Media Research Center Mark Finkelstein came into 2024 continuing to be weirdly obsessed with MSNBC host Joe Scarborough’s manhood, which allegedly tends to manifest itself in ways he doesn’t like (though as we’ve pointed out, he likely would not object to similar words coming out of the mouth of a Fox News host). Finkelstein huffed in a Jan. 29 post:
Joe Scarborough, Super Hawk!
Reacting to the drone attack on US troops in Jordan by Iranian proxies that killed three soldiers and wounded 25-30 others, on today’s Morning Joe Scarborough called for direct strikes against Iran itself.
[…]In response, [NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe James] Stavridis literally chuckled at Scarborough’s bravado. He recommended first going after Iranian proxies, and attacking Iran directly only if that doesn’t “have the intended effect.”
Scarborough’s bellicose bent toward Iran is in keeping with his boasts that have earned him our moniker of “Macho Joe.”
Finkelstein melted down over Scarborough commenting on the manhood of others in a Feb. 1 post:
Of all the people who shouldn’t go on national TV and mock men obsessed with proving that they’re “manly,” Scarborough’s got to be near the head of the list.
Wednesday’s Morning Joe devoted an elongated segment to the phenomenon of some conservatives complaining about Taylor Swift showing up during NFL broadcasts, and the prospect that Swift, who endorsed Biden in 2020, might do so again in 2024.
The show replayed an extended clip from Colin Cowherd’s Fox Sports show in which he attributed much of the anger against Swift to “that 50% of men [who] never have real intimacy with a woman. And those ones that don’t are angry and sad and lonely, and they are often misogynistic, and resent women who didn’t give them the time they think they deserve.”
[..]Scarborough, better known as Muy Macho Joe, ended by disparaging the MAGA men as “little weenies.”
The ironic reality is that Scarborough has his own sad history of trying to prove just how “manly” he is.
[…]So, yes: Joe Scarborough knows all about men with fragile egos driven to assert their manliness. All he needs to do is look in the mirror.
Finkelstein had a similar meltdown in a Feb. 20 post:
Macho MSNBC host Joe Scarborough continued to expose his troubling obsession with outward manifestations of masculinity. Macho Joe was back at it Tuesday during Tuesday’s Morning Joe, twice referring to the Republican Speaker of the House as “little” Mike Johnson.
We’ve documented his multiple boasts about his own toughness, as when Macho Joe threatened to make a Capitol tourist “eat” his camera if Joe found him snapping pics somewhere Scarborough didn’t like.
And then there was Scarbrough boasting he’d never let anyone “emasculate” him the way Donald Trump supposedly did to J.D. Vance. Just to name a couple of examples.
You’ll note in the first part of the clip, that Scarborough began to simply say “Mike Johnson,” but then interrupted himself, circling back to say “little” Mike Johnson. In other words, this was a very intentional snipe at Johnson’s physical stature. Later in the clip, Scarborough refers to Johnson as the “little Speaker.”
Yes, Joe, at 6’4″, you’re much taller than the 5’8″ Johnson. But when the going got hot for you back when you were a congressman, you quit the House and ran away to spend the proverbial “more time with your family.”
In contrast, not only did Mike Johnson manage to get himself elected Speaker, but he had the strength to hold the fractious Republican caucus reasonably together on a range of issues.
We don’t recall Finkelstein ever berating Donald Trump for mocking someone’s height.
Finkelstein followed up in a Feb. 26 post:
As we’ve also documented, Scarborough likes to boast about his masculinity. In that same segment today, he described himself as “a big guy.” Just last week, we caught Scarborough mocking Speaker Mike Johnson as “little.” Scarborough went on to humble brag that he has problems at Morning Joe, and is just trying to avoid “flop sweat,” since, as a “big guy,” he sweats a lot.
Scarborough concluded by claiming, “I’m just trying to not look like Elvis ’77.”Don’t worry, Joe. You don’t look like any version of Elvis.”
Finkelstein whined some more in a March 9 post:
Macho Joe Scarborough strikes again!
Morning Joe devoted Thursday’s first segment to tearing into Mitch McConnell for having endorsed Donald Trump yesterday despite McConnell, shortly after January 6th, having denounced his actions on that day, and despite Trump having frequently insulted McConnell and used language condemned as racist about his wife.
[…]
The panel also ripped other Republicans who have endorsed Trump despite his insults, including Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham.
Predictably, leading the pack of McConnell critics was Scarborough. As we’ve often documented, as here, Joe has proven himself one of the toughest hombres in the Nantucket loafers-with-no-socks summering gang.
Scarborough shouted that “as a man!” he wouldn’t have endorsed Trump in similar circumstances.Scarborough said “hey y’all” were the first words out of Lindsey Graham after Trump had mocked him at a campaign event. Declared Macho Joe:
“My first two words if somebody did that to me would be markedly different.”
Scarborough didn’t specify just what those first two words would be—but we can guess. Just yesterday, we caught Joe telling his viewers “f-you” if they didn’t agree with him that Joe Biden is the best he’s ever been!
Finkelstein lost it again in a May 21 post:
Muy Macho Joe Scarborough has once again proven himself the toughest hombre this side of Nantucket. Among several past displays of his sizzling manliness, Scarborough once boasted he’d force a tourist to eat his camera if he found him snapping pics inside the Capitol somewhere Scarborough didn’t approve.
Macho Joe was back at it on today’s Morning Joe. Discussing the situation at Trump’s hush money trial yesterday in which Judge Merchan gave a tongue-lashing to defense witness Robert Costello for an exasperated “Jeez” and then an exasperated sigh over Merchan’s rulings.
Scarborough claimed that in his young-lawyer days in Florida, “if a witness acted toward a judge the way this defense witness acted yesterday, judge would have cleared the courtroom, called in the bailiff, sent him to jail, say, we’re going to take a recess and let the witness think about this in jail in 24 hours. And take him out in cuffs, and bring him back the next day.”
[…]As for Costello, Scarborough declared that: “If he were to do it again, he needs to be sent to jail. He needs to be sent to jail immediately.”
Scarborough then trained his macho sights on Trump. Joe said that Judge Merchan has shown “restraint” in the face of Trump “going out and, and attacking him personally, suggesting that he’s corrupt, suggesting that the court system is rigged, making it extraordinarily personal toward him and members of his family.”
[…]For good measure, Scarborough claimed the notion that Trump is the victim of a double standard in which he’s being prosecuted for actions others wouldn’t be is ” just bullshit. Rank bullshit.”
Yup. Real men go barnyard scatological on national TV. Right, Macho Joe?
So the guy who mocks Scarborough for allegedly being too manly is too delicate to handle a swear word on TV?