MSNBC’s primetime lineup now has no mainstream conservative host (Scarborough does the morning show now and isn’t that conservative anymore, Pat Buchanan doesn’t count as 1) he doesn’t have his own show and 2) he is Pat Buchanan). Fox of course has its stars while CNN has Glenn Beck and, as I’m sure they would argue, Lou Dobbs (although he is a populist more than anything else).
While I’m sure the final decision came down to ratings this move further demonstrates MSNBC’s efforts to be the “anti-Fox” a.k.a. the left-of-center cable news network. Say what you will about Fox at least they have Alan Colmes and Greta Van Sustren. I will miss Tucker’s libertarian conservative commentary. He was always able to call out the B.S. on both sides of the aisle.
Is this the future trend of cable news? Blatantly picking sides? It may be more intellectually honest just to be up front about your partisan alliances, but how long before the editorial content spills over into the newsroom? The executives at MSNBC are clearly making a conscious decision to move the entire network left. While the motive may be to consistently attract a certain type of viewer the outcome is already having dramatic ramifications.
I don’t watch TC, so I don’t know enough about his substance to make a judgment on that front. But, I think he looks like the fakest kind of celebrity. In fact, he reminds me of John Forbes Kerry physically and style-wise.
My two pitches for a new conservative show are:
1.) Steele Viewpoint (or something catchy) with my favorite politician, Michael Steele.
2.) The Mike Huckabee Variety Hour. Comedy, music, politics, creationism, and good times.
I’m really disappointed by that news. While I wasn’t crazy about Tucker Carlson on Crossfire – wasn’t crazy about anything about Crossfire – he had a really good show going on MSNBC. It was great in tandem with Matthews’ show, two hours of nothing-but-politics, one from the right and one from the left.
MSNBC, I’m sure, would argue this is not a shift to the left because David Gregory is a news reporter, not a political hack. I would argue, to the contrary, that he is a political hack. His harangues against Bush in the newsroom were over the top and he has no credibility with. Plus he’s not very interesting as a prospective talk show host.
I actually like MSNBC best of the cable networks; I watch it far more than the others. The main reason is that they cover politics almost exclusively. CNN is good but they stick closely to news, and mainly talk about politics when there’s actual political news to report. Fox News is dead to me because I am sick of hearing about missing blonde girls and every storm in America that has knocked over so much as a stop sign. And so many of their personalities are robotic GOP shills – John Scott, Page Hopkins, the Fox and Friends crew. I may like their general point of view, but it’s so unprofessional I can’t take it.
That said, I very much share the concern about MSNBC embracing the left. That link is dead-on, because Keith Olbermann anchoring election coverage is not a single bit different than Bill O’Reilly doing it, except the difference in their ideology. I can’t believe they’ve let that one slide. Matthews I don’t mind, in fact I like him quite a bit, because he’s pretty hard on everyone. Witness that embarassing interview he did with the TX legislator supporting Obama, that while Matthews is a pretty transparent Obama supporter. What really saves MSNBC in my eyes, though, is that their daytime coverage is dependable and relatively free from bias. Mika Brzezinski, Norah O’Donnell, Andrea Mitchell, and the cast of nameless faces, they’re all pretty good. And what I love is they are ALWAYS talking politics. They’ve really developed a nitch there, and political junkies are well-served by it.
So, if you ask me, CNN is the fairest network; MSNBC is my favorite because it’s all politics and includes an unbiased daytime crew; FNC needs to get off the infotainment habit, but – I will say happily – it still has the single best political/news show on television, “Special Report with Brit Hume.” I wish every news personality had the intelligence and professionalism of Brit Hume.
I agree with pretty much everything you wrote exepct the MSNBC unbiased day times news reporting. Mika Brzezinski, Andrea Mitchell and that Georgetown elite weasel Howard Fineman are all clearly left of center and really bug me.
I can’t stand Fox News. Their business channel is a huge joke. It’s like watching the female cast of Baywatch read RNC talking points (seriously, I remember they had a segment entitled “biggest economic fears for 2008″ and one of them was “Democrats taking over”).
Connscript, you’ve always had this hangup about Andrea Mitchell. I maintain that she is not that liberal, or at least doesn’t act like it on camera. And Mika Brzezinski falls in the same category, for me – yeah we know she’s left-of-center, but it doesn’t interfere much with the way she covers the news.
Btw any thoughts on Norah O’Donnell? She seems to me like a successor for Matthews if he ever leaves Hardball, she fills in for him sometimes. Sometimes I really like her – she’s smart and can be a tough interview. But then she does stuff that makes her look plain stupid, like she has this ridiculous laugh and she doesn’t even seem to be aware of how awful it sounds. I wonder why they didn’t put her on in place of Tucker, rather than Gregory. Hey, at least they didn’t give to Shuster. Probably would have if he didn’t call Chelsea a hooker. Now THAT guy is a leftie.
Yeah, I wouldn’t expect a cable news network to stick to the news….
I don’t watch MSNBC, one of the few things that anger me quickly is listening to liberal commentary–I don’t listen to NPR either. I wasn’t this way before college. I thing the ultra-liberal atmosphere damaged me…