‘Appeasement in the New Age of Trump’, MSNBC Edition
David Frum, writing at The Atlantic, regarding his jarring appearance as a guest on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
Before getting to the article, I was asked about the nomination of
Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense — specifically about an NBC
News report that his heavy drinking worried colleagues
at Fox News and at the veterans organizations he’d
headed. […] I answered by reminding viewers of some history:
In 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated John Tower,
senator from Texas, for secretary of defense. Tower was a very
considerable person, a real defense intellectual, someone who
deeply understood defense, unlike the current nominee. It emerged
that Tower had a drinking problem, and when he was drinking too
much he would make himself a nuisance or worse to women around
him. And for that reason, his nomination collapsed in 1989. You
don’t want to think that our moral standards have declined so
much that you can say: Let’s take all the drinking, all the
sex-pesting, subtract any knowledge of defense, subtract any
leadership, and there is your next secretary of defense for the
21st century.
I told this story in pungent terms. It’s cable TV, after all. And
I introduced the discussion with a joke: “If you’re too drunk for
Fox News, you’re very, very drunk indeed.”
At the next ad break, a producer spoke into my ear. He objected to
my comments about Fox and warned me not to repeat them. I said
something noncommittal and got another round of warning. After the
break, I was asked a follow-up question on a different topic,
about President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son. I did not revert to
the earlier discussion, not because I had been warned, but because
I had said my piece. I was then told that I was excused from the
studio chair. Shortly afterward, co-host Mika Brzezinski read an
apology for my remarks.
Jesus. The abject obsequiousness is staggering. Yes, it’s a joke at Fox News’s expense. But Fox News — on-air — has indeed been backing Hegseth’s nomination, even though it’s quite obvious that everyone who works there knows he has an alcohol problem. From that NBC News report (note that despite their names, the MSNBC and NBC News newsrooms are no longer associated):
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense
secretary, drank in ways that concerned his colleagues at Fox
News, according to 10 current and former Fox employees who spoke
with NBC News. Two of those people said that on more than a dozen
occasions during Hegseth’s time as a co-host of Fox & Friends
Weekend, which began in 2017, they smelled alcohol on him before
he went on air. Those same two people, plus another, said that
during his time there he appeared on television after they’d heard
him talk about being hungover as he was getting ready or on set.
One of the sources said they smelled alcohol on him as recently
as last month and heard him complain about being hungover this
fall. None of the sources with whom NBC News has spoken could
recall an instance when Hegseth missed a scheduled appearance
because he’d been drinking. “Everyone would be talking about it
behind the scenes before he went on the air,” one of the former
Fox employees said.
Note too that Fox & Friends Weekend airs at 6:00 in the morning.
★
David Frum, writing at The Atlantic, regarding his jarring appearance as a guest on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
Before getting to the article, I was asked about the nomination of
Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense — specifically about an NBC
News report that his heavy drinking worried colleagues
at Fox News and at the veterans organizations he’d
headed. […] I answered by reminding viewers of some history:
In 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated John Tower,
senator from Texas, for secretary of defense. Tower was a very
considerable person, a real defense intellectual, someone who
deeply understood defense, unlike the current nominee. It emerged
that Tower had a drinking problem, and when he was drinking too
much he would make himself a nuisance or worse to women around
him. And for that reason, his nomination collapsed in 1989. You
don’t want to think that our moral standards have declined so
much that you can say: Let’s take all the drinking, all the
sex-pesting, subtract any knowledge of defense, subtract any
leadership, and there is your next secretary of defense for the
21st century.
I told this story in pungent terms. It’s cable TV, after all. And
I introduced the discussion with a joke: “If you’re too drunk for
Fox News, you’re very, very drunk indeed.”
At the next ad break, a producer spoke into my ear. He objected to
my comments about Fox and warned me not to repeat them. I said
something noncommittal and got another round of warning. After the
break, I was asked a follow-up question on a different topic,
about President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son. I did not revert to
the earlier discussion, not because I had been warned, but because
I had said my piece. I was then told that I was excused from the
studio chair. Shortly afterward, co-host Mika Brzezinski read an
apology for my remarks.
Jesus. The abject obsequiousness is staggering. Yes, it’s a joke at Fox News’s expense. But Fox News — on-air — has indeed been backing Hegseth’s nomination, even though it’s quite obvious that everyone who works there knows he has an alcohol problem. From that NBC News report (note that despite their names, the MSNBC and NBC News newsrooms are no longer associated):
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense
secretary, drank in ways that concerned his colleagues at Fox
News, according to 10 current and former Fox employees who spoke
with NBC News. Two of those people said that on more than a dozen
occasions during Hegseth’s time as a co-host of Fox & Friends
Weekend, which began in 2017, they smelled alcohol on him before
he went on air. Those same two people, plus another, said that
during his time there he appeared on television after they’d heard
him talk about being hungover as he was getting ready or on set.
One of the sources said they smelled alcohol on him as recently
as last month and heard him complain about being hungover this
fall. None of the sources with whom NBC News has spoken could
recall an instance when Hegseth missed a scheduled appearance
because he’d been drinking. “Everyone would be talking about it
behind the scenes before he went on the air,” one of the former
Fox employees said.
Note too that Fox & Friends Weekend airs at 6:00 in the morning.