The media should stop "hyperventilating" over President-elect Donald Trump and let him start his presidency "with a balanced perspective," MSNBC's Joe Scarborough wrote in an opinion piece.
Days after Scarborough met with Trump in Mar-a-Lago in an effort to secure an interview with the incoming president during inauguration week, he penned a piece in The Washington Post and defended himself for having dinner with Trump and "doing his job."
"This past week, I met twice with President-elect Donald Trump attempting to secure an interview for inauguration week," Scarborough wrote. "Judging from the snide reaction of some in the press, you would have thought I offered to sketch the outline of his inaugural speech."
One member of the press said Scarborough and "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski "partied" with Trump on New Year's Eve, while another tweeted a photo of Scarborough talking to the president-elect.
In his opinion piece, Scarborough argued that it's not uncommon for members of the media to hold off-the-record meetings with presidents and other politicians.
"The long history of politicians and the press meeting outside of news conferences and editorial board rooms can be neatly summed up by NBC's Douglas Kiker, who once said, 'If a bomb had ever gone off at Hickory Hill on a summer weekend, three-fourths of the most powerful print and broadcast journalists in America would have had to be replaced,'" he said.
Scarborough added, "Reporters don't have to like Trump. But they do need to stop hyperventilating long enough to approach the next four years with a balanced perspective and at least start pretending to once again be objective.
"As for those who attacked me this weekend for doing my job, facts are stubborn things. The only 'party' I attended on New Year's Eve was the one in front of the TV with my children, watching 'Groundhog Day,' 'Ghostbusters' and Mariah Carey's epic meltdown.
"That may not sound as exciting as a big party at Mar-a-Lago, but for my family, it was a perfect way to end 2016."
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