Proportionality

I absolutely had to watch Morning Joe this AM after President Trump's tweetings yesterday hitting back at Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough for their daily doses of vicious vitriol directed towards him ... see: NY Times Article.Without trying to defend Trump's puerile behavior that is not befitting a president, I was expecting and did watch a conga line of outrage by the invited guests on this show. If there is a stronger word for outrage then I would use it, but I can't think of one now.

However, I was also struck by the contrast between these highly emotional reactions and the almost matter-of-fact reactions by these same players to the baseball field shooting of a Republican Congressman, Steve Scalise, last month. Not that there wasn't condemnation, but I don't recall the foaming mouths and the shallow breathing like I saw this morning on MSNBC. What we are basically comparing here is an infantile insult of two rabid Trump haters versus the attempted mass murder of Republican Congressmen.

I guess, very simply, what I am looking for (and not finding) is a sense of proportionality in our media. And it is this lack of proportionality that permits Trump to keep up this compulsive behavior (which most of us would prefer him not doing.)

Afterward: What Morning Joe and the NYT focused on was that Trump's tweets were a sexist attack on Mika. Not quite true ... he also called Joe "Psycho". Now to see why this might be apt, Google "Why Joe Scarborough left Congress" ...

After Afterward: I find it curious that the media never seems to label attacks on conservative women (Ann Coulter, Kelluanne Conway, Sarah Palin) as "sexist" ...