Why Did Joe and Mika Really Visit Mar-a-Lago?

Did Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski travel to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring or gather information for the public?

The duo revealed their détente with Donald Trump on Morning Joe this week, and their meeting has struck a nerve among journalists and media watchers alike, causing much rankling as we all prepare for the president-elect’s return to office. Why exactly? “I think the timing of it made this particularly concerning to a lot of people that all of a sudden Donald Trump is returning to power, and people who were critical of him in the media are trekking down to Mar-a-Lago to curry favor with him,” says Michael Calderone, editor of Vanity Fair’s the Hive. “Especially after we’ve seen The Washington Post and LA Times decide not to endorse toward the end of the election, it raises fears that major media figures, as well as news institutions, could be capitulating in advance of the incoming administration.”

Calderone joined Ian Bassin, a lawyer who served in the Obama administration and cofounder of Protect Democracy, on this week’s episode of Inside the Hive to discuss what the meeting suggests about the president-elect’s influence on the media, and, more broadly, how news outlets are already reeling from Trump’s potential retaliatory efforts.

Bassin cited some subtle and not-so-subtle effects of Trump’s targeting during his first term at places like The Washington Post. He also warned of a phenomenon called “anticipatory obedience” seen in places like Hungary under Viktor Orbán, in which a regime that uses the regulatory powers of the state to punish media outlets that it views as insufficiently loyal can get those outlets to obey in advance or pledge allegiance to the regime before having any retaliatory regulatory moves directed at them. Bassin says, “There’s some speculation that Joe and Mika may have been engaging in a version of this to avoid what they may have perceived as a threat from the incoming administration to their personal or professional well-being.”

The group also discussed how the press will respond to Trump’s power in courageous ways, telling the truth loudly in the face of a president known to threaten journalists and the media industry at large. “It takes time to corrupt institutions,” Bassin says, “and I think if there is something hopeful to take out of this story is: Yes, I think the sort of Orbán-esque assault on the media is having an effect, but it has taken a long time to do it, and in that, provides an opportunity for civil society in the United States to hold strong to our democratic values and institutions, and give us a fighting chance to survive the assault that’s coming.”