As WorldNetDaily repeated a false attack on Nancy Pelosi, the Media Research Center’s Mark Finkelstein did the same thing in an Oct. 16 post:
It’s a hot clip, a reporter (from “Lindell TV”) asked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi why she refused calls for National Guard troops on January 6.
Pelosi yelled “Shut up!” at the reporter. “I did not refuse the National Guard. The president didn’t send it. Why are you coming here with Republican talking points as if you’re a serious journalist?”
Joe Scarborough opened Thursday’s Morning Joe by going on a lengthy diatribe during which the rant-o-meter rarely dipped below 11. He was furious over this reporter’s question. “What the American people want to know is why so many people are too stupid to know the truth. That’s what the American want to know! They’re fed disinformation by Lindell Network and by all these other right-wing networks. Like this lie that it was Nancy Pelosi. January 6th, Nancy Pelosi refused? No, that’s a lie.”
A few days after January 6, The Washington Post reported (and NPR repeated) that just-resigned Capitol Police chief Steven Sund insisted he had called requesting the National Guard six times before the during the rioting, and Pelosi’s staff said no six times.
Finkelstein didn’t disclose the fact that LindellTV is a far-right outlet and that the reporter’s question was clearly designed to be a gotcha question. More importantly, Finkelstein failed to disclose that the reporter’s claim in false — as we documented, a more balanced media outlet found that the speaker of the House does not have authority over the National Guard, and that a claim President Trump made a formal request to deploy Guard troops didn’t exist.
From there, Finkelstein’s attack on Scarborough got unusually personal:
Over the years, Mika Brzezinski has stepped up when the outbursts of her husband and Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough raised questions about his emotional well-being. If Joe’s emotional health was worrisome, his physical health seemed fine: Scarborough rarely came up for air during his long rant about Trump, and the Republicans, and the Supreme Court operating with no “guardrails.” And even the longish clip doesn’t fully reflect how agitated Scarborough was this morning. A few minutes later, he continued in the same disturbed vein in a conversation with Jonathan Martin of Politico.
As Joe raged on, all poor Mika could do was sit by, murmuring comforting sounds. Her oft-pained facial expressions, left little doubt of her awareness that Scarborough was suffering another troubled episode.
In November 2019, Mika was so manifestly troubled by Joe’s verbal excesses that she hung her head in embarrassment.
[…]All snark aside, it’s time for Mika to intervene again, giving Joe a needed break and perhaps arranging for him to talk with an appropriate person. We sincerely wish Joe and Mika the best.
No, he doesn’t — Finkelstein is actively cheering for Scarborough to have a full public breakdown, and he will be gleefully cheering it on.