Brzezinski: "Lucky" to get paid half as much as Joe Scarborough.

[no_hypocrisy]

Brzezinski's colleague Andrea Mitchell made this point on air yesterday--that pay disparity exists at MSNBC. Politico reports:

During an interview Thursday, Mitt Romney senior adviser Barbara Comstock told Andrea Mitchell that “we know here at MSNBC the guys get paid more" — and the MSNBC host replied, “We certainly do.”

For Brzezinski's part, it's more than a bit odd that she would play down the problems at MSNBC now.

After all, her public dispute with MSNBC about pay equity has been well known. In fact, she's made it herself on her own show.

"We make less than our male counterparts," said Brzezinski last year. "I found out on this show that I made a lot less than Joe. 14 times less."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/msnbc-host-lucky-get-paid-half-much-her-male-co-host_654987.html

[Fumesucker]

1. Joe has far more connections and cachet as a former Congressman than Mika

And that's what getting the job, let alone the pay, is all about, having the connections.

Only in fairly rare cases is pay commensurate with the actual ability to do the job and even then having the connections definitely makes a difference.

It's not what you know, it's who you know.

[Xedniw]

2. LOL! You don't know who Mika's dad is, do you? Or that she has been working with this White House

on equal pay issues. (Talk about freaking contacts!) Mika met Chinese premiere Deng Xiaoping when she was 9 years old at a state dinner with her dad. Scarborough was, what, smoking pot and masturbating in his garage at the same time? LOL!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Brzezinski

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mika_Brzezinski

[Fumesucker]

6. Yes, I know who her dad is..

She wouldn't be on the show at all if it weren't for the fact she's Zbig's daughter.

Attractive and well spoken women are a dime a dozen at that level and she wouldn't be on the show if she wasn't physically attractive either.

[Helen Reddy]

7. excuse me?

"Attractive and well spoken women are a dime a dozen at that level and she wouldn't be on the show if she wasn't physically attractive either".

Not-so-attractive men not half as well spoken are a nickel a dozen and he wouldn't be on the show if he weren't a white man.

[Fumesucker]

8. I'm just commenting on the reality, not saying I agree with it.

There's definitely a double standard on appearances when it comes to men and women on TV and particularly so on political type shows.

If Mika were not both physically attractive and Zbig's daughter she wouldn't be on the show at all.

I'll add that I don't even own a television and I've never watched that show either, frankly the only reason I know anything about it is that it's such a common subject of conversation here on DU.

[Helen Reddy]

10. Thank you for expanding on the comment. n/t

[JVS]

18. It's a sad state of affairs when the identity of a parent is considered a qualification

[KharmaTrain]

3. Blame Her Agent...

Not surprised, but also...as the poster above notes (and I'm no fan of Joey), he's what brings the eyeballs and the "connections" to the show. Mika was nothing but a newsreader with a famous father before Mourning Joe and the show has helped raise her name recognition which I hope will mean more money, but let's not think that both brough equal value to the show.

Now...does Joey deserve 14 times more than Mika? Common sense and decency says no and honestly the problem isn't with the network, it's with Mika's agent. And that's where the true disperity lies. A good agent will push for more money and/or opportunities for their client and if she feels she's being discriminated against it's her agent that should push the case. Unfortunately that world is as much a "boys club" as the heads of the networks they bargain with. Mika wasn't chosen for the role due to her political experience or knowledge...it was to look pretty and read the news.

[JDPriestly]

15. Who knows?

"nothing but a newsreader with a famous father "?

I have always wanted to hear more from her. She seems to be not only not as well paid but downright subjugated by Joe Scarborough.

Quite frankly, I find the obvious contempt and disregard that Scarborough shows for her during the show to be offensive. Scarborough appears to me to be backward. He is the face of the domineering, (verbally at least) abusive conservative male on MSNBC. You have to go to CNN's Wolf Blitzer and the array of nasties on Fox News to find a more condescending would-be-alpha male.

Time for Mika to get a divorce from the Morning Joe Show. She needs to get out there and be herself. Let Morning Joe find another foil. Surely she can do better than Joe Scarborough's show. She needs to take a risk.

I'm not blaming Brzezinski for MSNBC's unfair pay scale. I'm just saying that I think that Mika Brzezinski with her good, old-fashioned common sense and sharp wit could do better and that I for one would like to see her be treated with the great respect she deserves.

[spooky3]

20. I agree with your third pgh and notice also that Mika is the only woman on the "regular"

panel. This unfortunately sends a "tokenism" signal and greatly influences the tone of the discussions. Social science research shows that even having one more "minority" voice changes things significantly.

However, the solution is not for Mika to take the chance of ruining her career, particularly given that she knows there is sexism at that network and everywhere else, which hurts her chances for another job, especially if she is marked as a "hard person to get along with", which is often the kiss of death.

The solution is for the networks to stop being sexist from the time they come on the air until the end of the day, and from the top of the org. to the bottom. Maybe it will require a big, nasty class action suit to get them to do this.

[underoath]

4. Damn.. That's messed up.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

5. That's all she's worth.

[Barack_America]

9. Well, that table dancing photo surely helped the cause.

[MadrasT]

22. That's what I keep thinking. n/t

[UTUSN]

11. R#6 & K for, amazing that Billy "William" KRISTOL's rag is SO concerned but the slap at MSNBC

was probably worth it to them.

[titaniumsalute]

12. I may get flamed for this...

Mika is a co-host to the host. In broadcasting typically the co-host isn't paid as much as the host. I've been both THE HOST of a show (and I know I was paid more than the rest of the show's employees) and I've also been a co-host where I know I wasn't paid as well as the main host.

With that said...I don't think she should be paid 14 times less than Scarborough. That is insane.

I'd be curious to see what Rachel Maddow makes because I'd be VERY surprised if she wasn't the money leader on MSNBC. Andrea Greenspan...well I don't care if they pay her anything.

[upi402]

14. "Andrea Greenspan...well I don't care if they pay her anything."

Love it.

I suspect she's living indoors and eating good food. Somebody would pay her to spread that fertilizer even if MSNBC paid her minimum wage. Of course, her husband would eliminate that wage floor and let the magical hand of the market determine that woman's worth.

She's no journalist.
Rachel should get 14 times her pay. There's 14x more mass keeping Rachel's ears separated.

[Honeycombe8]

23. I said same thing. Mika is like Ed McMahon, who was paid about 1/25th of Johnny Carson.

The reason being...there would've been no tonight show w/o Johnny Carson, like there would be no Morning JOE show w/o Joe Scabby.

If he weren't there, she wouldn't be there....for long. He's the draw on that show.

Maddow has her own show. Looks like she has the biggest ratings among MSNBC talk shows. I wonder if she's paid the same as Big Ed? I could see if she's not paid as much as Tweety or O'Donnell, since they've had their shows much longer.

[City Lights]

13. And for 14 times less pay, she still has to put up with Beady-Eye threatening to backhand her.

[nolabear]

16. Media's a poor bellweather for the rest of the country. Pay equity is based on many things.

Good agenting, perceived ability to attract an audience, experience, and so forth. And it's highly volatile over time. That said, I do think there's a glass ceiling for women that few get through in media.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

17. "Lucky" Mika should be thankful she's not an unpaid intern under Joe

Her fate could be a whole lot worse.

[JVS]

19. They're both dogshit, but she is the sidekick

[Honeycombe8]

21. She should get paid a lot less. She's the second banana, not the "co-host" some say she is.

As Joe has said on his show several times, "It's MY show!" The show is called Morning JOE.

She is Ed McMahon to The Tonight Show's Johnny Carson.

It's estimated McMahaon had a salary of $600,000 to $1,000,000 for The Tonight Show. I've read that Johnny Carson got paid $25,000,000 during teh last years on the show. That's at least 25 times what McMahon was paid.

[krawhitham]

24. She went from making 285k to 2 million, and she feels lucky about that

I can understand that, if I got a pay raise of 1.715 million from one year to the next (6 times a much as I was making before) I would feel petty damn lucky too


Plus the show is called Morning Joe NOT Morning Mika