Sorry, but when you're toutin' Matthews and Olbermann as examples of your success, is there really any way to go but up? Unforutnately, if MSNBC is really this high on those two, it suggests they don't have a clue what they're doing. They're such a dog, somewhere on the Internet, Jerome Armstrong is probably touting their stock.
As an aside, Abrahams must have decided to let his grey show now that he's an executive - and the headline calls him a virgin executive. Sounds like a bit of a swipe.
Two of the channel's hosts, Chris Matthews of "Hardball" and Keith Olbermann of "Countdown," clearly will not be affected, because MSNBC's managers consistently cite those programs as long-sought breakthroughs.
"We've just got to build on those two shows," Mr. Griffin said, sitting beside Mr. Abrams in the conference room at MSNBC. "It's critical. We have to capitalize on their success."
Just don't mess with Imus in the morning. And another thing MSNBC has going for it, Melissa Stark and Amy Robach.
Posted by: jkatl | Monday, June 26, 2006 at 03:33 AM
..and on their good days lisa Daniels and Contessa Brewer.
Posted by: jkatl | Monday, June 26, 2006 at 03:35 AM
Matthews and Olbermann are consistently at the *bottom* of the list when Drudge posts his cable show rankings. If they are MSNB So Sad C's idea of success, I can't wait to hear what their failures are.
I gave them all up (including Fox News) after the 2004 election. Much better for my blood pressure.
Posted by: Peg C. | Monday, June 26, 2006 at 06:08 AM
Keith O is truly hilarious. I never miss his "WORST person in the world" segment every night. O'Reilly ends up on the list every week and John Gibson(yuk!!) has been a frquent addition lately.
Posted by: medicinegirl | Monday, June 26, 2006 at 09:44 AM
MSNBC is owned by NBC which in turn is owned by GE.
The latter has had its much touted "6 Sigma" program to improve product quality, reduce defects, and generally to deliver a better, more competitive product.
Would that they apply "6 Sigma" to the NBC news organization!
Posted by: Whitehall | Monday, June 26, 2006 at 04:23 PM
Chris Matthews does a good job interviewing politicians as long as you know his perspective is from a traditional Catholic background. For example, on issues such as the death penalty, rather than simply regurgitating the Republican Party position he might make a comment that ‘the church' opposes it. Republican party-hacks view that position as blasphemy and run screaming that Matthews is a liberal tree-hugger when he is not.
Also, I think we need to separate NEWS from news-tainment from garbage-tainment loosely masquerading as news. Entertainment gets better ratings than an in-depth report on the civil war in Nepal. Even those shows that claim to 'discuss' an issue do a crappy job at it... they pick a topic and have a Democrat party-hack and Republican party-hack in a shouting match rather than having actual experts on the issue.
Personally, I'd love to hear a retired Russian General commenting on the current Afghan situation and a Filipino Captain with a background in fighting the southern Moslem separatists commenting on progress on the Iraq war. Hell, let's get a Vietnamese military historian to give his perspective on the differences between the Viet-USA war and the Iraq insurgency.
Posted by: Sgt. York | Monday, June 26, 2006 at 05:30 PM
Sgt York said: "Personally, I'd love to hear a retired Russian General commenting on the current Afghan situation and a Filipino Captain with a background in fighting the southern Moslem separatists commenting on progress on the Iraq war. Hell, let's get a Vietnamese military historian to give his perspective on the differences between the Viet-USA war and the Iraq insurgency."
Us students of history can guess what they would say but it would damned interesting!!
Posted by: Rick | Monday, June 26, 2006 at 11:07 PM