MSNBC MAY SOON BE GONE

[applegrove]

MSNBC MAY SOON BE GONE
JASON EASLEY MSNBC, TOP NEWS WED, NOV 20TH, 2024

https://www.politicususa.com/2024/11/20/msnbc-may-soon-be-gone.html#google_vignette

"SNIP.............

The decision to spin off MSNBC as part of a new company will result in the loss of NBC News as a partner, potentially a new network name, and maybe even new owners plus a different direction.

Variety reported:

The cable-news outlet could have to consider changing its name and familiar markings under a spin-off of the bulk of the cable assets of parent company Comcast, one of the nascent company’s new top executives suggested to an assemblage of MSNBC staffers Wednesday morning, according to two people familiar with the gathering.

Lazarus told an audience that included Rachel Maddow, Chris Jansing and Katy Tur that he was not sure whether MSNBC would have to change its identity as part of the transaction, which will split the cable network and its business-news sibling CNBC from NBC News and NBCUniversal. If the two networks are no longer part of the NBC corporate entity, attendees wanted to know, will they still be able to carry marks that are part of their former home?

MSNBC was using NBC’s news gathering operation, which means that a lot of the reporters that viewers saw on MSNBC actually work for NBC News. Without those reporters or a newsgathering operation, MSNBC would nothing more than televised talk radio that would consist of roughly 18 hours of talking heads talking to each other.

............SNIP"

[underpants]

1. NBC is cutting them loose.

[walkingman]

2. Wonder why?

[Jilly_in_VA]

55. Two words

Andy Lack.

[JoeBydun]

3. good riddance!

they became too afraid of the orange devil!

[City Lights]

35. That's not true about all of them.

Nicolle Wallace and Lawrence O'Donnell still hold his feet to the fire.

[GoreWon2000]

60. Nicole worked for Jeb during the Florida "felon" purge

and W during his post election theft of the 2000 election. That's why I never watch her.

[LisaM]

76. Yup. And that got us Alito and the Robert court

and Citizens United. I can't bear to watch her.

[City Lights]

91. Ok. nt

[Fla Dem]

40. Lots of good Anchors and reporters. Those not connected to NBC will also be gone.

Don't judge an entire network on one or two anchors you may not care for.
You would no longer have:

Joy Reid,
Stephanie Rhule,
Lawrence MacDonald,
Chris Hayes
Rachael Maddow
Ali Velshi
Katie Phang
Jen Psaki
Ari Melber
Al Sharpton
Ayman Mohyeldin
Jonathan Capehart

All excellent anchors and commentators.

These are the ones I particularly like.

I know some of you could care less, and have issues with some of them, but they are really the only left leaning anchors and newscasters we have on streaming television.

They will also lose the support of the NBC reporters that regularly provide news on these programs as well as the guest they have on to provide background, substance and discussion on the issues of the day.

[getagrip_already]

77. You lost me at ari melber......

[GoreWon2000]

59. Who became too afraid?

I guess you don't watch Reid, Maddow, O'Donnell, Hayes, Rev. Al, Velshi, Ayman and Capehart. Not 1 of them showed any fear towards Trump so I don't know who you're referring to?

[Tribetime]

4. It's clear more people are using social media

[bdamomma]

26. using social media

and getting misinformation, and propaganda.

[radius777]

5. It could also get better.

Right now the station is IMO weighed down by having to conform to NBC standards, of not seeming too liberal, and of legacy media and cable standards. The opinion shows that we all love start at 4pm, but for most of the day is mainstream news dreck. Maybe being free from NBC allows them to take off the gloves and really take on FOX.

Obviously, it could mean what many fear, that MSNBC becomes a generic cable news channel (like CNN) which would be terrible. But somehow I don't see them wanting to lose the liberal audience they've cultivated.

[dlk]

6. I would seriously miss Rachel and Lawrence

The daytime hosts wouldn’t be missed.

[Akakoji]

14. Rachel, Lawrence, Nicole Wallace and Michael Steele, Chris Hayes, and Ayman

Whatever happens to the rest of them is not a concern.

[dlk]

33. Yes

[Greybnk48]

49. Yes. Add to this Stephanie Ruhle, Joy Reed, and I also like Jose Diaz-Balart.

How the hell could i forget Ali Velshi!!!!

[Akakoji]

84. No Thanks!

Emphatically. No.

[GoreWon2000]

61. Nicole Wallace worked for the Bush brothers in 1999 and 2000

Michael Steele is a former RNC chair. You wouldn't miss Reid, Velshi, Rev. Al and Capehart?

[IndianaDave]

17. I urge you to watch Deadline: White House, with Nicole Wallace

She's on every weekday at 4 PM Eastern. She and her guests are analytical, honest, critical of the idiocy being put forth by the right wing, and especially Trump. I rely on her straightforward approach to our current political situation. I would seriously hate to lose her perspective. I agree that Rachel, Lawrence O'Donnell and other evening hosts are excellent. But please don't write off Nicole Wallace in the afternoon. She's great! At least that's my opinion. - Thanks - Dave

[dlk]

34. Not writing off Nicole. I like her

Just mentioned my two favorites, is all.

[GoreWon2000]

63. Nicole's actions in 1999 and 2000 speak louder than her words now

[CTyankee]

47. We cherish Nicolle in our household of one elderly couple.

It is actually the only MSNBC show he will watch. He hates "Jack-off Joe" (as he calls Scarborough).

[GoreWon2000]

64. Nicole worked for the Bush brothers during 2000 election theft

Are you not aware of this? As someone who spent 15 years working on dem election campaigns in Florida, I'll never forget it. Her actions then far outweigh any of her words today.

[CTyankee]

69. Maybe "live and learn."

[GoreWon2000]

87. Not a chance

Our country died on 12/12/00

[CTyankee]

89. OK. I had to look that up....I need to think about that a while. Maybe we all do...thanks for the reminder.

[GoreWon2000]

62. Nicole Wallace is a hypocrite!

It doesn't bother you that she worked for Jeb during the now infamous Florida "felon" purge in 1999 and 2000 that wrongly removed more than 50,000 legally registered African American democrats from Florida's voting rolls and then she worked for W in the post 2000 election battle helping to spread the big lie that all of the Florida votes had been counted and recounted which to this day is still a lie. 15 of my 24 years of working on democratic election campaigns were spent in Florida. I will never forget. It's how our country got to where it is today.,

[CTyankee]

72. I say give her a chance. If you are right (and you may be) we will all know it.

[GoreWon2000]

86. She had her chance in 1999/2000

Her actions back then will always outweigh her words now.

[likesmountains 52]

82. I believe people can change , and grow.

[GoreWon2000]

85. Her actions in 1999/2000 speak louder than her words now.

[UTUSN]

7. Well, I was faithful from the begining

compiled a devastating profile of Tweety (Chris MATTHEWS for the younguns), witnessed Tweety recruiting Joe Scabs, how Tweety executed DONAHUE, how Tweety sucked after RAYGUN and W.Shrub, how (NBC) RUSSERT recruited Tweety and wore the campaign button for W Shrub under his lapel prancing with General Electric Jack WELCH.

I saw how Ashleigh BANFIELD was fired to please wingnut a-hole Michael "savage" WIENER. Saw how the loving couple re-arranged marriages.

*** Yeah, am going to post the unpopular pic:

[RandiFan1290]

20. Don't forget Tucker and Willie!

?si=eOZpW77cTca3zWUM

[UTUSN]

52. You (here) and I (in the past) are the only ones who have made that connection.

Yes, *ucker had a show in the afternoons and Willie GEIST was his producer. *ucker would always be name-dropping Willie and bringing him on the air. I didn't know their backgrounds back then, now know that both their fathers were broadcast professionals - *fucker's was chief propagandist for Voice of America and I don't remember what Willie's was (but something) - so they were legacy peers. And then learning via Keith that Scabs in his early days was meddling against the Lib hosts by sending his flunky Chris LICHT to the mousey boss of the division to threaten him that Scabs would not show up to work if the boss didn't ban certain guests from appearing on those other shows. Yes, LICHT who somehow ended up as COLBERT's producer before going to wrecking ball CNN.

[Cherrycheeks]

65. I remembered..

I have posted about this over the yrs, I remember Tucker and Willie Geist dancing and laughing.

I believe John Kerry was running at the time.May have been Obama. I always watch Geist pretending he wasn't a part of it along with Scar.

[UTUSN]

73. Yip, as GEIST has risen even into the mother ship NBC/Today, I've waited

to see somebody ask him about *ucker, but seems like they agreed to Ignore. Or actually seems like in Media when a "talent" departs or is discredited it becomes a non-person. But I dropped the Scabs circus in 2012 I forget why but think Scabs was ragging on OBAMA. And have dropped almost all of the "pundits" (pundit means "educated&quot except for clips in posts.

Am still irked that BARNICLE was rehabilitated by sugar daddy Jack WELCH. Mika Mouse put Dan RATHER on the air with them, to her credit. But Scabs is likely behind getting Tweety (Chris MATTHEWS, for the younguns) on the air, since Tweety is who recruited Scabs to begin with.

[Cherrycheeks]

75. Wasn:t that during...

Scarborough country?

[Delphinus]

28. That is

truly a real photo? I saw it the other day about their 'trek' to kiss the ring, and I thought for sure it was photoshopped.

[UTUSN]

46. Absolutely real (posed), for a (Vanity Fair?) article, photographer's name credited on the pic.

Before (I think) their courtship went public. From the start, I witnessed how Scabs was a rank amateur at the broadcasting norms, how he was verbally abusive to Mika Mouse, the professional weatherman who took the abuse and did his job, to our much maligned Andrea MITCHELL, how he was even more full-of-himself as a former House Representative, would yell "Kill the drumline" that was playing behind his ranting. I contend that Mika Mouse paid the price (like now with Drumpf) of trading marriages in order to stop the abuse (of her, anyway) and keep the job. Then she went on to write a book about women asserting their self worth and pay equality. That was her price, and sure enough Scabs became kinder-and-gentler since being a spousal abuser would be even more unseemly than just workplace abuse.

[RockRaven]

8. Oh no!

Anyway...

[onenote]

9. It's being spun off to its existing shareholders. Don't expect to see big changes immediately.

[awesomerwb1]

10. This sandwich I just made is soooo good.

[applegrove]

12. Huh?

[jalan48]

11. MSNBC's viewership has dropped 50% since the election. That may be the problem.

[Kaleva]

16. Which is a tiny percentage of the adult population of the US

[jalan48]

19. Yes, but according to the media companies it's all about ratings. If people quit watching it's a bad thing.

[arthritisR_US]

13. Seriously you can't see this as good

[applegrove]

15. Nope. I don't understand the reaction of some on this thread.

[Mike 03]

22. Maybe there's a tendency to forget the good they've

done because the last six months or so have been pretty bad. I'm thinking especially of the period after the Biden/Trump debate.

I wrote them a letter yesterday thanking them, in particular, for Nicole Wallace, Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, Ali Velshi, Chris Hayes and Lawrence O'Donnell. Although I was honest about how furious I was at Morning Joe.

It's going to be like a bad breakup, where there are both strong positive and strong negative feelings.

[applegrove]

83. It doesn't make sense. It is like GOP trolls are normalizing

the destruction of liberal media.

[bdamomma]

25. I don't see it as good

there are some on MSNBC who have been forthcoming Nicole, Joy, Rachel, Lawrence, Ali. Rev. Al Sharpton, so if they can the station what takes their place more right wing swill. Something to think about.

read this thread too.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143343398

[Trueblue1968]

18. I read it might take a year to do all the spin off junk

[oasis]

21. Nicole W., Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, have

interesting guests and are great interviewers.

[Vinca]

23. Where are our left wing billionaires? I know we've got some. MSNBC could be turned into another

operation like CNN with their own news-gathering sources. I can't imagine we'll be left with CNN and that insane Jennings character who seems to be on there 24/7 now.

[Magoo48]

30. Can a true progressive even become, or remain, a billionaire?

[Elessar Zappa]

38. Something like 82 billionaires endorsed Harris

I think Trump only got like 50-some billionaire endorsements. At least, that’s what I read on a post on this site. Don’t have a link.

[TheKentuckian]

70. An endorsement doesn't mean left wing at all.

Harris ran a center oriented campaign and Chump's plans are largely disastrous even if there are no high fives for the Squad.

A leftist billionaire is about as rare as hen's teeth and unicorns.

[Vinca]

39. It's not becoming rich that is the problem, it's what you do with the loot.

Do you feed hungry people or buy another yacht?

[Magoo48]

68. Exactly, it would be difficult to accumulate that much more than they need.

[Prairie Gates]

24. Inshallah

[LaMouffette]

27. I hope Rachel, Lawrence, and Nicole find their way to Free Speech TV, although I fear that Orange Hitler will soon

target Free Speech TV, and PBS, too.

[dlk]

36. For some good news

The FCC approved the sale of 200 radio stations to the Soros Foundation. It’s a start.

[LaMouffette]

50. Dang! That IS good news. Thanks for the information! Now we just need a Democratic "Fox News" that spreads

the truth in news reports written at a 6th-grade reading level (so that the Repub viewers can understand it).

[dlk]

56. 3rd grade...

[Irish_Dem]

29. The goal is to destroy the liberal community. All opposition to Dear Leader will be eliminated.

[Nimble_Idea]

43. microsoft(M)SN-bc was never liberal community - it is corp news

[Irish_Dem]

45. Some MSNBC media figures are obviously quite liberal.

It is readily apparent that Nicole, Rachel, Lawrence O, Joy Reid are liberal.

[doc03]

31. I see many people say good, but MSNBC is the only news sorce even remotly

on our side. I used to watch MJ every morning but haven't since the day after the election.
I have watched portions of Lawrence a couple times since. I am just burned out hearing the daily
Trump chaos. I am 76 years old and disgusted Americans could vote for him again. That is
what people want so let the SOB burn it down. Unless Americans really suffer things won't
change. "The floggings will continue until moral improves".

[Nimble_Idea]

44. yup, glad to see people taking the true red pill!!

may they all fafo

[GusBob]

32. Honest questions

We dont own a TV and have never watched a second of these talking head shows. Too busy to do so. We reckon they are just entertainment, really

I understand that folks here are enamored to the hosts. The "turn on so and so right now!" faction. Are they that important?

Not sure. But if they are important to democracy and firmly believe so, perhaps they could take a pay cut and help the spin-off network get on its feet.

[walkingman]

57. I think they are more important than social media. Do you have

any recommendations for a good place to get in depth reporting that is not skewed to the right?

[GusBob]

67. Yes

Of course
but not on TV because we prefer to read and gave up television
and right now social media is far more influential than television and print whether we like it or not, which is why cable will soon be a thing of the past as newspapers are now
our print sources are available online thankfully

we don't regard these talking head shows as true reporting. They are for show

[walkingman]

80. Totally agree - but not many people read much any more, including myself. I do read

online articles a lot, but not so much books as in the past. However, I seldom ever meet many people that actually read in depth articles at all - only sound bytes. My problem with books these days is I get sleepy. Not sure if it my age or just the fact that my mind is so used to visual stimulation that requires no effort or just plain lazy. When I retired, the first thing I got was a library card and seldom use it - that was not the case years ago. ☮

[Emile]

37. 85% of it is wishy washy centrists BS anyways.

[Nimble_Idea]

41. none of them were ever fucking useful. stop prentending. its all fox news now

even if cnn and others pretend not to be. all corp news. no one gives a fuck

[Liberal In Texas]

42. I predict

a Billionaire like Musk, or Musk hisself will buy it and make it into FoxNewschannel2. Or OAN2. Or Newsmax2. Or the SpaceX Channel. Or sports talk. But it won't be progressive.

Unless of course, some right minded billionaire who cares more about his country than making money buys it and makes it an even better progressive outlet than it is now.

[BlueHurricane]

48. Trump has been threatening the head of Comcast,

… MSNBC’s parent company, since at least 2023 because of MSNBC’s coverage of Trump. I believe he even accused Comcast of “treason” (insert rolling eyes at Donny Dipshit here), due to their ownership of MSNBC. Trump hates criticism and facts so he wants all news to spew maga propaganda supporting him.

MSNBC is the last and only watchable TV news program I’ve seen. Is it perfect? No, but at least it is not ONLY right wing talking point - looking at you CNN.
Comcast is “bending the knee in advance” so it would seem. (There’s a phrase for this bowing to authoritarians even before it’s necessary but the phrase escapes me.) Seems pretty obvious to me, Comcast is afraid the Trump administration will go after it, deny acquisitions, mess with it, etc. so they separate it, what two weeks, after Trump’s win.

MSNBC ratings-wise were doing pretty well the last couple of years, being #2 for news, after Faux News. It’s only after the election people are too dejected to watch the dumpster fire that has begun and so ratings have slumped.

I hope it’s not sold to some evil villain. We don’t have that many sources remaining that we can trust.

[Klarkashton]

51. This basically removes the only mainstream alternative

To the rightwing bullshit. I don't count CNN as being anything worthwhile.

[comradebillyboy]

53. Cable news is dying and being replaced by other media.

Cable TV viewership is sinking like a rock. Even Fox is dying, just a bit more slowly than CNN and MSNBC.

[Ursus Rex]

54. It's a pity that the left won't even have a token voice

... but I've felt for a long time that MSNBC was spending a LOT of time washing the Overton Window.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

[Initech]

58. Like I keep saying - we're bringing a table knife to a propaganda war being waged by rocket launchers and machine guns.

What will it take to turn the tables on the propagandists? That's what we gotta figure out.

[Sogo]

66. To me, this is seismic.

I'm guessing Comcast is doing this ahead of the inauguration to avoid being a target of the Nazi regime coming into power.

[WarGamer]

71. I guess 385,000 daytime and 780,000 prime time viewers isn't sustainable.

[LAS14]

74. Rats!!!!!!! nt

[Jk23]

78. Oh man I love those prison shows. NT

[Hekate]

79. Well, damn

[wildflowergardener]

81. Msnbc

I took a break right after the election because I was too depressed but am back watching the shows I like because I don’t want them to go away, other than Morning joe. Hopefully they will embrace their liberal leaning and become an all liberal news network, with the sale. They are not going to win fox viewers.

[themaguffin]

88. I can't stress how much hate this clicky baity ALL CAPS HEADLINE. FFS.

There's a lot that could happen, but assuming that the network will disappear is beyond premature.

[Kid Berwyn]

90. Sad. So many good journalists out of work.

Don't remember NBC, MSNBC, CNBC or anyone else covering the lack of local, state, national and international news coverage since the great monopolization of national news media, though. Not even once.

From 1997, an excerpt from the intro to "The Media Monopoly" by Ben Bagdikian:

In the last 5 years, a small number of the country's largest industrial corporations has acquired more public communications power-including ownership of the news-than any private businesses have ever before possessed in world history.

Nothing in earlier history matches this corporate group's power to penetrate the social landscape. Using both old and new technology, by owning each other's shares, engaging in joint ventures as partners, and other forms of cooperation, this handful of giants has created what is, in effect, a new communications cartel within the United States.

At issue is not just a financial statistic, like production numbers or ordinary industrial products like refrigerators or clothing. At issue is the possession of power to surround almost every man, woman, and child in the country with controlled images and words, to socialize each new generation of Americans, to alter the political agenda of the country. And with that power comes the ability to exert influence that in many ways is greater than that of schools, religion, parents, and even government itself.

Aided by the digital revolution and the acquisition of subsidiaries that operate at every step in the mass communications process, from the creation of content to its delivery into the home, the communications cartel has exercised stunning influence over national legislation and government agencies, an influence whose scope and power would have been considered scandalous or illegal twenty years ago.

The new communications cartel has been made possible by the withdrawal of earlier government intervention that once aspired to protect consumers and move toward the ideal of diversity of content and ownership in the mass media. Government's passivity has emboldened the new giants to boast openly of monopoly and their ability to project news, commercial messages, and graphic images into the consciousness and subconscious of almost every American.

Strict control of public information is not new in the world, but historical dictatorships lacked the late twentieth century's digital multimedia and distribution technology. As the country approaches the millennium, the new cartel exercises a more complex and subtle kind of control.

Source: https://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/MediaMonopoly_Bagdikian.html

"A communications cartel." Ben Bagdikian was prescient.

[La Coliniere]

92. For many of us we stopped tuning in after the election

because simply seeing and/or hearing, even the hosts who we respected the most, ignites our ptsd in regards to the election outcome and what it portends for all of us. It was a disaster on a momentous scale and watching them, especially after so many of them seemed to suggest Harris would win, is painful for many. Maybe some watchers go back to watching. I honestly don’t know.