Mika Brzezinski

After my post on "What passes for news in L.A.," I got a thoughtful comment from Elisabeth (check out her blog Elisabeth Writes) ,to wit: "Where's Mika Brzezinski when we need her?"

I must confess I did not understand the reference. Because I don't get cable and so I missed Mika, daughter of Zbigniew, in action during an MSNBC broadcast on June 27th when she (according to Wikipedia):

"refused to read a report about Paris Hilton's release from jail. One hour later during another news break segment, her producer Andy Jones again pushed the story as the lead, ranking it over Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana's break with President Bush on the Iraq war, which Brzezinski considered more important. After several unsupportive remarks from host Joe Scarborough, she attempted to burn the story's script on the air, but was physically prevented from lighting it by co-host Willie Geist. She then tore up the script, and one hour later, got up and ran another copy of the script through a paper shredder retrieved from Dan Abrams's office.

The incident was quickly popularized on the Internet, and in the days that followed Brzezinski received large quantities of fan mail supporting her on-air protest as a commentary on the tension between 'hard news' and 'entertainment news.'"

God, I wish I could have seen that! Oh wait--thanks to the Internet and YouTube (and Elisabeth!), I can!!!

Two posts about two different "Mikas" in as many days. Hmmmm....

God bless you Mika Brzezinski! I bet you wouldn't waste our time with alleged "breaking news" on some freaking car chase either!