The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney

18 December 2008

Joe & Mika Exploit DC Mugging For Publicity

MUGGING FOR THE CAMERAS

How Much Coverage Can One Brief Encounter Generate?







Even if you had no previous idea who she was, by now, you've probably heard all about liberal TV / radio host Mika Brzezinski and her DC mugging this morning.

Just ten days ago, we wrote about Mika's debut with co-host Joe Scarborough on WABC radio in New York, which has since generated many listener complaints, some of which have been sent straight to us.

While your Radio Equalizer is certainly sorry to hear about this unfortunate incident, the reality is that the six dollars lost to this creep outside an upscale hotel has bought her victim millions in free publicity.

And that's where the affair transcends standard police blotter coverage in the back of a newspaper (if it would even rate that these days) and moves into mainstream media Goofyville.

Apparently, run-of-the-mill muggings are for the little people, not the liberal media elite, which explains the stunned reaction we've seen from newspapers, television and certain blogs.

There's no indication a weapon was used, leading Gawker to call the perp "an over-agressive beggar."

Whether Mika herself wanted the incident splashed all over the place isn't clear, especially given the way it was Scarborough who pressed the matter on today's Morning Joe:








In the clip,
Mika rolls her eyes and seems uncomfortable with the topic, but Joe doesn't let up. Was he shamelessly exploiting the situation for publicity? Was she in on it, or truly unhappy with the conversation?

Finally, do establishment liberals avoid discussing their muggings in polite society?

Meanwhile, the Politico reports that Mika feels "great":


Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” was mugged Thursday morning as she waited for a hired car to pick her up at a Washington hotel.

“Feel great!!” she e-mailed after appearing on the air.

Brzezinski told “Morning Joe” viewers that the assailant asked for $20 and she gave him what she had — $6.

When asked what she’d learned, she quipped: “Give the money. Give the money.”

Her co-host, Joe Scarborough, agreed that the lesson was “to hand the money over.”

Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal said on-air that Brezezinski has survived “a surprising moment in the morning with great dignity and style and humor.”


For his part, Rush Limbaugh added a number of funny observations to the mix during today's show:


Now, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, I have a unique take on most things that happen. To me, the most interesting aspect of this is not what so many people are e-mailing me about, and that is, "Will she now become conservative," because, you know, the old cliche is a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged, and she got mugged. She got held up for six bucks. The mugger, though, working cheap, accepted six bucks after demanding $20. What happened to Mika Brzezinski makes the case for tax cuts. She works in the Drive-By Media. She works in television. It's as though she's got nothing left after giving Bernie Madoff the money. She only has six bucks to give the man who is down on his luck. We have to understand who muggers are. Muggers are the salt of the earth; they're the backbone of America. They just have been placed in this current circumstance because of the evils of the Bush administration and supply side trickle-down economics. These are good people. They have been forced into thuggery, muggery, and holdups in order to survive.

What happened to Mika Brzezinski is exactly why we need permanent, across-the-board tax cuts. If we cannot keep more of our own money, muggers are going to have to work over time. This guy could have gotten everything he wanted from one victim, but because Mika Brzezinski only had a measly six bucks, he had to probably go hold up a couple or three more people to make his take.

That puts that many more people in danger, and, of course, the mugger risks getting caught with each attempt here at fleecing somebody. He could end up in jail as well. I mean, how is it that Drive-By infobabe on the road doesn't have enough money to help out a fellow citizen who's down on his luck. This country is better than that. When we get held up, we should have more than six bucks to give the muggers. You know what the rich are told, the rich are told to walk around with a significant amount of cash because if you do get held up and you got a couple, $300 bucks, then your odds of surviving the mugging are greater than if you don't have anything.

So the rich are advised by their security personnel to carry significant amounts of cash. How is it you're on the road and you've only got six bucks and you work in the Drive-By Media, you work for NBC Universal?

The mugger was a worker, by the way. He was out working. These are tough economic times. He probably lost his job at an auto plant or some such thing. Maybe he used to work at Wall Street, at a bank, who knows. Probably not paying his mortgage, still has his house, but he needs food. And to collect a measly six bucks from a Drive-By infobabe? That embarrasses me as an American, that somebody as accomplished and achieved as Mika Brzezinski only had six dollars. Can you imagine taking a road trip, folks, and only having six dollars? Remember, this happened before six o'clock in the morning. This mugger was up early. This mugger was a worker. He was up early working the streets. Somebody might want to hire this guy. This guy is loaded with initiative. This guy obviously has ambition.

If Mika just had a measly 20 dollars on her, she gives the mugger the money and she can feel good about it. Now she has to carry the shame of only having six dollars with her and shorting this hard-pressed working American 14 bucks. This just proves to me, folks, we need a tax holiday.


While no one quite knows what is motivating Joe & Mika to blab about this all over town, the results are clear: it's a publicity bonanza for this cable duo as they attempt to survive in the far more difficult world of talk radio.


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18 Comments:

  • Does anybody find Rush Limbaugh's comments funny (other than Rush Limbaugh)? What a jerk! Maybe it wouldn't have been so funny to him if he had been the victim and the mugger demanded all of his painkillers.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 19 December, 2008 13:46  

  • I find absolutely NOTHING funny about Rush Limbaugh except, of course, his looks. Why he even is allowed on the air is beside me. I know there's this thing called freedom of speech, but this guy is disgusting, totally disgusting. People in the world starving, the economy in shambles and the fools he works for have nothing better to do with their money?????

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 19 December, 2008 14:04  

  • Rush=HATE=Ann C.=HATE=Sean H.=HATE=Bill O.=HATE=Glen B.=Dick C.=HATE=American Fascists

    By Blogger Unknown, at 19 December, 2008 15:14  

  • Perhaps if the mugger had hit her in the head with a shoe, you would see the humor.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 19 December, 2008 15:18  

  • Anonymous, you said it spot on.

    Rush Limbaugh's comments really are weird and unfunny.

    Thank God these people have a 30% constituency in America.

    Now they’ll go back to being the mostly harmless but annoying cranks they’ve historically been.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 19 December, 2008 16:07  

  • For Bryzinski I have two things to say:

    1) When she was a reporter at WFSB-3, the CBS affiliate in Hartford she wasn't really that good.


    2) Only reason she is where she is--DADDY WORKED FOR A SOCIALIST IN THE CARTER YEARS! SAME FOR CHRIS CUOMO OF ABC!

    By Blogger The Real Bob Anthony, at 19 December, 2008 16:17  

  • what I find funny is that the serial divorcer drug abuser still has an audience.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 19 December, 2008 16:29  

  • Rush is GREAT! HE HAS YOU WUSSY DEMONNUTT'S SCREAMING IN MOMMY'S BASEMENT. A whining LIBBY is like a screaming newborn. IGNORANT TO THE WORLD AND SUCKING MOMMY'S TIT. This is MSBHOC made up PROPAGANDA for rating's. SCUM LIBS WILL DO ANYTHING for RATING'S, just ask KEITHINA ORAL'HERSELF'MANN and her brother RICKY'MADMANN'DOW.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 19 December, 2008 17:21  

  • A tragedy that Rush Limbaugh was struck deaf and not mute.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 19 December, 2008 23:12  

  • Rush is a wanna be comedian,and some people actually think that he has a serious take on life.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 20 December, 2008 10:30  

  • My daughter was reading these comments and the anonymous person who wrote about Rachel Maddow. I would like to ask him: Would you want your child reading your garbage? Shame on you. It is conservatives like you that made realize that I am really a progressive. Thank God for our new President. It's time to clean up this republican garbage.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 20 December, 2008 16:07  

  • i vote rush replacement for dave he is past serious rather comical

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 21 December, 2008 11:51  

  • If it hadn't been for the excessive taxes that we all pay, and taxes taking money from drive-by info-babes so that they don't even have enough money to score a day's supply of oxycontin, well, our government wouldn't have had enough money to rescue all the big companies that create jobs and manage our money, or to bring freedom to Iraq and Afghanistan, or to do all the other things our conservative pay-as-you go Republicans have done for us. Thank God they tax us enough to keep those 1000 points of light burning, not to mention the light at the end of the tunnel.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 21 December, 2008 23:34  

  • I don't know who the bigger douchebag is, this Brian Maloney clown or Limbaugh.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 22 December, 2008 00:16  

  • lindaj are you not ashamed of your parties killing of kids. Or maybe the naked queers in the streets of California.

    Yeah they’ll be a good influence on your young one.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 22 December, 2008 05:37  

  • If as Rush says, "a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged", then a liberal is a conservative who's been mugged by the corporate elite. The difference is this mugger would be happy stealing $20. The corporate elite steals $700 Billion and its still not enough.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 22 December, 2008 11:20  

  • Looks like "Anonymous" is working both sides of the aisle. But he/she is right about these things: Rush is not funny, he himself is the joke, and his followers (I do know a few) make no attempt to find out if what he says is 100% true or not. Giving him all that time on the radio to say anything he wants is truly not about free speech (he just got a new $400 million contract, by the way, so that does exempt him from being one of O'Reilly's "folks.") You - out there- you should be furious that he is getting paid that much money to TALK while so many are losing their livelihoods. HMarie

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 22 December, 2008 17:06  

  • lindaj?

    explain rachel and that whole turkey-baster thing, and be sure to get back to us with responses...

    you really need to take you and your crotchdroppings, and get out of this country

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 22 December, 2008 19:28  

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