March 16, 2017

Russian Election-Hacking Bingo, Conspiracies For Liberals

With giddy pride, liberals have deservedly vilified an expansive sea of right-wing conspiracy theories. But it now appears those seditious chickens have come home to a roost of left-wing treachery. Modern liberalism has become a hospitable nesting place for paranoia in the months since President Donald Trump’s election. With vociferous oratory growing in the weeks after his inauguration, left-wing talk show hosts and liberal pundits have stoked the base to a level of conspiratorial thinking previously thought reserved for conservative talk radio.

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March 2, 2016

MSNBC Super Tuesday Coverage Unexpectedly Terminated

I’ll admit, I’m a night owl, so yes, I was still up shortly before 1:30am on the Wednesday after Super Tuesday when MSNBC decided to abruptly pull the plug on its live Super Tuesday coverage. Okay, I admit, I’m still up writing this damn article. So, MSNBC had their usual coverage team this election season with Brian Williams and Rachel Maddow at the helm. They were on the air all night, announcing poll closures and projected winners. I thought for sure they would end their live coverage at 1AM, which is when I planned to go to bed. But, shock and surprise, they continued their live coverage beyond 1am Eastern. So, being the fool that I am, I stayed up to continue watching. Then at around 1:20ish Brian Williams dispatched us to a commercial break, and when coverage returned, the graphic on the bottom right changed from “Live” to “Earlier,” but otherwise no mention of the end of live coverage. Would it have been so hard for MSNBC to announce that they were ending their live Super Tuesday coverage for the night? I mean, why not just end it at 1AM? Now, this would be totally bizarre, except here’s one small problem, they’ve done this before. If MSNBC is trying to compete with other cable news networks, maybe they need to try to show less contempt for their audience. I mean seriously, as if we wouldn’t notice?

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August 17, 2015

MSNBC’s New Lean Forward-Less Graphics Package

If you haven’t yet noticed, MSNBC made a major change to their graphics package starting this past weekend. I first noticed it on Up with Steve Kornacki on Saturday 8/15. The revamped graphics package appears to be in use across all live programming on MSNBC. Gone is the show and network branding at the top of the screen. “Lean Forward” is not to be found anywhere. Did they officially retire that slogan? It appears there are no graphics at the top of the screen during shows with the exception of split-screen segments. Also notable, is that show branding is kept to a minimum, only seen for about a second in the lower right corner of the screen at the start of a show and when returning from commercials. That area then morphs into the new MSNBC logo which has returned to all capital letters (the logo had been all lowercase since 2009).

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January 19, 2014

Chris Christie Administration Says MSNBC Is A Partisan Network: True

New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie is in the middle of two scandals, the bridge lane closing, and use of Hurricane Sandy relief funds for tourism advertisements (where Christie himself was prominently featured while running for re-election). Yesterday MSNBC’s Up with Steve Kornacki broke the news of a third scandal. Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer says the Christie administration has withheld Sandy relief funds because she did not give her approval to a redevelopment plan in the city.

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June 3, 2013

The Place For Politics: MSNBC Ratings Slip When Breaking News Is Not Political

How about this for breaking news — the news network with the tagline “The Place For Politics” doesn’t shine in the ratings department when the biggest news stories are not political. Is this really a shock to anyone? In May, MSNBC slipped to 4th place behind Fox News, CNN and HLN. This was a time of breaking news like tornadoes, and a murder trial (no, I won’t even mention the name). Usually MSNBC is a distant second to the near worship-like dominance of Fox News. Of course, ratings don’t prove that you are delivering a factually sound product, it just means you are delivering what a fervent audience wants to hear. And when it comes to faux scandals during a democratic administration, the faux news network known as Fox News is definitely your source. When it comes to coverage of non-political breaking news, CNN’s longstanding name recognition wins out. “We’re not the place for that [breaking news],” said MSNBC president Phil Griffin. “Our brand is not that.” Indeed.

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March 22, 2013

Rachel Maddow: Obama Receives Israeli Award, Fox News Runs ‘Enemy Of Israel’ Hannity Commercial

Last night Rachel Maddow pointed out that both CNN and MSNBC covered a ceremony where President Obama received the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor. What was Fox News doing at that time? — They were running a “Hannity” promotional commercial about Obama’s lack of support for Israel, and how it strengthens enemies of Israel. Oh, and this commercial told the captive Fox News audience to expect “expert insight.”

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