The war between CNN’s “New Day” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” has been brewing for weeks. MSNBC’s morning show declares itself better and more watched than CNN’s. CNN, meanwhile, issued a release calling b.s. on that claim, followed up by an ad that screams: “SORRY JOE — While you were leaning forward, we were leaning ahead.”
Ouch!
CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Brian Stelter blasted a tweet with the ad this morning. The ad in the New York Times clearly got under Joe Scarborough‘s skin. But Scarborough didn’t level his attack at Stelter. He went much higher than that and took shots at CNN Executive President Jeff Zucker.
Insiders know Zucker calls the direct shots where Stelter is concerned, so maybe the order of that baiting tweet came from above.
Scarborough replied with cutting remarks for Zucker.
Scarborough retweeted viewers gushing about his show.
“The programming quality isn’t even close,” wrote one. “Morning Joe blows them out of the water and they know it. Keep it up.”
Another encouraged Joe to fight.
“Go get ’em, Joe!”
Clarification: Stelter threw a Twitter fit at The Mirror saying his “random” tweet didn’t get under Scarborough’s skin…it was more the ad that did that. Fair enough, Stelter. Yes, it was the ad that obviously got under his skin and yes, your tweet contained that ad. Stelter demanded a correction. We’ll give him a clarification and I’ve altered the wording above to say that the ad got under Scarborough’s skin and not specifically Stelter’s “random” tweet.
Sounding like a schoolmarm, he scolded me on Twitter, saying, “Joe ‘fired back’ at the ad 1 hour BEFORE my tweet. That’s WHY I tweeted about it, because he responded. Look at my whole feed, & you’ll see a 3-part tweet about the ad and Joe’s rebuttal to the ad. Is your story now corrected?”
Sorry, Brian, no desire to look at your WHOLE feed. And newsflash: you’re actually not my editor.