[Maraya1969]

27. He lost it when he kept talking support for changing the Muslim

world. And when the past President of Ireland said that the US had lot a lot of respect in the world he had his arms folded. He folded them several times when she spoke - definite body language close up.

He is still a right winged hack even though he criticizes the Republicans sometimes.

[WiseButAngrySara]

29. If Scarface seems reasonable, I'm sure it's an act. I can't listen to

him without wanting to smash the TV set, so I don't listen to him, just as I don't listen to Faux. They are all phony liars. What is this about an intern though? Curious.

[Justitia]

33. An intern was found dead in his congressional office.

A young, pretty, female one.
Funny how little we hear about that from the Chappaquiddick screamers on the right.
The cause of death was undetermined and there were lots of questions raised about the medical examiner.
A thing like that might torpedo any aspiring young politician - unless he's a RW blowhard - then he gets his own TV show.

[henslee]

34. I remember whe loriklausutis.com took you to a MichaelMoore.com web page

[chat_noir]

46. Joe Scarborough's dead intern

It was great to see that Chandra Levy has been laid to rest, now 2 years after her disappearance. Rest in Peace Chandra. It's too bad her family had to deal with the whole controversy surrounding her disappearance and murder. I can't help but wonder why another similar case did not get the same attention.

I'm talking about of course former Republican Congressman from Florida, Joe Scarborough, who now has a cushy job reporting for MSNBC. Back in July 2001, in the middle of the summer of Chandra frenzy, a young intern by the name of Lori Klausutis was found dead in the Florida office of Joe Scarborough Initial reports said that there was no signs of trauma to the body. Several weeks later, the autopsy report was finally released:

The official medical examiner, Dr. Michael Berkland, then conducted an extensive autopsy - more than 80 hours - before announcing his findings last week.

Berkland said Klausutis died from a blow to the head, probably caused when she fainted and fell to the floor after an attack of a previously undiagnosed "valvular condition of the heart." Klausutis, an avid runner and member of the Northwest Florida Track Club, had never evinced heart problems before - but such things happen, Berkland said. He also admitted that authorities had previously lied about her fatal wound in order to forestall media inquiries into the case. "The last thing we wanted was 40 questions about a head injury," he told the Northwest Florida Daily News.

Berkland moved to Florida after his medical license was revoked in Missouri following a 1998 case in which he was found to have falsified information in an autopsy report, American Political Journal reported.

http://www.bluebus.org/archives/000258.php


Dr. Michael Berkland in Missouri

“Former Jackson County coroner Mike Berkland provides the brains for a scandal in Florida”

November 21, 2001—Prior to coming to northwest Florida, Dr. Michael E. Berkland served as Deputy Medical Examiner for Jackson County, Missouri, from 1994 to 1996. He was terminated from the medical examiner’s office because he did not perform his duties as a medical examiner in a timely manner. He later lost the authority to perform autopsies in Missouri when the Circuit Court of Jackson County found that he had indeed falsified autopsy reports. Finally, in March 1999, Dr. Berkland lost his license to practice medicine of any kind in the state.

According to affidavits filed by Dr. Michael Young, the Acting Medical Examiner of Jackson County, and by Dr. Sam Gulino, the board-certified forensic pathologist who replaced Dr. Berkland, Drs. Young and Gulino were “conducting a review of files and specimens fromautopsies handled by Dr. Berkland,” when they “located eight unsectioned brains in containers of Formalin.” When the doctors looked at Berkland’s documentation, Dr. Young notes, “we discovered that Dr. Berkland provided false information on the eight accompanying autopsy reports.” When these brains were sectioned and studied the findings did not in any way match the rather extensive notes contained within Berkland’s completed autopsy reports. Dr. Berkland “made completed descriptions of the brain in eight of the cases. In each case, there is clear evidence of an intent to make up autopsy findings without performing the necessary examination,” according to Dr. Young A complaint was filed with the Administrative Hearing Commission of the State of Missouri.

Dr. Young provided testimony at the hearing, held in January 1998, as well as substantial documentation of the alleged falsified reports, including photographs of the unsectioned brains, a tabular analysis comparing Dr. Berkland’s ‘findings’ with the actual findings and “possible sources of plagiarism for some of Dr. Berkland’s descriptions.” The Circuit Court of Jackson County found in its ruling on February 19, 1998, that the “defendant poses a substantial probability of serious danger to the health, safety and welfare ofhis patients, clients and/or the residents of Missouri.” The court continued that “respondent’s conduct as set forth herein constitutes misconduct, fraud, misrepresentation, dishonesty, unethical conduct and unprofessional conduct in the practice of medicine.” It also stated that Berkland exhibited incompetence and negligence and barred him from performing autopsies or from serving as a medical examiner in the state.

http://tinyurl.com/dhxjo

[The Traveler]

30. Oh, please

Scab-boy is just trying to regain some last shred of respectability. Guess what. It is far too late for that. He is an apologist for the torturers. He deserves nothing but contempt.

[grannylib]

31. he never has been nor ever will be a journalist. he's trying to sound more

moderate; ever since he was approached to possibly run for office again, he's been terrified of the left - they might bring up Lori Klausutis again, and the pass he got for HIS dead intern might just go away.
he does NOT want to have that brought up again, not with an unlicensed doctor doing the autopsy and admitting he falsified cause of death since nobody wanted to be dealing with a head injury death...heart attack/faint is SO much nicer and cleaner to deal with.

[AlCzervik]

32. he smells gop blood in the water and he doesn't want to be part of

the chum, thats all and nothing more.

[SoCalDem]

36. He's the same hack he always was..

He's a tax-cutting, program-slashing, corporate toady, same as he always was, but now that he's not running for re-election, he can spout off when it suits him.. These guys like to mix it up to keep all the viewers onboard.. Lou Dobbs is a prime example.. For AGES, he has been a xenophobe, but a while back he latched onto the outsourcing issue, and picked up a lot of lefties in his fan club, but he's back to the xenophobia , doubletime.. That's HIS pet issue.."illegals"..

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

38. Thoughts? He's a "we." nt

[LynneSin]

39. He was all over the Bush Regime last night on Mahler

Maybe he's done a 'David Brock' and realized he was "Blinded by the Right". But personally I don't trust him - I'm noticing more and more a trend with right-wing hacks starting to find little ways to kick the Bush Regime in the knees

Sure, it's real easy to kick Bush when he's sinking real low, real fast. But by-golly, where the hell were you Joe when all us liberals were screaming back in 2002-3 that the Bush Regime was lying about the war?

[LaPera]

41. BULLSHIT!!!! You must of seen a different show..Besides the CIA outting...

(And what else could Scarborough say after Maher put the republican lies about the CIA outting so perfectly in perspective).

Scarborough couldn't kiss Bush's ass enough...constantly comparing Bush to his idol, Reagan...Saying in three years Bush will prove everyone wrong about Iraq, Bush's poll numbers will get up in the 60% range like Reagan, on and on... Scarborough is such a right-wing piece of shit...Scarborough a completely asshole and a disgusting republican liar!!!!

Man, it's amazing how people want to go out of their way to find new ways to kiss Scarborough's (and other republicans) asses!!!!!

[LynneSin]

45. Who said I was kissing ass

Just noticing a trend for these right-wing shrills jumping on the bandwagon with the public's overwhelming dissatification over Bush. Tucker Carlson did it a few weeks ago where he actually said he was against the war but since it seemed inevitable he dealt with accordingly.

Geez, don't have a fucking cow. Maybe you need to open your eyes a bit to see this very scary trend with the neo-con shrills trying to move to the middle just a bit - sorta like a fisherman tossing some bait out there seeing what he/she can reel in. Get the uneducationed voter hearing the Bush Bashing on the hot-topics and then get them listening to their show where they'll turn back around and spew their right-wing shit

It's totally uncalled for your assinine response to my post. I would expect better from a fellow DUer!

[Vinca]

40. He seemed to be as disturbed as anyone about the Katrina

response and I think it opened his eyes to the mess this country is becoming under the current regime. Many reporters who covered Katrina seem to have been profoundly affected. It's a shame it took a horrible disaster to wake them up.

[dchill]

42. He's just realized...

that he, his president, his party and his show have all jumped the shark. It's good for the soul to get real once in a while. I guarantee it won't last. All he needs is one good bullshit talking point, and he'll be back in the water.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

43. Hmm. I must have been watching a different show.

He was loud and rude and tried (with some success) to dominate the entire talk segment. He came in on the muscle and didn't cease. He threw the liberal audience a bone by saying that had Clinton's top guys leaked a CIA name, they would have been burned at the stake. Like we didn't already know that. He has just imbibed too much kool-aid over the years.

[Disturbed]

44. The Katrina disaster was a safe situation for the pundits to

criticize. Most of them jumped on board with that but now most of them they are back to defending the Bush Regime but in a more moderate way so that they won't be smeared with the shit as more info emerges of how sleazy and corupt the Bush Regime truely is. Notice how most of their shows are now slanted toward other topics? The Corp. Media is distancing itself from the Bush Regime is subtle increments.

[retread]

47. He is being haunted by the ghost of a dead intern. n/t