Liberal columnist Byron Williams of the Oakland Tribune said that MSNBC’s hiring of Al Sharpton for its 6PM slot was “more about ratings than journalism.” Now that the first month of ratings are in, the hire might end up damaging MSNBC in BOTH categories.

The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer at 6 pm topped MSNBC’s Politics Nation with Al Sharpton in the key demo 25-54 (163k vs. 141k) in September. In addition, the Blitzer-led program grew +19% in the demo (163k vs. 137k) and +22% among total viewers (590k vs. 483k) vs. last year. Sharpton was down -24% in the demo (141k vs. 185k) and -15% in total viewers (599k vs. 708k) compared to MSNBC’s programming a year ago.

The story is even more damaging when you look inside the numbers and realize that the 5:00 PM edition of “Hardball”, which airs right before Sharpton’s show, had more viewers than the civil rights activist-turned television journalist.  “Hardball” also beat Blitzer and CNN in that 5:00 PM time slot.

In other words, viewers who aren’t watching Fox News prefer MSNBC to CNN during the 5PM “Hardball” hour and then switch channels and watch CNN or Fox News when Sharpton appears on their screen. (more…)

Last night saw the debut of Al Sharpton’s new show on NBC News’ cable outlet MSNBC.  “Politics Nation” started with a monologue by the host delivered in his now familiar bumbling, bewildering and bombastic style.  Though a couple sentences were not easy to understand, the over-all message was clear: The GOP candidates for president are like pre-1960’s racist segregationists.

Considering Sharpton’s entire career leading up to this point pretty much consists of him making loud accusations of “racist” through a bull horn, we shouldn’t be too surprised that the man MSNBC President Phil Griffin described as an “elder statesman” is going back to what he does best in this premiere show.  Sharpton himself made it clear to the audience that this is what his show was going to be about.  So we have a good year ahead of us leading up to election day with a nightly assault on conservatives by none other than the most successful race-baiting defamer available, Al Sharpton.

The beauty of the Al Sharpton hire is that it puts pressure on lefty TV critics to set their obvious affinity for his politics aside and actually give an honest critique of his television performance.  I’ve been wondering for weeks if TV critics would run the risk of the inevitible accusation of “racism” in order to give their readers an honest assesment of Sharpton’s obviously inferior talent and abilities as a TV host.

It appears they are, in fact, willing to take that risk.  Here’s the take from Ken Tucker at Entertainment Weekly:

The Rev. Al Sharpton premiered PoliticsNation on MSNBC Monday evening with an hour of booming bombast and near-obliviousness, as he steam-rolled over his guests, interrupting them to ask long, halting questions. At one point he acted as though he was having an argument with his teleprompter and said with exasperation to a guest, “Well, let me just ask you my way: Is the Tea Party going to destroy the Republican Party?”

But, of course, Tucker had to let his poitics get in the way of a full and honest criticism of Sharpton himself and instead blamed his producers for not letting Al be “Al”:

It was an awkward 60 minutes, with a lurching pace that failed to play to Sharpton’s strengths. He raised interesting issues — about new efforts at voter suppression, for example — only to lead aimless discussions of them.

[...]

If he can ever become comfortable on-camera and expand his horizons, Sharpton may eventually bring to MSNBC the combination of intellect and passion that has made so many of his press conferences over the years little wonders of argument, controversy, hype, entertainment, and enlightenment. Whether he’ll ever reach that point on PoliticsNation remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, at New York Magazine, the headline reads, “How Did Al Sharpton End Up With a Show on MSNBC?”:

Earlier, in a blustery opening segment, he was similarly rattled and unsteady as he tore through a case against Republican promises of restoring states’ rights. It was hard to follow as he shouted and pointed his pen at the camera, speaking passionately, but often in circles.

There has been quite a bit of controversy over the Sharpton hire and the work his community agitation group, National Action Network, has done for Comcast, the new owner of NBC.  And MSNBC President Phil Griffin received the “Keepers of the Dream” award from the group earlier this year for doing so much to fulfil Martin Luther King’s vision for America.  This was awarded while Griffin had a completely Caucasian line-up on his network.

Given teh raised eyebrows over the entanglement between Comcast/NBC and Sharpton’s controversial group, it’s surprising to see the blatant promotion of National Action Network on the well-trafficked pages of MSNBC.  Take a look at the home page for the new Sharpton show.  it has a highly prominent link right in the center that directs readers to the non-profit’s web site:

Sharpton finished his show with a message to the viewer explaining that he would not “be a robot reading from the teleprompter robotic-ally.”  Then, for those who had still stuck around for the final minute of “Politics Nation”, Al Sharpton, NBC News’ newest star, danced.

Resist we much.

“If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house” – NBC News’ Al Sharpton

After weeks of speculation, Al Sharpton has been named the official host of the 6:00 PM ET slot on NBC News’ cable outlet MSNBC.  The show, titled Politics Nation, will officially debut on August 29th.

From Reuters:

“I am very happy and honored to join the MSNBC team as we collectively try to get America to ’Lean Forward,’” Sharpton said in a statement. “It is a natural extension of my life work and growth. We all learn from our pain and stand up from our stumbling and one must either learn to lean forward or fall backwards. I’m glad they have given me the opportunity to continue my forward lean.”

One has to wonder what the “evaluation trial period” really consisted of over the past few weeks.  Big Journalism and Breitbart.tv have cataloged daily examples of incompetence, buffoonery and outright conflict of interest from the self-proclaimed “Reverend” featuring the viral video of the summer, “Resist We Much.”

Here is an example of the amateurism on display during the Sharpton show pulled from just the past ten days:

(more…)

On yesterday morning’s “Reliable Sources” with Howard Kurtz on CNN, media critic Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times spoke out about the grave reservations expressed after the imminent hiring of activist and failed presidential candidate Al Sharpton as a prime time news anchor for NBC News’ cable station MSNBC.

Big Journalism began beating the drum over NBC News’ latest “brand downgrade” last week when we showed our readers the insidious relationship between MSNBC’s parent company, Comcast and Al Sharpton’s political action group National Action Network.  The incestuous relationship between Comcast’s $190,000 “donations” to Sharpton’s community agitator organization and Sharpton’s subsequent endorsement of the “diversity goals” of the new Comcast/NBC entity don’t pass the smell test.  Especially when you consider that Sharpton’s diversity endorsement proved critical to the FCC approval of the merger. It seems too convenient that he would now be rewarded with a prime time hosting gig on NBC’s cable news outlet.

(more…)

Interesting, considering the source. At some point, politics are laid by the wayside because capitalism wins every time.

Among the many quotes in the Esquire profile of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, one stood out: MSNBC president Phil Griffin. Griffin, who has helped oversee MSNBC’s transformation over the last few years, admits to cribbing from the Ailes playbook.

(more…)

The electronic media was abuzz on Friday with huge news of MSNBC’s President Phil Griffin and his decision to indefinitely suspend their prime time firebrand Keith Olbermann from the flagging cable news network.   This story was so big that CNN (the distant 2nd place for politics) covered it with a front page link to their story.

Allegedly Olbermann’s campaign contributions (reported first by Politico) to at least three Democrats running for office in the recent mid-terms caused the problem. Well, the contributions were not the actual problem, Mr. Olbermann’s lack of disclosure to his employer was at issue.  My new hero, Phil Griffin issued the following statement;

“I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.”

As stated in a personal email sent to Phil Griffin (phil.griffin@nbcuni.com), I applaud him for showing the American people that rules matter, actions have consequences, and enforcement of the rules must be equal or the rules are meaningless.

(more…)

It’s official: David Shuster is in very bad odor at MSNBC. From Mediaite, quoting an email from Phil Griffin, Shuster’s boss, to a member of the public:

From: Griffin, Phil (NBC Universal)

Sent: Wed 4/07/10 11:16 PM

Sorry, but this is a business and I need team players. He was not moral, ethical or professional and that is not fair to the 500 people who work at msnbc.

Thanks for your note,

Phil

That’s probably it for our friend Dave, at least as far as his MSNBC career is concerned. His crime, reportedly, was taping a pilot for failing rival CNN, which would have brought him full circle on his tour through the cable-news jungles. After starting in the CNN Washington bureau, he moved on to Fox News, where he covered both the Clinton impeachment (Shuster had done some time himself in Little Rock, as a correspondent for KATV there, so he knew the territory) and the attacks of Sept. 11.

But then came the fateful bargain with MSNBC — (more…)

MSNBC analyst Craig “Yuk Yuk Yuk” Crawford has said sayonara to everybody’s favorite low-rated cable network, with a blast in the direction of the head leg-tingler-in-charge himself, Chris Matthews. Apparently the lunatic-asylum gig just wasn’t funny anymore for the jolliest commentator this side of Eugene Robinson. From Mediaite:

MSNBC political analyst Craig Crawford has left the network – in a very public way.

Writing on his blog at CQPolitics.com, Crawford says he has found the network “unrewarding for me,” – and expands on his reason for leaving in a comment to Mediaite.

Three months short of my current contract I sent the following to the boss, Phil Griffin: “Phil, Just wanted to give you the heads up that my situation with MSNBC has become so unrewarding for me that I’ve decided to move on. — Craig”

Here comes the good part: (more…)