This couldn’t have happened to two finer fellows! Hear those cheers in that background? They are coming from:
- Moderates and Independents from both parties, Republicans and Democrats
- Women & men that are tired of the constant misogyny packaged as “political commentary”
- IMUS supporters
- PUMA’s and other supporters of democracy that no longer exists within the Democratic Party
- Supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton and women candidates everywhere
- Viewers of every persuasion . . . tired of the partisan politics and reporting of MSNBC
The New York Times is reporting this seismic shift in programming in a new article written today. This is must read for all of us that witnessed the complete and utter downfall of MSNBC starting with the Imus firing in April of 2007. The article reads in part:
The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.
“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.
Executives at the channel’s parent company, NBC Universal, had high hopes for MSNBC’s coverage of the political conventions. Instead, the coverage frequently descended into on-air squabbles between the anchors, embarrassing some workers at NBC’s news division, and quite possibly alienating viewers. Although MSNBC nearly doubled its total audience compared with the 2004 conventions, its competitive position did not improve, as it remained in last place among the broadcast and cable news networks. (surprise, surprise, surprise… and they wonder why!) In prime time, the channel averaged 2.2 million viewers during the Democratic convention and 1.7 million viewers during the Republican convention.
The success of the Fox News Channel in the past decade along with the growth of political blogs have convinced many media companies that provocative commentary attracts viewers and lures Web browsers more than straight news delivered dispassionately.
“In a rapidly changing media environment, this is the great philosophical debate,” Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, said in a telephone interview Saturday. Fighting the ratings game, he added, “the bottom line is that we’re experiencing incredible success.”
But as the past two weeks have shown, that success has a downside. When the vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lamented media bias during her speech, attendees of the Republican convention loudly chanted “NBC.”
After you have read this, please visit my new blog on the impact of plastics on our environment! This is a political issue that effects everyone on the planet.
