Before Scarborough and Brzezinski made their relationship official, they somehow managed to skirt any direct media accusations that they'd taken their on-air chemistry off the set. This was reportedly the result of a savvy PR effort on behalf of the powerful morning show hosts, who allegedly went as far as making backroom deals to keep their secret out of the headlines. One such deal, according to the Daily Beast, was an arrangement made with New York Post columnist Richard Johnson, who in 2013 was prepared to go public with a story about their romance. Brzezinski allegedly begged the late Roger Ailes, who was running Fox News at the time, to reach out to fellow News Corp. employee Johnson to have the story shelved. Johnson reportedly agreed, and the next day Scarborough allegedly "phoned him and gave him the juicy scoop that Alec Baldwin was about to be fired from his short-lived MSNBC program."
Though the decision to nix his program had already been made, this alleged backdoor dealing supposedly didn't sit well with Baldwin, who lashed out at the Morning Joe hosts, calling the show "boring," describing Scarborough as "neither eloquent nor funny," and "Mika B." as "the Margaret Dumont of cable news" — whatever that means. Vague insults aside, the plan worked because their rumored secret remained safe for another four years.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7XCpKCsr5mbwW%2BvzqZmb2poaIVwucikmGaaoq%2Byu7XNrKKiZZqksm6%2Fwpqpm6eipMKotIyfmJyso2K6osWMpKWor18%3D