MSNBC Falls Forward

The Left Wing equivalent of Fox News, MSNBC, has raised the white flag and surrendered. The Conservative movement has at last destroyed it’s primary Liberal foe. With the most recent election now passed and MSNBC’s surreder, Fox stands alone as the media driver of how America should be governed and educated. Their agenda sets the ground rules for how we manage our economy, decide public issues such as immigration, gay marriage, abortion and all other subjects that prior to the surrender of MSNBC there were two equal sides. No more. There is no liberal voice remaining, all the networks accused of liberal bias by Fox News have been playing “me too” with Fox for years. Sorry liberals, soon you will all be gone, except for Rachel; and she cannot pull the load herself. Sure, the rumors are that Rev. Sharpton will be given a weekend slot, and I pray he is not going to replace Alex. Chris Hayes may be out the door with Ed Schultz not far behind? No information on O’Donnell, perhaps he stays.  But other rumors are they are bring Morning Joe back to evenings. The Liberal experiment on TV in the post Reagan / Clinton America has ended.

The truth is the MSNBC that many Americans think was Fox’s counter network, never was. It was always and still is, a source of easy revenue for its parent NBC. Sure, early on it was planned as an experimental network with Microsoft and NBC joining forces with NBC providing the television expertise and Microsoft supplying bold, new ideas. The mistake was that Microsoft was not built on new ideas, it was built by cherry picking others ideas and mixing them with ideas from another area of technology. Microsoft is strongest at integrating not innovating. Eventually there was little input from Microsoft, except as an investor.  And that is why there are so many prison shows. Cheap to produce and there is a segment of America that loves that type of programming.

For a while, Keith Olbermann brought an original presentation from a less heard political viewpoint and ratings started to rise. It appeared they had hit a formula that worked. It was timing as much as it was Olbermann. Before him they had tried Phil Donahue and fired him for being too liberal. They also tried Rush Limbaugh and fired him for not getting any viewers. Obviously, they started without a political agenda and only created an illusion of one after Olbermann hit ratings gold, and it was OK again to criticize the President. In fact, Roger Ailes, the head honcho at FOX, first ran MSNBC, and he left partly because they refused to let him have a political agenda.

So, in reality the change of course for MSNBC is actually the norm. It was created to be an innovative cable channel, but ended up being a kite. It soared when the winds of the political climate blew strong against the side in power and anchored to the ground on a slim string of sensationalist, reality shows about jail and criminals.

The Left Wing has not lost its only voice. MSNBC was never a voice for any political agenda, it was and is, all just programming for ratings without a clue that their audience got bored with their programming. Fox can do what they do and get ratings because it works well with their demographics. MSNBC tried to follow Fox’s programming and thought they would attract everyone that disagreed with the Fox agenda. After a while it stopped working. And bereft of ideas and creativity they began to slide. Soon MSNBC will be just another CNN, dead and nobody knows it, including CNN. Its too bad that by the time that happens, Jon Stewart may not be in a position to point it out.