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MSNBC is going away. But don’t shed a tear (not that you would, anyway), it’s turning into MS NOW. Or, as the New York Times put it, “Goodbye, MSNBC. Hello, MS NOW.” The far-left network lost its tie to the newsy term “NBC” and looks more like some feminist retread site.
Or, as MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler put it, “While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not.” So, maybe my viewership assessment is correct. It’s like rebranding the Titanic. Sure, the ship might have made a career of hitting icebergs, but it’s got a new name.
The fallout from the change was swift. The Times even took a swipe with the follow-up headline: “MSNBC’s Rebrand Invites Bemusement and Ridicule.”
MSNBC TO CHANGE NAME TO ‘MS NOW’ IN COMCAST SPINOFF DEAL
The name switch reflects marketing nonsense as part of the corporate split. It also eliminates the long-standing comparison to MSDNC. The rationalization for the new name is: “My Source for News, Opinion, and the World.” CNBC is going to keep its name, according to the Wall Street Journal, but the initials mean something else – “Consumer News and Business Channel,” another marketing nuance.
MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow on Oct. 16, 2023. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
The new company will include, “NBCUniversal’s cable television networks, including USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel” along with a few other properties, including the formerly useful Rotten Tomatoes movie site. Just no NBC peacocks.
IT OUGHT TO BE A CRIME FOR MEDIA TO COVER DC TAKEOVER THIS POORLY
But here’s what all that means. Nobody sane wants MSNBC/MS NOW connected in any way to NBC. It’s been a corporate embarrassment for years. They’re OK with it looking like the rational folks at CNBC are still connected, but the lunacy of MSNBC gets rebranded. It removes the stain for NBC. For MSNBC, that’s impossible.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
This is the same network where they repeatedly compare President Donald Trump to monsters like Hitler and Stalin. Hosts regularly throw around charges of dictatorship like we are living in 1930s Germany – although somehow they are allowed to say it. Host Tiffany Cross recently claimed the government was grabbing people and “transporting them to concentration camps.” And the face of the franchise, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, told viewers, “We have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.”
Remember, “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough made the most-embarrassing quote of the entire failed Joe Biden presidency: “I’ve said it for years now, he’s cogent. But I undersold it when I said he was cogent, he’s far beyond cogent. In fact, I think he’s better than he’s ever been, intellectually, analytically, because he’s been around for 50 years,” Scarborough said. “Start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And f— you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever.”
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MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace even just cursed about President Donald Trump for trying to arrange a peace deal in Ukraine, calling him, “an American president who just doesn’t give a s— about democracy,” she whined. That claim that the right is attacking “democracy” is another MSNBC standard.
Make no mistake, this isn’t some new, Trump-era insanity at the THEN network. Several insane MSNBC quotes made a NewsBusters list (Hint: My old place of work) for their list of the “The Most Absurd and Obnoxious Outbursts” of the past 20 years. Really, MSNBC has a starring role.
MSNBC announced it is rebranding as “MS NOW” after its formal separation with NBC News. (Versant)
Here’s a 2009 quote from the late Ed Schultz raving on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,” “The Republicans lie! They want to see you dead! They’d rather make money off your dead corpse! They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don’t have anything for her.” If anything, the network has only gotten worse.
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It’s not like the old MSNBC was kicking butt with ratings. Ad Week reported on August 13, “MSNBC, in primetime, averaged 821,000 total viewers.” That’s better than CNN, but the German shopping cart championships could beat them. (Yes, those really exist. Shoving a cart/buggy into the corral from a distance.) For those who forget, MSNBC started as a partnership between Microsoft and NBC. The MS used to mean a tech company, not someone who demanded to know your pronouns. The network has reportedly been on a hiring spree of late. So, expect even worse once the split occurs.
Now, ahem, MS NOW, we have a new network that vows to be exactly the same but to build a new brand. Perhaps they should try, MiS TAKE. Or just buy titanic.com. It would be appropriate.
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