Scarborough Slams Media on Ferguson: ‘This Ram Thing Was the Last Straw’

On Monday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, host Joe Scarborough railed against the news media for its coverage of the Ferguson, MO controversy.

The tipping point for Scarborough was the St. Louis Rams “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture before Sunday’s game.

Partial transcript as follows:

Yeah, guys came out, hands up don’t shoot for the St. Louis Rams. Here’s a video of it. And what is so remarkable is they might as well have come out with a flying saucer attached to all of their heads in solidarity with Michael Brown being transported to Venus on a flying saucer. Because that happened as much as that happened. That’s according to grand jury testimony. That’s according to witnesses. They are using his accomplice in the robbery that was with him at the time who also claimed that Michael Brown was shot in the back. And for some reason, the media attaches to these narratives that will stir up further protests. And I got to say, I just got to a tipping point this weekend.

There’s another story in Cleveland where a young boy tragically was shot dead. Police officers got a 911 call that he was waving a gun, scaring the blank out of everybody in this public park. Police officers came up. Stopped. Shot the young boy. He was 12 years old. But they had taken off the markings to make it look like a toy gun. It was an actual gun. Do you know what The New York Times put in the caption of the video? “Police officers shoot child with toy.” I don’t know exactly who puts those, attaches those, but we are doing such a grave disservice to police officers in this country by pushing a narrative. That they are just going around looking to shoot black people. And somebody has to tell me, somebody needs to tell me why Michael Brown has been chosen as the face of black oppression.

Donny, I’m sorry. This Ram thing was the final straw for me. I have sat here quietly and listened to BS being spewed all over this network and all over other networks. I can’t take it anymore.

It’s absolutely terrible that that black man lay in the street for four-and-a-half hours. That’s one area where you can say no white man would lay in the street for four-and-a-half hours. There are places where there are great inequities. That said, at least get your signs right. If this movement is important enough to you, don’t base your movement on a lie. And I expect the Commissioner of the National Football League to suggest to the St. Louis Rams, their ownership, their coaches, their general manager, and their players that having players before the start of a National Football League game make a gesture that suggests that St. Louis police officers gunned down a young black men who have arms in their air saying hands up don’t shoot, I suggest you have some work to do. You have some work to do. Not just on Ray Rice. You have some work to do to talk to those players. Because the cops have every reason to be pissed off this morning. Every reason in the world. And by the way, if I’ve offended anybody by saying what I’ve said, trust me: 95 percent of America think just like me. Just because there are cowards that won’t say that on TV, that’s your problem, it’s not mine, because you’re not getting the truth.

(h/t Newsbusters)

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