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Published on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 by The Village Voice
Barrett: Why Don't MSNBCers Question 'Morning Joe' About Abortion Doc Killings?
Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow devoted much of their MSNBC shows last night to the assassination of George Tiller. Maddow actually led with a headshot of Michael Griffin, the first abortion-doctor murderer, who killed Dr. David Gunn in Pensacola, Florida in 1993. She then moved on to copycat Shelley Shannon, who wrote letters of support for Griffin shortly before she shot George Tiller in both arms, an ominous foreboding of his murder 16 years later.
Maddow could have called on a colleague with first-hand knowledge of the Griffin case -- Joe Scarborough, the folksy host of the network's Morning Joe and Griffin's pro-bono lawyer in 1993. A Voice cover story in 2008 examined in great detail Scarborough's role in the case, as well as the singular impact his exploitation of the abortion issue had in Scarborough's 1994 initial election to Congress.
So what might his colleagues have learned about defending abortion-doc killers from Morning Joe? Well....
Maddow could have called on a colleague with first-hand knowledge of the Griffin case -- Joe Scarborough, the folksy host of the network's Morning Joe and Griffin's pro-bono lawyer in 1993. A Voice cover story in 2008 examined in great detail Scarborough's role in the case, as well as the singular impact his exploitation of the abortion issue had in Scarborough's 1994 initial election to Congress.
So what might his colleagues have learned about defending abortion-doc killers from Morning Joe? Well....
Scarborough's hometown of Pensacola -- where his show once frequently
originated -- was the site of the first two abortion murders, the
second also occurring during his first run for Congress in 1994. A raw
30-year-old, Scarborough's surprising Republican win was principally
funded by anti-abortion groups and he immediately went to Washington
and voted against bills to protect abortion clinics, including one
version sponsored by a Republican congressmen.
Griffin handwrote the Voice two long letters last year after we contacted him in prison, describing in depth his relationship with Scarborough. While Scarborough tried to minimize his ties in an interview, claiming he was merely doing "a favor for a friend" and briefly searching for a lawyer who'd take the case to trial, Griffin detailed Scarborough's efforts to stay on the case and work with the trail attorney. The court record itself shows that Scarborough told the judge he was prepared to try the case, and that he represented Griffin for nearly three months. Scarborough claimed that his then father-in-law was a friend of Griffin's father and that's why he did it, but neither would get on the phone and confirm that (not that it's much of an explanation.) Griffin's father contributed twice to Scarborough's campaign -- $200 apiece.
Oddly, though Olbermann, Maddow, and Chris Matthews all did major segments on the killing of Tiller, Morning Joe hasn't. Scarborough hasn't been called to account for it by anyone else on his network, and has never told his audience why he did it and how he feels about it now.
Griffin handwrote the Voice two long letters last year after we contacted him in prison, describing in depth his relationship with Scarborough. While Scarborough tried to minimize his ties in an interview, claiming he was merely doing "a favor for a friend" and briefly searching for a lawyer who'd take the case to trial, Griffin detailed Scarborough's efforts to stay on the case and work with the trail attorney. The court record itself shows that Scarborough told the judge he was prepared to try the case, and that he represented Griffin for nearly three months. Scarborough claimed that his then father-in-law was a friend of Griffin's father and that's why he did it, but neither would get on the phone and confirm that (not that it's much of an explanation.) Griffin's father contributed twice to Scarborough's campaign -- $200 apiece.
Oddly, though Olbermann, Maddow, and Chris Matthews all did major segments on the killing of Tiller, Morning Joe hasn't. Scarborough hasn't been called to account for it by anyone else on his network, and has never told his audience why he did it and how he feels about it now.
© 2009 The Village Voice
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13 Comments so far
Show AllJoe and his morning pals think breaking the necks of puppies is pretty funny too. They had a big laugh about that on June 25, 2007 (see MSNBC or GrumpyLion blog). Not exactly the kind of people who should be talking about morality on national TV. But Joe's show seldom seems to have any grownups around, so what can a person expect from these clowns. Certainly not inconvenient news. Not that they deal in news over there in the morning. It's a tree full of chittering monkeys with nothing to say, but blithering on anyway because they've got a good gig that pays them to sit there and blither.
brzezinski - the war making vampire - called it right when he was on the show
he told little joe was was a jerk and a moron right on his own show
pretty much sums it up
here's my question: what kind of idiot spends their morning watching that fool
Who or what is "Morning Joe"?
don't bother to ask
It's MSNBC's flagship morning show. 3 hours of a nazi, a braindead woman, and a couple morons bitching about liberals.
I am not squeamish about abortions.
I feel it should solely be the mother's decision whether or not to have one.
I feel abortions should be allowed at ANY time for ANY reason.
If abortions were outlawed, I would be supportive of illegal efforts to provide abortions.
But this are my own views. Anti-abortionists feel just as strongly. Unlike many debates in American politics, this is purely an ideological one. This is not like debating the Iraq War where the entire rational basis for it is based on lies which can logically be pointed out. This debate is a moral one. It's like trying to have a rational debate about religious beliefs. Religion by definition defies rationality. The debate on abortion hinges on the indefinable concept of when human life originates.
Though I strongly disagree with anti-abortionists, I do understand their position. They feel a fetus is a child, and that killing it is murder. Unlike some debates, this one cannot be decided by logic alone. It is almost entirely emotional and hinges on the unanswerable question of when a fetus becomes a human being.
Even the argument (which I agree with) that individuals do not have the right to intrude into the uterus of other individual, I admit, is problematic. Because to the anti-abortionists, they are preventing murder, which IS cause to intrude on the rights of an individual.
Let me be clear, this by no means is an apology for the murder of abortion doctors. That is unequivocally a crime, and many anti-abortionists have condemned it as such. But there are still those who will defend these "terrorists" like they were a modern day John Brown. Again I have to admit, even though I STRONGLY disagree, I understand their POV.
That Scarborough appeals to the antiabortionists for fame and prestige is to be expected. And given his views, why wouldn't he? I think his views are terribly wrong, but given his beliefs (possibly sincere) he has every right to express them.
I think it a dangerous step to assume that the hyperbolic vitriol spoken by people like Scarborough is the causing people to commit murder.
Provided he does not issue actual death threats I will defend his right to speak. Although, this is separate from my feelings about the size of the megaphone the corporate media has given him and others. I would like to see the corporate media abolished (why did we rent the public airwaves to people like this?) or at least downsized, but I would attempt to silence these maniacs through acts of law aimed act cubing their political speech.
And I also think it's wrong to condemn him for acting as a defense attorney for an accused killer - unless you want a system whereby people are denied a right to defensive council. There is no way around it, killers are entitled to lawyers, and though it is a SLEAZY job, it's a necessary one.
I pretty much agree with you.
All I'm saying is that I understand that they believe they are stopping the murder of a baby with a soul. How can anyone use logic convince them that is a fetus not a baby, and that souls don't exist? Unfortunately, you can't convince people simply by making scientific or ethical arguments. As for the existence of "souls", the term is so vague, who knows what anyone means by it.
"Abortion IS largely an issue decidable by scientific, practical, and logical reasoning, as is religion itself."
I agree. But most people are not rational enough to comprehend that. With religion they think that because you can't disprove something (that was meant to be unprovable), then it's a stalemate. For example, they claim God exists. I say, "prove it". They say, "disprove it". Neither of us can. It's a stalemate.
But they then apply a certain exceptionalism to this warped logic, so that it can't be used to justify the existence of other gods, or other strange beliefs. Otherwise the more imaginary and unprovable the claim, the more true it becomes.
So, yes, I agree. But people aren't rational.
Any matter involving human rights ought to inspire passion, but passion on the side of born human beings. Human rights come from humanity and not from some divine potter -- the holy book says that God is a potter who has a right to damn people because he made us, the sort of thing that churches generally soft-pedal (except the hardcore Calvinist ones).
Rationalism is no help in combatting these powers: militant opposition is required, calling them out and getting in their faces, until they crawl back under their rocks.
Television is not meant to be a helpful media for us human beings. Even the Internet can be fickle at times.
people died in Iraq and Afghanistan today. Just because Code Pink, MoveOn and the state run media stopped reporting it does not mean it stopped. And yes one abortion doctor died.