When the NBC suits join the on-air talent in such loaded characterizations, the rules of the game become clear: MSNBC bashes Donald Trump because it’s what their audience expects, and it’s good for ratings. As Salon magazine noted caustically in March when Mika pronounced a seven-week-old presidency “fake and failed,” it had taken “Morning Joe” some 45 days to “catch up to the audience of their show.” Salon didn’t mean this as a compliment.

Scarborough and Brzezinski gave a wink and a nod to this point in their Washington Post rebuttal to Trump’s Thursday tweet. It was a curious response. They accused Trump of lying when he said Mika had a facelift, before adding, “She did have a little skin under her chin tweaked.” They also beseeched Trump to stop watching “Morning Joe,” saying, “We are both certain that man is not mentally equipped” to keep watching it. Given its content, how could he be?