For eight years there have been hundreds of close links between the Obama Administration and leading media figures. They party together. They are often brothers and other relatives. They are married to each other. They went to school together. But Heaven forbid that one of their own might actually be friendly with a Republican. Burn him!!!

The media has not learned anything.

One night earlier, Sopan Deb, a CBS News reporter who will soon move to The New York Times, tweeted that Scarborough and his “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski had “partied with Trump” on New Year’s Eve, linking to a Times report noting their attendance at the party. On Monday, Maggie Haberman, the author of that report, tweeted a photograph showing the co-hosts talking to a tuxedoed Trump before the party.

To many political journalists, Scarborough and Brzezinski’s presence at Mar-A-Lago confirmed their suspicions: The co-hosts were far too cozy with Trump, trading favorable coverage for access. Scarborough had made no secret of his long friendship with Trump, or even that he occasionally gave him political advice, and now critics say he and Brzezinski were enjoying the perks of that friendship.