The Garlic: Mika Brzezinski

Showing posts with label Mika Brzezinski. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Morning Joke and Starbucks ... Two Peas In A Non-Union Pod

Well, since we left them off last week (Hey Morning Joke, Cheetos Are Made By A Successful Union Company!), after Morning Joke, and his harlequin-sidekick Mika, had some yuks over dissing Unions, the news broke that the Morning Joke Show had entered into a sponsorship with one of the biggest union-deniers across the land, the caffeinated, price-gouging Starbucks.

Like, try the day after;

Why Starbucks Is Sponsoring MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' ... CMO Terry Davenport Says Coffee Chain Sees Opportunity to Promote Ethical Commitments

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- This week Starbucks announced a title sponsorship of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," the first such cable-news deal in decades. But the coffee retailer's chief marketer, Terry Davenport, said the news and a morning cup of coffee just go together.

[snip]

The partnership itself appears to be the result of some schmoozing. After ongoing discussions with both General Electric and NBC, Mr. Davenport said "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough casually dropped in to a recent meeting Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was having with network executives.

"He introduced himself to Howard and said he was a big fan," Mr. Davenport said. "It kind of grew from there." Incidentally, "Morning Joe" anchors have been drinking Starbucks on air for several years. Mr. Scarborough has said viewers have been asking if Starbucks was paying for that placement for quite some time.

[snip]

Starbucks is, after all, the darling of many a liberal elite. While MSNBC is generally seen as a moderate, if not liberal, network, Mr. Scarborough is a former congressman with a conservative record. Such an alliance could cut at Starbucks' core. But for some, the partnership did not seem conservative enough. A number of commenters on StarbucksGossip.com asked why Starbucks hadn't considered such a partnership with Fox News.

During an interview on the morning show, Mr. Schultz said, "You want to do business with people with like-minded values." He added that Starbucks' model of "balancing profitability with a social conscience" may have been an added inducement for MSNBC.

Like "like-minded values"?

It would seem, then, perhaps, the Morning Joke Show union-bashing was just a coincidental welcoming gift for their new sponsor.

Spilling the Beans About Starbucks' Union-Busting Tactics

The National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly found Starbucks guilty of illegally terminating, harassing, intimidating, and discriminating against employees attempting to unionize. Late last year, a judge ruled Starbucks had committed over a dozen violations of the National Labor Relations Act at a few New York stores. Starbucks has settled five such labor disputes in the last few years in New York, Minnesota, and Michigan, spending millions on legal fees to avoid exposing their anti-worker ways.

To make matters worse, Starbucks has led the charge on a so-called Employee Free Choice Act "compromise," joining Costco and Whole Foods to form the Committee for Level Playing Field. This Orwellian-sounding group has come up with a "third way" on Employee Free Choice, which would require 70 percent of workers to sign union authorization cards instead of the far more manageable 50 percent initially proposed by this legislation.

[snip]

Like Wal-Mart, Starbucks offers its workers low wages averaging $7.75 an hour, and Starbucks also refuses to guarantee workers set hours. Instead, the company adheres to an Optimal Scheduling policy that requires baristas to make themselves available 70 percent of open store hours just to work full time in any given week. This means low-wage earning baristas often don't have time to take a second job. Moreover, it precludes tens of thousands of Starbucks employees from working the 240 hours per quarter needed to qualify for the company's health insurance.

Brave New Films has a new campaign - Stop Starbucks - and a video to go with it;

What do Starbucks and Wal-Mart have in common?

BNF also posted the hysterical take by Jon Stewart, on the Daily Show, of the Morning Joke-Starbucks lip-lock;

Daily Show: Stewart Slams Starbucks and Morning Joe Synergy

And guess what?

Morning Joke and harlequin-sidekick Mika don't like Jon Stewart, and the Daily Show, making fun of them.

Joe Scarborough On Jon Stewart: A "Very, Very Angry Guy" With A "Napoleonic Complex"

Hmmmm ...

Maybe Morning Joke can get Newsweek to give them some special coverage, get their backs, so to speak ...Again!

Bonus Morning Joke

Cory Doctorow: Starbucks Twitter campaign hijacked by documentary about Starbucks' union-busting

Wayne Barrett - Barrett: Why Don't MSNBCers Question "Morning Joe" About Abortion Doc Killings?

Media Matters: Scarborough declares "if planes go into buildings...blame Dana Priest" for exposing use of waterboarding

Morning Joke Teaches Thousands of Kids To Swear! ... Or: Blame It On The Cheetos, Joe ...

Get A Shovel! ... Olbermann Disses Scarborough, On-Air

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Hey Morning Joke, Cheetos Are Made By A Successful Union Company!

Morning Joke, and the Sergeant Demetrio López García-like sidekick, Mika Brezninski, to Morning Joke's "Zero" (along with NYT's Andrew Ross Sorkin) were really bucking today, for a Garlic's "Instant Ignorant Dolt" designation.

Apparently, their Morning Joke Show got into a discussion about labor, and unions, and then displayed their challenged mental capacities.

From Jamison Foser, at MediaMatters, "Morning Joe journos can't name a successful unionized company, even though one signs their paychecks";

The Morning Joe crew was on an anti-union tear this morning, claiming the union label on a company means "sell." Mika Brzezinski went so far as to say of unions: "They cripple the system that makes a company work." Collectively, the journalists on Morning Joe couldn't name a single "successful" unionized company.

[snip]

Oh, what the heck, let's take one more example. GE is one of the world's largest companies; in 2006, its revenues were greater than the gross domestic products of 80 percent of UN nations. The company made more than $18 billion in 2008 -- again, billion with a b, and again, those are profits, not revenue. All that despite (or, perhaps, because of) the fact that 13 different unions represent GE workers.

Oh, and GE owns NBC-Universal, which owns MSNBC, which pays Joe Scarborough a handsome salary (and the unionized workers who help get his show on the air considerably less.)

Does Joe Scarborough think NBC and GE are not "successful" companies? Does Mika Brzezinski think the unionized workers she no doubt interacts with every day are crippling her ability to do her job, or her employer's ability to be successful?

[snip]

If Andrew Ross Sorkin's name sounds familiar, that's probably because he's the reporter who started the myth about the average GM worker being paid $70 an hour. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named him "Worst Person in the World" for that bit of blatantly false anti-union, anti-worker propaganda.

WAP! ... Headslap!

Brian Beutler, over on TPMDC, with "Hoffa: Sorkin and Morning Joe Show Complete Failure To Understand";

Unions are aghast. "Sorkin and the Morning Joe crew just showed their complete failure to understand how unions contribute to the success of the American economy by blindly assuming that unionized companies haven't been profitable in the last year," said James Hoffa, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, in a statement to TPMDC.

Off the top of my head I can give you several Teamster-represented companies who continue to thrive, despite the economic downturn, but there are thousands more: UPS, Eight O'Clock Coffee, Coca-Cola Enterprises, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors. The Morning Joe team really should be embarrassed for showing their lack of knowledge on the subject.

Not only that, but jumpin' Jesus, for Morning Joke himself, this should have been a gimme!

Cheetos are made by Frito-Lay, which is owned by PepsiCo, one of the successful union companys named above.

Morning Joke sure should have remembered Cheetos;

Scarborough Defends McCain, Criticizes Bloggers ‘Eating Cheetos’ In Their ‘Underwear’

As for Mika, well, just company for Morning Joke, I guess ...

She should be listening to her daddy.

Bonus Morning Joke Riffs

Matthew Yglesias: Morning Joe Crew Can’t Name a Single Successful Unionized Firm

Steve Benen: UNION-BASHING GONE AWRY...

David Kurtz: Your Corporate Media

Top Ten Cloves: Things Joe Scarborough Likes To Eat and Wear When Sitting At Computer

Get A Shovel! ... Olbermann Disses Scarborough, On-Air

Morning Joke Teaches Thousands of Kids To Swear! ...Or: Blame It On The Cheetos, Joe ...

Monday, November 10, 2008

Morning Joke Teaches Thousands of Kids To Swear!

Or: Blame It On The Cheetos, Joe ...

I'll have to look up and research Morning Joke Scarborough's position on "No Child Left Behind"

Of course, after this morning's incident, we may find that Morning Joke refers to it as "Giving The Child A Kick In Their Fucking Asses"

Oh My!

If he didn't take Keith Olbermann's advice, and purchase a shovel, old Morning Joke is going to need one now.

Morning Joke got so worked up, palming off his pontificating pea-brained knowledge, he let fly a "F___ You" in his excitement, only to be chided, in a very jocular manner, from others on the panel, and, of course, Mommy Meekstress Mika.

Joe Scarborough drops accidental f-bomb on live TV

Today on “Morning Joe,” host Joe Scarborough was discussing the calm nature of the Obama campaign and accidentally used the f-word. His guests joked about needing a seven-second delay. After apologizing, Scarborough said, “My wife is going to kill me when I get home.”

Scarborough Drops The F Bomb

Well, notwithstanding what his wife will do, or the soap, since Morning Joke is on MSNBC, which is on cable, it's doubtful that he will be nailed by the FCC.

Perhaps parent company General "We Bring Fucking Things To Life" Electric will weigh in on it.

From John Cole;

While it is not shown on the clip, and I no longer watch Morning Joe because of the endless idiocy of the two hosts, it is pretty clear what happened here- Time’s Jay Carney told a story off camera about Rahm Emanuel’s habit of using the word “fuck,” but when Carney told the story, he just used the initial “f-” to let them know what he meant. Scarborough then goes on camera and passes on the story, but forgets to use initials, and just blurts out “screaming fuck you at the top of their lungs.”

So, it turns out that Joe is a massive hypocrite. Shocking, I am sure. The funniest thing about this is that Joe hails from the Redneck Riviera in Florida, where the f-bomb is not an unknown word.

And, of course, there is such robust, dripping irony here.

Glenn Greenwald points out (in his "Joe Scarborough: Hoisted by his own sanctimonious petard"), what will quickly surface, the hypocracy of Morning Joke, detailing the apocalyptic, head-exploding rage Morning Joke went in, over the infamous Janet Jackson Super Bowl Affair;

Two days later, Scarborough collected hordes of outraged emails from his angry viewers over Janet Jackson and flew them to Washington DC to deliver them to Trent Lott and other right-wing officials, demanding government punishment against CBS, Viacom, MTV, and even the NFL ..."

And Greenwald added this

UPDATE II: From the Comment section, an outraged parent speaks out:

My kid heard that

It's funny you write about this today. I was getting ready for work this morning, watching Morning Joe (which I like despite Joe). My 10-year-old son got up, came into the living room, and is typical of a day when he doesn't have school, plopped down on the couch and started watching with me. I was just about to hand him the remote to change to less-newsy fare when Joe popped off with this. I was flabbergasted. And there's no question my kid heard that. Ugh.

One shudders to think how many other American children were exposed today to the raunchy filth of Joe Scarborough. The outraged emails are already pouring in. Keep them coming. Let me hear especially from other parents. I'm going to fly down to Washington with the emails and comments in hand (and a camera crew in tow) to demand government punishment against NBC, MSNBC, GE, Scarborough, Time-Warner, Inc. (due to Jay Carney's instigation) and others.

See kids, you can learn all kinds of new words, just by watching Morning Joke.

Maybe, what will come out of this, will be a new legal strategy.

Working off the already unprecedented "Twinkie Defense", Morning Joke can turn this around by blaming Cheetos.

Bonus Morning Joke Riffs

Shuster vs Scarborough! Man Love in the Morning!

Matthew Yglesias: The Party of Cheetos

Logan Murphy: Morning Joe: Obama Advisor Sets Scarborough Straight On Bush’s Diplomatic Failures

Joe Scarborough Walks Off MSNBC's "Race To The White House" After Exchange With Rachel Maddow

Palmetto Scoop: Scarborough has an “Imus moment”

Get A Shovel! ... Olbermann Disses Scarborough, On-Air

Top Ten Cloves: Things Joe Scarborough Likes To Eat and Wear When Sitting At Computer