Saturday, February 27, 2016

MSNBC: The Place for Politics … Leaning Backwards

The writing has been on the wall for a long time. Throughout 2015, after years of dismal ratings, the leadership at MSNBC decided to  pivot to a hard news format and announced many programming changes.  The afternoon line up was virtually dismantled and many familiar faces were demoted or handed pink slips.

The shows that were spared: Hard Ball with Chris Matthews, All In with Chris Hayes (which may get canceled), The Rachel Maddow Show,  The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, and Morning Joe show with Joe Scarborough and Mika  Brzezinski.

The shows that were demoted: Politics Nation with Rev. Al Sharpton moved from Monday to Friday (6 p.m.) to Sundays (8 a.m.)


The shows that got the ax: Ronan Farrow DailyThe Reid Report,  The CycleNow with Alex Wagner, and The Ed Show

The latest victim seems to be the Melissa Harris Perry show or MHP.
The show, which launched 4 years ago, has been repeatedly pre-empted in favor of providing more coverage for the political farce that we call the presidential campaign of 2016.  The self-proclaimed “nerd-land” host issued a statement in which she explained to her staff and loyal viewers the reality of the shows future:

“Here is the reality: Our show was taken — without comment or discussion or notice — in the midst of an election season,” she wrote in the email, which became public on Friday. “After four years of building an audience, developing a brand and developing trust with our viewers, we were effectively and utterly silenced.”

If the leadership at MSNBC has indeed canceled the MHP show through a process of attrition it comes as no surprise, and sadly, it continues a long downward spiral for a cable news station that once had some journalistic standards. Starting with the abrupt departure of Keith Olbermann in 2011, the struggling cable network has desperately tried to find a winning formula to keep pace with the ratings of  the FOX News Channel. 

Giving up all pretenses at being a liberal counterweight to Faux News, the management at MSNBC has cast off any semblance of racial diversity and journalistic integrity, and instead, has embraced a more homogenous on-air look to score bigger ratings. However, to be fair, there are still a few non-white faces on the air, Tamron Hall, Joy-Ann Reid, Kristen Welker, former RNC chairman Michael Steele, Harold Ford, Jr. and  Craig Melvin to name a few. But lets be honest, that list is conspicuously small and ever shrinking.

Unfortunately, Melissa Harris Perry and "nerd-land" have most likely been consigned to the dustbin of history. In retrospect it was a good show, hosted by a supremely qualified and educated woman who genuinely cared “about substantive, meaningful and autonomous work.” 

Sadly, the management at MSNBC doesn’t value such work and anchors, and the whitewashing of the network will continue into the foreseeable future. "The Place for Politics" has no place for liberals like: Keith Olbermann, Ed Shutlz, Dylan Rattigan, Martin Bashir, Karen Finney, Krystal Ball, Touré, Alex Wagner, Cenk Uygur, and Rev. Al Sharpton. 

The look of MSNBC has become decidedly white and conservative and some anchors think that is a good thing. Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe went on the air (August, 2015) and gleefully thanked network chairman Andy Lack for cleaning up the liberal network. I guess if the conservative whitewashing of MSNBC is okay with Joe and the rest of the “antichrist of NY” cheerleading squad, then it must be a good thing. 

Real investigative journalism is overrated anyway.



RIP  MSNBC …

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