MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” sounded off Tuesday on the lack of media curiosity surrounding the “unmasking” of President Donald Trump’s associates by former national security adviser Susan Rice.
Host Joe Scarborough told the viewing audience that a “hallelujah chorus” rang out Monday by journalists who urged viewers to dismiss the idea that Mrs. Rice unethically used data gleaned by National Security Agency surveillance. He said asking one question of her election-season requests can highlight entrenched bias within the industry.
“What if Dick Cheney had asked for the unmasking of names for Barack Obama’s incoming administration?” Mr. Scarborough asked, Hot Air reported. “It’s a very simple question to ask the next time anybody says this is much ado about nothing. There are a lot of things we don’t know. A lot of questions we don’t know. I do know this, though, I heard the hallelujah chorus come and immediately on cue last night saying … ’nothing to see here. Move along, move along.’
“Why is Susan Rice unmasking names and spreading them across the government?” Mr. Scarborough asked. “Wouldn’t that be the job of [FBI Director James] Comey or the attorney general? We’ve got Bill O’Reilly on the front page [of The New York Times], but we don’t have NSC and Susan Rice?”
NBC News senior political analyst Mark Halperin concurred that reporters would be wrong to dismiss the story as “routine.”
Mrs. Rice denied any wrongdoing Tuesday in an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, saying she “leaked nothing to nobody.”
“If I saw an intelligence report that looked potentially significant — and, by definition, if it is being provided to me, it is significant — then I can make that request,” she said. “That’s necessary for me to do my job.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.