Part 3—Would liberals respond to a fight: MSNBC’s ratings are down from last year. At Fox, ratings are up.
Ratings are not a measure of quality, as Fox proves night after night. But people have started to wonder why MSNBC is losing viewers.
Last week, Alex Pareene examined the question under this headline: “What’s Wrong with MSNBC?” Pareene is one of the last sane observers left at Salon.
We were struck by some of the things the sardonic gentleman said.
In our view, some of Pareene’s observations aren’t entirely on point, which doesn't mean that they're wrong. In this passage, he posits a “post-election indifference to politics:”
PAREENE (5/27/13): As MSNBC suffers from post-election indifference to politics, Fox is fine because it is one part tabloid news (Arias!) and one part right-wing anger-stoking machine. The right-wing anger-stoking machine never shuts down. Talk radio turned it into a perpetual motion machine a generation ago. There’s no boom and bust, just steady, money-making rage. (Though, you know, as angry old people die the model may start to show some cracks.)MSNBC may well be suffering from some such indifference. But Fox has paid little attention to Arias in its prime-time programming. And the fact that Fox stokes right-wing anger calls attention to the very thing MSNBC fails to do at a time like this, when no election is on.
In the six months since last year's election, Fox has gone out and created a fight. By way of contrast, the children on The One True Channel have spent large amounts of time pretending that they haven’t noticed.
For us, their inexcusable flight from fight involves the way they all ran off and hid in the woods when Fox began to crucify Susan Rice last fall. Their predecessors once abandoned Naomi Wolf, then Candidate Gore. In much the same way, the children ran off and hid in the woods as Rice was savaged.
We’d kick every one of them down the stairs. As Michael Vick once remarked, “These puppies just don’t have much fight.”
As he closed his piece, Pareene, who is bright and brimming with fight, made a statement we don’t understand. We wouldn’t say the statement is wrong. He just didn't try to explain it:
PAREENE: MSNBC is actually making some good decisions, lately, from the point of view of someone who’d like (talking head) cable news to be better. And anyone who says the network’s failing because of liberalism should probably have to account for the fact that the channel’s highest-rated show remains Rachel Maddow’s. (Followed by O’Donnell, who really is the insufferable smug self-satisfied liberal caricature everyone thinks all of MSNBC is.)What are the good decisions MSNBC has been making? We’re not saying they don’t exist, but Pareene didn’t say what they are.
But do you know who watches cable news all day? And at prime time? When there’s not an election on, or a war, or some terrorism? Older conservative people. If MSNBC wants better ratings, it’ll either have to train a generation to want to pay attention to political years all the time, or it’ll have to produce a scripted show about zombies.
Pareene may be referring to Chris Hayes’ new program; he seems to semi-praise Hayes earlier in his piece. Without any question, Hayes sometimes creates good, smart cable discussions.
On the other hand, Hayes’ discussions last Wednesday night were so horrifically “twee” that the analysts flung themselves facedown in the yard and began grinding dirt in their hair. Fox was pounding away very hard with its Pseudo Scandal Machine. The entire line-up at MSNBC seemed to be busy establishing homesteads in Farthest La-La Land.
If MSNBC hopes to “train a generation” to “pay attention to [politics] all the time,” that just can’t be the way to do it. This brings us to the part of Pareene’s piece which we thought jumped off the page.
In our view, every part of this passage is well worth considering. We were especially drawn to the highlighted speculation:
PAREENE: It’s simplistic to say that viewers aren’t watching because the president’s having a bad news cycle. Bad news is often good for ratings. Liberals like to watch Republicans portrayed as big scary meanies when they’re not watching them be presented as inept nutso clowns. There was no such thing as liberal cable news during the Clinton impeachment, but if there had been I guarantee it would’ve been a hit. Maybe—maybe!—some viewers are tuning out because they’re not hearing enough of an unqualified defense of the president and his administration from some of MSNBC’s more left-leaning voices. But I’d guess that’s still not enough people to make a huge ratings difference.We agree with Pareene’s first point. In theory, bad political news can be good for ratings. It's often said that political talkers do better when the other side wins.
Perhaps there just isn’t a huge, permanent, year-round liberal audience for political news and discussion. Which is effectively all MSNBC does, because political discussion is cheap as hell, and gets good ratings when certain periods and certain personalities align.
That said, would the current version of MSNBC have had big ratings during Clinton’s impeachment? Not if its hosts approached impeachment in the way they’ve approached the Scandal Wars which started on Fox last September. They have run and hid from those Wars in precisely the way the liberal world ran and hid from the various “Whitewater” pseudo-scandals which preceded and paved the way for the year of impeachment. In the way liberals ran and hid from the War Against Gore which came next.
This brings us to Pareene’s double-edged portrait of MSNBC and its liberal viewers.
What are we liberals actually like? Pareene is less than flattering. Liberals “like to watch Republicans portrayed as big scary meanies when they’re not watching them be presented as inept nutso clowns,” the gentleman says, making us sound like the low-IQ fools MSNBC often seems to assume we are.
Do liberals enjoy watching Republicans portrayed as nutso clowns? That seemed to be the theory last Wednesday when the millionaire hosts on The One True Channel treated us to simpering reruns of Michele Bachmann’s greatest flubs, even as Fox News was exploding with the new generation of powerful pseudo-scandals.
We liberals got to watch the children assure us that Bachmann really was nutso. As we wasted our time in this way, Sean and Bill were hammering much larger audiences with the kinds of bogus claims the children have been avoiding since last September.
“Maybe—maybe!—some viewers are tuning out because they’re not hearing enough of an unqualified defense of the president and his administration from some of MSNBC’s more left-leaning voices,” Pareene speculated in his piece, not being entirely clear as to what he meant.
He didn’t pretend to know if that’s true. We can’t tell you either. But as we watch our team's corporate-picked cable hosts, we’ve never seen a bunch of people who had so little desire to fight—except perhaps for their salaries, their Q-ratings and their careers.
Would MSNBC have more viewers if its hosts got off their asses and tried to fight a real fight? Like Pareene, we can’t answer that question, but we can tell you this:
Last night, shortly after 9, the congratulatory phone calls began rolling in all over our sprawling campus. People thought they saw Rachel Maddow fighting back, in precisely the way we had scripted in yesterday morning’s post.
That isn’t what we thought we saw. To watch the segment in question, click here.
What did we think we saw last night? We thought we saw the limited effort of a millionaire star who doesn’t know how to fight.
Tomorrow: When Bill and Rachel fight
Well, Susan Rice and Samantha Power are to be promoted so that President Obama by choice remains completely surrounded by war lovers. This will show Republicans how how wild for war Democrats under President Obama are.
ReplyDeletePromoted, you say? But...she was "crucified"!
DeleteAt least she gets a reward for being the administration's designated scapegoat on Benghazi. Good to see that there's a "quo" for the "quid."
DeleteIt could be that younger people use the Internet for their news and commentary. While not young myself, I find all my facts by surfing.
ReplyDeleteI really get turned off by the smugness of people like Maddow, O'Donnell and Stewart.
nike shoes, Cheap Jordans,Cheap Jordan Shoes,Cheap Air Max,Cheap Free Run Shoes,nike shoes,nike outlet,nike factory,nike store,nike factory outlet,nike outlet store,cheap nike shoes,nike sneakers, toms outlet, toms outlet,tom shoes,toms shoes outlet,tom shoes,toms wedges,cheap toms,toms.com, air jordan, air jordan,jordan shoes,cheap jordans,air jordans,jordan retro,air jordan shoes,jordans,jordan 11,jordan xx9,jordan 6,new jordans,retro jordans,jordan retro 11,jordan 5,air jordan 11,jordans for sale,jordan 4,jordan 1,jordan future,jordan 3,jordan 12,michael jordan shoes,air jordan retro, cheap jordans, cheap jordans,cheap jordan shoes,cheap jordan,cheap jordans for sale,jordans for cheap,jordan shoes,jordans,air jordan,jordan retro,jordan 11,jordan xx9,jordan 6,new jordans,air jordans,retro jordans,jordan retro 11,jordan 5,air jordan 11,jordans for sale,jordan 4,jordan 1,jordan future,jordan 3,jordan 12,michael jordan shoes,air jordan shoes,air jordan retro, jordan retro, jordan retro,jordan shoes,air jordan,air jordans,retro jordans,air jordan retro,jordans,jordan 11,jordan xx9,jordan 6,new jordans,cheap jordans,jordan retro 11,jordan 5,air jordan 11,jordans for sale,jordan 4,jordan 1,jordan future,jordan 3,jordan 12,michael jordan shoes,air jordan shoes, air max 90, air max 90,nike air max 90,air max 95,air max 2014,air max 2013,air max 1,nike air max,air max,nike air max 2014,airmax,nike air max 2013, air max 95, air max 95,nike air max 95,air max 90,nike air max 90,air max 2013,nike air max,air max,air max 2014,nike air max 2014,airmax,nike air max 2013, nike free 5.0, nike free 5.0, nike free trainer 5.0,nike free run 5.0,free running 2,nike free run,nike free,free running,nike running shoes,nike free trainer,free runs,free run 5.0, omega watches, omega watches,omega watch,replica watches,rolex watches,replica omega watches,rolex,watches for men,watches for women,rolex watches for sale,rolex replica,rolex watch,cartier watches,rolex submariner,fake rolex,rolex replica watches,replica rolex, ralph lauren outlet
ReplyDeleteralph lauren outlet,ralph lauren outlet online,polo ralph lauren outlet,polo ralph lauren outlet online,polo ralph lauren,ralph lauren,polo ralph,polo shirts,ralphlauren.com,polo outlet,ralph lauren polo, oakley sunglass, oakley sunglasses,cheap oakley,cheap oakley sunglasses,oakley sunglasses cheap,oakley outlet,oakley sunglasses outlet,oakley vault,oakleys,oakley.com,sunglasses outlet,cheap sunglasses,oakley prescription glasses,fake oakleys,oakley glasses,oakley store,fake oakley,oakley sale,cheap oakleys,discount oakley sunglasses, ray ban sunglasses, Ray Ban Sunglasses,Ray Ban Outlet,Ray Ban Sale,Cheap Ray Bans,Cheap Ray Ban Sunglasses,ray ban sunglasses outlet,ray ban,rayban,ray bans,ray-ban,raybans,ray ban wayfarer,ray-ban sunglasses,raybans.com,rayban sunglasses,cheap ray ban, burberry, burberry,burberry outlet,burberry outlet online,burberry factory outlet,burberry sale,burberry handbags, chanel bags, chanel bags,chanel handbags,chanel sunglasses,chanel outlet,chanel purses,chanel handbags official site, coach outlet store, coach outlet,coach outlet store,coach outlet store online,coach outlet stores,coach factory outlet,coach factory,coach factory online,coach factory outlet online,coach outlet online, chaussures louboutin, louboutin,louboutin pas cher,christian louboutin,louboutin chaussures,louboutin soldes,chaussure louboutin,chaussures louboutin,chaussure louboutin pas cher,louboutin france, sac michael kors, michael kors,sac michael kors,michael kors sac,michael kors pas cher,sac michael kors pas cher,michael kors france, north face outlet, north face outlet,the north face,north face,the north face outlet,north face jackets,north face jackets clearance,northface, yoga pants, yoga pants,lululemon,lululemon outlet,lululemon athletica,lululemon addict,lulu lemon,lulu.com,lululemon.com, beats by dre
ReplyDeletebeats by dre,beats headphones,beats audio,beats by dr dre,beats by dre headphones,dr dre,dre beats,beats by dr,dr dre beats,dre headphones,beats by dr. dre,cheap beats, ferragamo, ferragamo,salvatore ferragamo,ferragamo shoes,ferragamo outlet,salvatore ferragamo outlet,ferragamo belts,ferragamo belt,ferragamo outlet, nike blazer, nike blazer,blazer nike,nike blazer pas cher,Chaussures Nike Blazer,Nike Blazer Femme, nike air force, nike air force,air force,nike air force 1,nike air force one,air force one nike,air force 1,air force one, michael kors outlet, michael kors outlet,michael kors handbags,michael kors uk,michael kors,michael kors,michael kors bags, cheap jerseys, cheap jerseys,nfl jerseys,cheap nfl jerseys,jerseys from china,cheap jerseys from china, cheap nfl jerseys, NFL Jerseys,Nike NFL Jerseys,NBA Jerseys,Soccer Jersey,NHL Jerseys,Baseball Jerseys,Custom Jersey,Youth Jerseys,Women Jerseys,NCAA Jerseys,cheap jerseys,cheap nfl jerseys,basketball jerseys,jerseys,hockey jerseys, jerseys from china, jerseys from china,cheap jerseys from china,nfl jerseys,cheap jerseys,cheap nfl jerseys,jerseys,baseball jerseys,nba jerseys,hockey jerseys,basketball jerseys, burberry uk, burberry, timberland boots uk, timberland
ReplyDeletePorno, Porno izle, Türk Porno
ReplyDeletePorno, Porno izle, Sikiş izle
Porno, Porno izle, Sikiş izle, Sikiş
Porno, Porno izle, Sikiş izle, Sikiş
Porno, Porno izle, Sikiş izle, Türk porno
Porno izle, Porno, Sikiş izle
Porno, Sex, Porno izle
Porno, Porno izle
Porno Sikiş, Porno, Porno izle
Porno, Porno izle, Sikiş izle
Porno, Porno Sex Sikiş, Porno izle
Porno, Sikiş izle, Türk Porno, Kızlık Bozma
Porno, Sikişme izle, Türk Porno, Kızlık Bozma
Türk Porno izle, Türk Pornosu, Türk Sex, Türk Sikiş
Porno Film izle, Türk Porno, Sikiş
Porno izle, Porno video seyret