Did Jon Stewart announce his eventual departure from the "The Daily Show" as a favor to embattled journalist Brian Williams? MSNBC host Joe Scarborough certainly seems to think so.
Stewart announced his departure from the late-night news satire television program on Tuesday, the same night that NBC announced Williams' six-month suspension without pay for lying about his helicopter taking fire in Iraq, Mediaite reported.
The timing of both these events was not coincidental, Scarborough claimed on Wednesday, speculating that while the comedian could have stepped down at any time, Williams had no choice.
During MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday, guest Richard Haass, of the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that Stewart's high-profile announcement coincided with an ethics scandal engulfing Williams.
"Stewart could have stepped down at any time," Haass said. "The fact that he stepped down in the middle of this - was there any connection?"
"These guys, apparently, two Jersey guys, apparently spent time together," Scarborough responded. "I heard about - he and Springsteen and Jon Stewart walking on the beach down the Jersey Shore some time ago."
"It's hard to not think that Jon Stewart did this as a favor to Brian Williams. And if so, that is a very, very good friend. We should all have such a friend."
Meanwhile, MSNBC hosts and assorted media guests also talked about the "sheer meanness" of those who are criticizing Williams on social media and in the press, CNSNews.com reported.
"What did Brian Williams ever do?" one guest wondered.
"And I'm sure that's a question that Brian is asking himself," Scarborough said, noting that while "we engage in opinion so much here" on "Morning Joe" (because he's an "analyst") -- "Brian Williams was a news reporter, and he read the news, and he did it straight, and he did it well."
"The fact that he did it so straight really does raise the question of the level of hatefulness, and where that -- that putrid well rose up from -- that again, was so out of proportion with the sin."
"It is a mean, tough, cut-throat nasty business that we work in," guest Mika Brzezinski said.
