[Rant] How to Be an Unprofessional Journalist 101 - Thanks to MSNBC's Morning Joe

I've been sitting on this one for a little bit as there's been a few articles out there on the subject and they put things into words so well already. Why another voice to the mix? Well, to be honest, I'm not sure and they've already said quite a bit of good about things. However, almost everything I've seen is from the outside looking in. That's not saying what they've put down isn't any more true, because it very much is and it's awesome to see folks rallying behind us for once. What is sad, is that it takes this to draw that out of people...even if they don't fully get it.

For those that haven't seen it yet, Monday morning there was a report done by MSNBC's morning show, Morning Joe. When they brought up the incident that happened this past weekend at Midwest Furfest, they broke out into hysterics and one of them, co-host Mika Brzezinski, actually left the set after not being able to say the word "Furry" with a straight face. Normally, I get it that Furry fandom generates a little giggle or two (we are a fun and silly and strange bunch!), but in light of the news that was being presented, a little decorum should've been placed here. Time, CNN, MediaITE and several others have been only slightly better. They reported the story when it broke, but since then they haven't really done much to help the matter about this either. Unless of course they were publicly outing the Morning Joe crew for being unprofessional about the whole thing, but that's not the tone I was getting.

Here's the video in case you haven't seen it:


Now, I know what you're asking yourself. So what if they laughed? Well, the problem now is that their little showing has gone viral and the headline is now more about them and not what happened. Pro tip: You are not the news, the story or event is the news. I'm not even formally trained and I know that much.

What did happen? Someone launched, what police are calling, an intentional act of using chlorine to hurt those attending at Midwest Furfest. The result of this? 19 people admitted to the hospital. Nothing funny there at all, here's one account from someone there for instance. Overall, the attendees, Midwest Furfest staff, hotel staff, and police handled things extremely well. How well? Well, you can check out this update from +Mike Allgood, from the Furry News Network, to show just how things were handled in a professional and courteous way.


Maybe the producers of +Morning Joe didn't care, but a very real and potentially lethal thing happened Saturday night. The lack of professionalism from the entire crew of Morning Joe shown through in a horrible, and frankly, shocking way. MSNBC needs to take a hard look at this one and find out what they're doing, they do report "news" over there right? It's inexcusable how it was handled and there hasn't been a peep out of them. Again, a little giggle, fine...but to totally blow the story? Come on. They only make it worse by promoting the whole thing as a cute and funny thing on the Morning Joe Facebook Page, um guys, did you miss the part about 19 people going to hospital?

This is even more evident by the fact that they had Joy Behar on for a segment and brought it up again. First Brzezinski didn't want to talk about it and then was forced to, but the only thing that she or Behar could bring up? The common misconceptions of the fandom and then passed that off as the only fact. Lewis tried to tone them down, but failed and got steamrolled (kudos for trying though man). It does seem like Brzezinski wants to put this behind her and not acknowledge how unprofessional her and the rest of the Morning Joe folks really are and continue to be.

To her credit, Brzezinski did say she wasn't putting down the incident or making light of it and said she was sorry about what happened (though I think that was mostly the incident, not her behavior), but then her and Behar decided to rail on the "ridiculousness" of Furries in a demeaning way (we already know we're silly and fun, thank you). Not that great of a way to do that and since when was she some expert on the topic anyway? Do the producers or "talent" on this show actually talk to each other, ever? It seems more like they just want a reaction out of the on air talent and that's all fine and good, but this wasn't the right arena or story for that. Not by a long shot.

Also, not sure how true Mika's statement of sexual images being sent to her on Twitter was, but if it is...was it from those in the Furry community or just those wanting to slander the group even more? I can't tell...either way, way to spread the hate and focus on just one aspect of things out there folks.

Here's that video:
(If the video won't show, just head over to MSNBC to see it there)



Yes, the Furry Fandom has a bad wrap out there, that's no surprise. It's mostly because people like to make jokes about it due to a few "bad apples" (some of our own jokes about ourselves included there), misconceptions from TV shows and from other outlets. Though, labeling Midwest Furfest as a "Sex Convention" is just a downright a misrepresentation of an entire group of people. Behar looks like a fool by making that sweeping generalization. I have to ask though, are they trying to be "funny"? Behar is supposedly a comedian after all, but if so, what's the punchline?

Every fandom has it's "weird or strange" aspects as others view them, that's life, but it's not a defining thing either. Even "normal people" have their "weird" hang ups, no reason to attack someone over it as there's nothing wrong with it. One could easily trot out all kinds of dirt about other groups too, but this isn't about them or that. It really just isn't the place for that at all, but had to touch on it because of the follow up that happened. 

Look, a convention for a fandom was attacked in a pretty horrible manner and could've easily ended being much worse than it was. Thankfully that wasn't the case and no one seems to have been seriously harmed from this from what I've gathered. Would they have laughed if it was a Boy Scouts of America event, SDCC, or how about a football game or a hockey game? I highly doubt it. But since it was a fandom that they didn't take even a second to research, beyond face value of internet slandering and set it up as such, they've completely diluted the events that took place that put lives in danger. Annoyingly enough, it's actually fueled a lot of people to spew even more hate towards the Furry fandom as well. Way to go guys.

That said, even the folks writing about this more seriously have missed the mark too. The Mary Sue article headline about this very topic, "Let’s Stop Making Jokes About Furries While Discussing That Recent Terrorist Attack on Furries", actually just hints at only stopping jokes about Furries while talking about the attack. How about, not doing it at all? You're better than that. Even then, you just have to bring up certain things in the article, don't ya? Nice try though, and thanks for that.

There's been no official word from the folks at MSNBC, the show's presenters (they're not journalists, let's face it), or any other outlet out there about an apology or acknowledging this epic screw up on their part. Well, outside of digging the hole even more with that interview above that is. I think it's warranted here, but somehow I doubt it'll happen. Though, I hope that the slew of articles and comments coming out has opened their eyes a bit on how they have managed to make a mess of things for themselves. Maybe in the future they'll not totally screw something up this bad, but I won't be holding my breath.