Joe Scarborough—a former U.S. Congressman and MSNBC's aging jam band dad—said today on Morning Joe that the two reporters detained in Ferguson, Missouri should have just listened to the police. In Scarborough's mind, The Washington Post's Wesley Lowery and The Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly just wanted to get on TV.

Lowery and Reilly were arrested for not leaving a McDonald's "fast enough" yesterday. Scarborough says: That seems fair. He explains:

There is a lot of unanswered questions here, but I do know this. When a police officer asks you to pick up—I've been in places where police officers said, "All right, you know what? This is cordoned off, you guys need to move along." You know what I do? I go, "Yes, sir," or "Yes, ma'am." I don't sit there and have a debate and film the police officer, unless I want to get on TV and have people talk about me the next day.

Hmm. Here's Lowery's account of his arrest:

Multiple officers grabbed me. I tried to turn my back to them to assist them in arresting me. I dropped the things from my hands.

"My hands are behind my back," I said. "I'm not resisting. I'm not resisting." At which point one officer said: "You're resisting. Stop resisting."

Lowery rightfully unloaded on Scarborough on CNN in response, inviting him to "come down to Ferguson and get out of 30 Rock where he's sitting and sipping his Starbucks smugly." He continued, "I invite him to come and talk to the residents of Ferguson, where I've been since Monday afternoon having tear gas shot at me, having rubber bullets shot at me ... I would invite Joe Scarborough down here to do some reporting on the ground, then maybe we can have an educated conversation about what's happening here."

Scarborough at least has an idea of what's going on. "I know it's bad out there," he helpfully offered later in the morning's segment.

[H/t Talking Points Memo]