Right about the right?

In this video from TPM, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean is dismissive of rightwing media on MSNBC’s most conservative show, Morning Joe. His remarks were not warmly embraced. Maybe that was another of his points.

I don’t know that I would have put things quite the way Dean did, but his distinction between conservatives and rightwingers is a valid one. Like most on the centre left, I use “rightwinger” as a pejorative term, and “conservative” as a more generic term for people whose ideology is the opposite of mine, but who are not rigid, authoritarian (even arrogant) ideologues like rightwingers are.

We don’t get MSNBC in New Zealand, so I’ve never seen a full Morning Joe, only clips (including from the MSNBC site, not just from those analysing or criticising the show). I haven’t liked what I’ve seen, though not because it leans rightward or because the host, Joe Scarborough, is a conservative. I don’t like it because Joe often comes across as an arrogant prick, and if I wanted to watch that, I could tune into Fox “News” at any time (though I don’t, of course).

In any event, it takes some fierce conviction to be willing to take on Joe and his crew.