’)The reason MSNBC has fallen to third place every time they get a little head of steam is when they pull moves like this.
After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.
You will remember David Gregory as the man who thinks the media did a great job in the run-up to the Iraq war and thinks anyone who asserts otherwise is silly. If I want that sort of propaganda, why wouldn’t I just go right to the source and watch Fox?
I would say well, we’ve still got Olbermann and Maddow on there, but MSNBC has a habit of canceling programs with even a bit of a liberal tilt no matter how strong the ratings trend, so its just hoping at this point. On TV, you are simply not allowed to stray from the Republican line (especially when you work for a corporation like GE) or else you get burned.
Gutless vagrants. All this does is enable the Republicans to say “see, I told you so” and they’ll continue to pile on (MS)NBC for another year. They deserve the ratings basement.
They can stray alright, but they still gotta get people to watch them. With all the bickering going on between Murrow and Chrissy and Scar and that Shuster kid, it doesn’t take much to surmise how much of that continued off the air. Thier rating for the convention were horrendouse. They have a broken product. It’s no more complicated than that.
A failed experiment. And for Edward R. Olbermann, a lesson in the same Republican abuses of power meme that he obsesses over nightly. He’s finding he’s not immune to it either.
A hand overplayed. That and he looked physically ill immediately following Palin’s Speech of the Century.
Just out of curiosity, aside from Donahue, how many other shows with a liberal tilt and strong rating trends have MSNBC canceled?
Speech of the Century? That is comic.
Please, I think Ronald Reagan had about 5 better than that alone in the last century.
It’s still early for Sarah Barracuda, Mobious. Be patient. I’ve watched it 3 times now.
She gives zingers with the same timing and effect as Bob Hope used to, who was simply masterful at it, and with the same playful grin that Ann Richards used when she completely roasted and skewered George HW Bush at the 1984 Democratic Convention.
The New York Times: “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict.”
MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts From Anchor Seat
Dennis,
You do realize that the article you linked to is QUOTED in this blog post, right?
And as a point of fact, there’s nary a second of programming at Fox News that isn’t slanted heavily right.
NBC news is also asking baited questions that pander tot he far-right base. As for MSNBC’s ratings being low, I watched it online – and for some reason, the anchors were no where to be seen. I also can’t find their coverage easily on-line like I can that of Fox News.
Is that the anchors or the honchos fault? Their ratigns could be much higher if they’d leverage the new media in the way that Fox News is.
And that leading conservative Bill Maher led the charge!!
Personally, I wish news organizations dropped the notion of objectivity and admitted their biases up front so the viewer could make heads or tails of whatever they were reporting.
“fallen to third”? When were they ever NOT third?
This move was obvious ever since MSNBC closed up their separate shop in Secaucus and moved into 30 Rock. Thus removing the excuse that they were a separate news organization and wouldn’t reflect poorly on the “parent” brand.
It must be “right wing bellyaching” because ratings have nothing to do with how networks decide programming.
Oliver,
MSNBC did not cave in. They responded to an avalanche of criticism.
You said on your post “Why I am a Dem” on http://www.huffingtonpost.com about Dems maybe be disorganized, well Republicans are not.
In situations like this in the past and in this incident, the problem is the lack of response from the Dems. The biggest flaw I see as a Dem is that we believe in “live and let live,” which is in direct opposition to the Republican “my way or no way.”
There is an avalanche of ugly, I mean ugggggly hate flooding Oprah’s online community that demand that she invite Sarah Palin on her show. Comments like “White women made you” and others reveal that these women have never watched Oprah. Some say they have never watched her shows and never will. These women are on a well organized mission.
Dems must organize. If Dems don’t organize they will be constantly giving the victory to Republicans. The interent must be used as a tool to even the playihg field. Dems must come online and learn to respond to issues online.
LMAO!!! This makes my day!
And come on…..when Bill freaking Maher says your network is just over-the-top in it’s drooling over Obama, you know you have credibility issues. Well that, and their rating suck ass.
I’d have no problem with them putting those two stooges in the anchor chair if they’d just come out and admit that they’re partisan leftists, but they don’t have the honesty to even do that.
That network is a joke now.
“And come on…..when Bill freaking Maher says your network is just over-the-top in it’s drooling over Obama, you know you have credibility issues. Well that, and their rating suck ass.”
Sarah Palin lied in her speech, repeatedly. The only network to call her on her lies was MSNBC. I guess that makes them leftists.
You people are seriously going to hitch your wagon to Matthews and Olbermann just because they tilt a little in your favor?
Bah!
Matthews is a gender-demented crackpot who shouldn’t even be on television, much less anchoring coverage of the debates. Do you not remember his performances through the Dem primaries?
Olbermann is a freaking cartoon.
MSNBC is doing us a favor.
“everyone needs to call it down the middle except us”-Billo and Hannity as they anchors election night for Fox
MSNBC giveth and NBC taketh away. Crappy news on the eve of Rachel Maddow’s first show, tonight at 9.
Sarah Palin lied in her speech, repeatedly. The only network to call her on her lies was MSNBC. I guess that makes them leftists.
It would, unless they were equally willing to call out Sens. Obama and Biden when they fib. I’m not entirely convinced they are, but I wonder whether KO and RM see themselves as the unequal but opposite reaction to Fox. If you have right-wing shills and left-wing fairness, the end result is tilted right.
jr doesn’t watch much Fox “Noise” or else he’d know that Chris Wallace, Brit Hume, and Shep Smith handled the anchoring while “Billo and Hannity” were clearly labeled as analysts. If MSNBC had done that, they wouldn’t have gotten NEARLY the amount of flak they did.
I’m always amused when wingnuts pretend that Brit Hume somehow sets some standard of non-partisan journalism. Hume is himself an avowed right-winger, amplifies right-wing frames constantly, and never has anyone remotely left on his discussion panels. Sure we’ll get unbiased analysis of the DNC convention from Will Kristol, Mort Kondracke, and Chuck Krauthammer. But oh since they’re “analysts” and Hume is the “unbiased journalist” sitting there while they do all the talking, that makes it all OK!
“Ok, so you allege she lied…”
I don’t allege anything. She lied. This is objective fact.
“jr doesn’t watch much Fox “Noise” or else he’d know that Chris Wallace, Brit Hume, and Shep Smith handled the anchoring”
Brit Hume is an ‘analyst’ as well. He has a partisan show.
What exactly did she lie about?
Ref please
Not accepting pork and the support of the Bridge to Nowhere, for one thing.
This is a simple issue. Don’t hire drooling partisan hacks and put them in the anchor chair. Don’t insult peoples intelligence by trying to pass them off as unbiased and fair. Hannity makes no bones about where he stands, neither does O’Reilly. But Olbermann and Matthews, who were supposed to be anchors, you know..”hard news,” admit to getting “thrills up their legs” and being “sycophants” for Obama. How can any reputable organization make them anchors for presidential election coverage and be taken seriously?
Answer: You can’t. And they just learned that the hard way.
And by the way, Brit Hume is about as down the middle in his hard news coverage as you’ll find on any of the cable news networks.
The inability of some on this blog to see what is blatently obvious to most all conservatives and even most democrats — that MSNBC has been over the top in it’s support for Obama — demonstrates how out to lunch you guys are on the issue of media bias. Sometimes I even wonder if some of you believe what you say on the media bias issue, because if you do, that’s a kind of stupid that you just can’t fix.
“And by the way, Brit Hume is about as down the middle in his hard news coverage as you’ll find on any of the cable news networks.”
Followed by
“Sometimes I even wonder if some of you believe what you say on the media bias issue, because if you do, that’s a kind of stupid that you just can’t fix.”
Comedy gold. You make the J’s seem smart by comparison.
Brit Hume impartial? Joke time. Don’t you remember when he didn’t want to acknowledge Barack Obama by name. After showing a video clip on Barack Obama on Fox News Sunday Brit Hume, filling in for Chris Wallace, said “Well, that’s you know who.” It almost raised Juan Williams eyebrows.
“Not accepting pork and the support of the Bridge to Nowhere, for one thing.”
Beat me to it. There’s no way she can make a false claim about what she did unless the past and not be lying, unless she is medically unfit to be president.
Perhaps Olbermann and Matthews as ‘anchors’ for MSNBC had some responsibility to act and behave as….oh I don’t know….journalists instead of hacks. That’s why they’re being placed back in the spot of ‘analysts’ (where Keith can pout and whine about everything Republican and get a chubby every time Obama’s face appears on screen) so that MSNBC can salvage the few drops of credibility it still has left as a ‘news’ channel.
It’s one thing that Olbermann’s own show has been getting better ratings by attracting his own ilk to watch, but he — and the suits at MSNBC — should know better that people tuning in now are tuning in to watch election coverage and not the hysterical rantings of Keith Olbermann and fawning Obama bloviating of Chris Matthews.
MSNBC could redeem themselves if they would interview the lipstick put bull — on Rachel Maddows’ program. Palin hasn’t the guts to do that, I reckon.
It’s like this weekend, when Chris Matthews compared Obama to Norma Rae, or a couple of years ago when he marveled at Obama in his flight suit. Oh wait, none of that happened. It was Republicans that Matthews was creaming over.
I remember the hue and cry over Sean Hannity hosting Fox News’ convention coverage — oh right, there wasn’t. IOKIYAR.
Brit Hume is the least impartial anchor on Fox, let alone compared to the legitimate media.
I remember the hue and cry over Sean Hannity hosting Fox News’ convention coverage — oh right, there wasn’t. IOKIYAR.
I didn’t see it but I was under the impression that FOX had three different people anchoring coverage in different hour windows none of which included Sean Hannity.
Hannity’s stint as a FOX Convention Anchor is seared … seared into Oliver’s memory.
I second the “Maddow interviews Palin” idea. Of course, that will never happen, and all that Maddow would propose to do is throw questions at her straight down the line on Troopergate, AIP membership, the Bridge to Nowhere, her tenure as mayor of Wasilla and earmarks associated thereto, her statement on community organizers, her position on choice, her own pastor issues, her current knowledge of foreign policy, and clarifying her positions on various issues such as the Fair Pay act.
And one other issue that many haven’t really mentioned – MSNBC’s viewership was barely 1/4 of what Fox News was.
That alone is reason enough to shake things up.
If people tune in for election coverage, that’s what they want — not some foaming at the mouth a**hole spinning things to the left.
Olbermann has his show to bloviate. Leave unbaised coverage to *professionals*….which Olbermann is not.
First things first…ALL politicians lie. Do you honestly believe that Barack Obama sat in church for 20 years and didn’t hear any “hate” sermons?? You are judged by the company you keep for good reasons. You also turn your back on people for good reason. Like being elected president!!
How about Biden?? What was the remark about articulate and clean?? And what was that about needing to speak Indian if you wanted a dunkin donut? But, we’re going to have a real discussion on race. (Philadelphia speech) Guess you can turn your back on your principles if you want to be president.
Please, at least look at both sides, not just one. Call one a liar, see them all.
Wait, you mean to tell me that Fox got better ratings than MSNBC for the Republican Convention.
How could that have happened?
Hmmmm, ’tis a mystery….
If anyone wants to take a guess at David Gregory’s partisan ship, this video might help (it might also burn your retinas):
MC Rove
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYZre8kEsuw
Karl Rove rapping at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner with David Gregory dancing. Disturbing.