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The hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" did the usual day-after Thanksgiving kibbitzing on the air on Friday morning, telling viewers about their turkey dinners and mentioning the big football game the night before.
One problem: None of those things had actually happened at the time Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Co. started talking about them. The program that aired Friday morning was taped on Wednesday, but made to look and sound as if it was airing live.
"Morning Joe" airs live on MSNBC five days a week. It features discussions of breaking or very recent news events.
Friday's program had all the earmarks of a typical "Morning Joe" and few viewers seemed to notice that it wasn't happening in real time. MSNBC offered no announcement or statement to viewers that it was a taped program. The only indirect clue was at the bottom of the screen: The "Live" graphic that normally appears was removed.
The rest was cooked up to appear as if it was happening in real time.
Brezinski opened the program by saying, "Day after Thanksgiving! Hoo! I'm stuffed."
The second segment picked up the after-holiday theme.
"I always cook the turkey with the guts in it!" said Brzezinski.
"Joe didn't notice. He ate the bag," quipped co-host Willie Geist, pretending that Scarborough had consumed Brzezinski's theoretical turkey.
"It was good!" said Scarborough. He added, "Well, you know, the game made up for it. . . "
Scarborough then turned to Rick Tyler, an MSNBC contributor who was Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign spokesman. "How was your Thanksgiving?" he asked.
"Very successful," responded Tyler. "Although the conversations were interesting."
"I bet!" said Brzezinski.
The panel then swung into a discussion of the controversy surrounding Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
The illusion that the discussion was live was fostered by the news crawl at the bottom of the screen, which was added over the taped discussion, and a clock showing the time in various time zones.
The hosts never got around to talking about Friday's morning's biggest story, the deadly terrorist attack on a mosque in Egypt - because it hadn't happened yet when they taped. The crawl mentioned it.
An MSNBC spokeswoman declined comment. But an executive confirmed the program wasn't live. "There was no intention to trick viewers," she said. "Would it have helped if there was a disclaimer," referencing it as a delayed broadcast? "Maybe. But that's not typically done."
As is, she said, "They're having fun" with the pretense that it's live.
A longtime viewer of the program noticed that Friday's edition had none of the usual discussion of breaking news and contacted The Washington Post to inquire if "Morning Joe" was presenting "fake news." He said he was surprised to see both Scarborough and Brezinski appearing in a New York studio on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
"I was quite flabbergasted by the way they were so deceptive about this . . . especially when they are always so quick to castigate lying [or] deception they attribute to others," said the viewer, who asked not to be identified.
Previously:
• 01/06/17: Why losing Megyn Kelly probably won't even dent Fox News' armor
• 05/09/16: Obama official 'fesses up: 'Narrative' created by administration sold Iran nuclear deal to clueless press
• 03/16/16: Despite the beatdown, reporters love the Trump beat
• 03/10/16: What really gets under Trump's skin?
• 03/04/16: Megyn Kelly leaves Trump sputtering to defend himself at debate
• 02/29/16: Think Trump's wrong? Fact checkers can tell you how often (hint: a lot)
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