Movie director Rob Reiner appeared on Friday's Morning Joe to announce his historical verdict: This is the first time in American history that "state-run TV" networks like Fox and Sinclair ever "aligned with a president of the United States." The networks never aligned with JFK, or Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama.

As usual, Reiner played up the Russia conspiracy theory that “the president of the United States is in conspiracy with that foreign power. This has never happened before in this country. You can see why the other side is putting out a full court press, because they know that what’s coming down the pipe, conceivably, it is the biggest scandal in American history and we are fighting right now for the soul of our democracy.”

Then he turned to the wacky talking about TV networks aligning with the president:

ROB REINER: You're under attack. The press is under attack and right now, if you remove the ability to get the truth out, then you're going to have the destruction of democracy. We don’t have anymore — there’s no checks and balances coming from Congress. Right now, the courts are holding, but this is the first time in American history where you have a state-run television — Fox, Breitbart, Sinclair, Alex Jones aligned with the president of the United States. That’s very, very tough. The battle lines have been drawn. And we're going to see whether or not democracy survives.

Substitute host Nicolle Wallace praised Reiner as a "storyteller" and wondered whether "the coalition you just listed, the president of the United States, his lemmings in the House Republican Freedom Caucus who are doing his bidding, basically waging a war against the Trump-appointee-led Justice Department and FBI, the network you just listed. Are they doing a better job telling a false story than the truth-tellers are doing?"

Reiner replied "No. The truth tellers are telling the better story. The problem is that when you've got 40 percent of the country that is only tuned into the lies, and they are cemented, it's going to be very hard for the truth to break through when all the information comes out."

So, for the purpose of this discussion, any media outlet that isn't liberal is broadcasting "lies" and the liberal ones are the "truth tellers."

It's fascinating that this same MSNBC that constantly sounded like state-run TV when it was Chris Matthews having leg tingles over Obama and then once he was president, oozing that “The President showed his analytical mind....He was at his best intellectually. I thought it was a great example of how his mind works....What a mind he has, and I love his ability to do it on television. I love to think with him.”

Or this from Matthews: "I’m saying it again, I’m getting a thrill....We agree, we girls agree. I don’t mind saying that. I’m excited. I’m thrilled.”