Joe Scarborough Says His Radio Show's a Wild Success; Don Imus Says No, You're Cancelled, You Phony!

April 29th, 2010 10:48 PM
Citadel Media abruptly pulled Joe Scarborough's radio show from its lineup on Monday, describing it as a “brief hiatus” while they develop a new three-hour version of the show. Brian Maloney at the Radio Equalizer blog has tape of Joe and his sidekick Mika Brzezinski denouncing conservative talk radio for being simple-minded, one-sided, and “afraid of hearing other viewpoints.”

Scarborough claimed their show was a success because “we trusted you to want something different. You wanted to be challenged intellectually, that you didn't want to have your mouth opened up and have the same old drivel shoveled down it day after day after day.” Mika added that those other talk shows had “the same kind of haranguing and the same kind of ugly talk.”

On his Fox Business show, Don Imus bluntly suggested Scarborough was lying about the new show: “His radio show is cancelled. They're not revamping anything! He will never ever be on WABC in New York again, ever! Ever!...You know why they got blown out? Because they suck! And he's a punk and a phony.”

Imus said Scarborough's MSNBC ratings aren't any better than Imus's were when he was forced out, and told listeners they should check NBC personnel files to see how many people have complained about Scarborough, since he is a “disgusting backstabbing phony.”

In his clip, Scarborough clearly mocked Imus with an impression joking that Imus was surrounded by "yes men," as if Mika Brzezinski doesn't usually sound like Scarborough's yes-woman. This was radio expert Maloney's bottom line:

Remember, Joe got back into talk radio most recently as a result of hearing about Rush Limbaugh's mega-contract renewal. Admitting defeat here means handing a clear victory to Rush, something Morning Joe's increasingly unstable (and downright fragile) ego simply cannot process.

If we're all wrong and Joe's program really is about to return, let's get the confirmed details, especially from Citadel. Otherwise, Scarborough needs to come clean with the truth.