Popular microblogging site Twitter came under fire on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Thursday, as the show's hosts competed to talk down its influence on American politics and society.
The conversation was prompted by New York Times writer Bret Stephens, who recently wrote the article "How Twitter Pornified Politics" in which he condemned Twitter's influence on political discourse and promised to nominally forego it.
"This is the column in which I formally forswear Twitter for good," Stephens wrote. "I'll keep my Twitter handle, and hopefully my followers, but an editorial assistant will manage the account from now on. I'll intercede only to say nice things about the writing I admire, the people I like, and the music I love."
The "Morning Joe" hosts were univocal in their agreement with Stephens's anti-Twitter stance.
"Twitter has become a cesspool," said panelist John Heilemann. "I use it, I continue to use it, I ignore a lot of the most heinous stuff that gets said But I think anyone in public life that spends any time on Twitter has noticed, over the last couple of years in particular, how much vile, nasty, reflexive garbage is thrown at the direction of everyone."
"It's also the case that the vast majority of things that get written on Twitter are people venting their spleens," he said.
Stephens, who was on the show as a guest, managed to get in a shot at President Donald Trump.
"I don't think it's an accident that our president is our country's number one Twitter user," Stephens said.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski leapt at the opportunity to bring in Trump's prolific Twitter usage.
"What I think Twitter has done is really revealed the true nature of this man who is the president of the United States," Brzezinski said. "It has shown the kind of, the dark underbelly of this presidency. Thanks to Twitter, we know."
"I think if you go on Twitter, and you go on Twitter angry, I don't think the market reveals character, I think it twists and distorts character," said co-host host Joe Scarborough. "Because you've got to put it in 140 characters. There's no room for nuance. And I think it brings out, many times, just the absolute worst in people."
The "Morning Joe" hosts are prolific Twitter users themselves. Brzezinski has just under 10 thousand tweets; Heilemann 16.6 thousand; and Scarborough 37.3 thousand. It is unclear if they manage their Twitter accounts themselves, or delegate the task to an editorial assistant.