General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWith Trump In The White House, MSNBC Is Resisting The Resistance
WASHINGTON ― On Friday, readers of the new morning email put out by Mike Allen awoke to a little nugget of news. One of your favorites is getting their own MSNBC show, he teased in the subject line.
That new host was none other than Nicolle Wallace, a former spokeswoman for President George W. Bush and, later, the 2008 presidential campaign of John McCain and Sarah Palin.
New York magazine reported hours later that conservative activist and radio host Hugh Hewitt, already a regular contributor to MSNBC, was in talks with the network about a weekend show.
From outside, it might seem odd to see the premier liberal network veering right, even as liberals around the country are fired up to resist the administration of President Donald Trump.
But from inside, the news about Wallace and Hewitt was seen as just two more steps toward the full execution of the vision of Andy Lack, the NBC News executive who oversees MSNBC. He has made quite clear his plan to move the cable news network away from its bedrock liberalism and toward a more centrist approach personified by Brian Williams even including hosts of a conservative bent, as typified by hosts like Megyn Kelly or Greta Van Susteren, who Lack brought over from Fox News.
Noah Oppenheim, Lacks new deputy who has a long history of provocative right-wing journalism, is shepherding in the changes which have coincidentally made MSNBC look much whiter. But Lack, in seeking to make this vision a reality, has an unusual problem for a TV executive: sky-high ratings.
Since the election of Trump, MSNBCs liberal primetime programs hosted by Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence ODonnell have surged not just in ratings but in the share of the cable news audience theyre capturing. In its earnings call on Thursday, NBCUniversal specifically cited the boost in ratings to The Rachel Maddow Show for a spike in profits. Maddow has been the top show on cable news in the key demographic for two months running, an inconceivable achievement at MSNBC.
Tossing those primetime hosts overboard while theyre raking in viewership and revenue has so far proved an elusive task.
Hayes, Maddow, ODonnell ― the entire primetime lineup is doing record numbers and Lack cant stand it. It makes him furious, said one senior MSNBC source, echoing the sentiment of many other insiders who spoke to HuffPost only on the condition of anonymity. (An NBC spokesman said Lack is happy with the high ratings.)
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Lack has targeted the networks progressive programming since arriving at the network in spring 2015. He started with the daytime shows: Shows from Alex Wagner, Joy Reid and Ronan Farrow, as well as The Cycle, were canceled and replaced by straight news. (At the end of 2015, my own contract with MSNBC, which ran for three years, was not renewed; I had no interaction with Lack.) Lack brought in Chuck Todd to host a 5 p.m. show. He canceled Al Sharptons 6 p.m. show, and ran one from Bloombergs Mark Halperin and John Heilemann in its place.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/andy-lack-msnbc-donald-trump_us_5907422de4b0bb2d086fb7a8?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
NRaleighLiberal
(60,026 posts)Cha
(297,805 posts)fools or brainwashing by any means.
Lochloosa
(16,073 posts)spooky3
(34,498 posts)Kablooie
(18,641 posts)Since fox appears to be crumbling.
pablo_marmol
(2,375 posts)pkdu
(3,977 posts)Cant stand anything in the weekday morning or Greta ( Arrrgh)
iluvtennis
(19,882 posts)...I'm already 50/50 on CNN, so I'll have to look for other news outlets.
Jno_Gilmor_
(127 posts)Even she has been getting a little boring lately. Her current obsession with Russia is starting to get old in my opinion. I'm glad she talks about it, but not to the point where it completely overshadows all of the other horrible things Trump is doing.
Ilsa
(61,707 posts)She covered the ineptitude of trump campaigners who have been given administration jobs, how they have "failed up" into jobs with more authority, even though they failed as politicians (and being decent citizens) in their own states. Namely, Benton of Washington, and NC HHS Sec Aldona Wos who was being investigated for corruption.
She also mentioned recent appointments of people whose personal beliefs would conflict with the stated objectives of the agency to which they were appointed.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)...but they're both dead.
Rhiannon12866
(206,291 posts)And I truly liked both of them so much! I used to work with CBS and 60 Minutes was always a favorite. But I didn't think it was quite the same after Don Hewitt retired and Mike Wallace was just irreplaceable.
So what is wrong with MSNBC?? Rachel is winning in the ratings (as is Stephen Colbert, one of Trump's harshest critics ), so what would be the point in catering to RWers??