MSNBC

Tim Russert, NBC's Washington bureau chief and the influential host of its Sunday morning program Meet the Press, died the afternoon of Friday June, 13, after collapsing from a heart attack while recording voice-over segments for Sunday's show at NBC's Washington news bureau. He was 58.

had previously been diagnosed with coronary artery disease, which he treated with medication and exercise. After the collapse, medics rushed Russert to Sibley Memorial Hospital, where efforts to resuscitate him failed. According to doctors at the scene, cholesterol plaque had ruptured an artery in Russert’s heart, which was enlarged, an autopsy later revealed.

Tom Brokaw announced the news of Russert’s death on the air for NBC. His colleagues were shocked and grief stricken. Doris Kearns Goodwin, who has known Russert for about a decade and was a frequent guest of his on Meet the Press was in tears after a television station broke the news to her with a telephone call.

"I feel so bad," she told The Observer. "He was such a good friend."

"Somebody just called from the television studio and said have you heard the horrible news about Tim and I thought he must have been in a plane crash,” she added. "He's a giant and he's the best. I loved him…I can't imagine what the news bureau is going through down there. I heard it is just wailing.”  read more »

Declaring the president of the United States the "Worst Person in the World," is apparently no biggie these days, what with his historically low approval ratings and all that. But saying the same about Katie Couric?

Outrageous! (Historically low ratings may not apply in this case.)  read more »

MSNBC has ordered a second helping of Morning Joe.

The New York Times reports this morning that Joe Scarborough has extended his contract with MSNBC until March 2011. Last summer, after a successful tryout, Mr. Scarborough took over Don Imus' old morning slot on MSNBC, beating out the likes of David Gregory along the way.  read more »

Last night, CNN congressional correspondent Jessica Yellin appeared on "Anderson Cooper 360," in part to discuss the brouhaha over former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's tell-all book about the Bush administration, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception.

At one point, Mr. Cooper asked Ms. Yellin about the allegations in the book that the national media was "too deferential to the White House," during the run-up to the war in Iraq.  read more »

On Monday, MSNBC kicked off The New York Times Special Primary Edition, a new irregularly recurring daytime political show hosted by John Harwood in which Times scribes chew over news from the campaign trail.

So how did the show's premier do?

Not great!

According to Nielsen data, "The New York Times Special Primary Edition," finished fourth among cable news networks in the 2 P.M. time slot.  read more »

The Times and MSNBC are joining forces for a new cable show. Today is the debut of The New York Times Special Primary Edition, a new political show hosted by John Harwood where Times-journos will handicap the election. From a Times memo, it appers these shows will appear as specials--that is, they won't run every week, but whenever MSNBC and the paper choose to do it.

Today's program will preview the Indiana and North Carolina primaries and Adam Nagourney, Pat Healy and Gail Collins are included guests.

Here's the memo:  read more »

The numbers are in for the cable news networks for the first quarter of 2008. The verdict? Thanks in large part to the nation's ravenous interest in the political season, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC all enjoyed a strong first quarter, particularly compared with the seemingly dismal news coming from much of the rest of the industry. Today, employees of the cable news networks were falling all over themselves, trying to out-tout each other's accomplishments. Herein, some of the highlights:  read more »

A recent episode of 'Race For the White House.'

“MSNBC and NBC are one,” said Phil Griffin. “We’ve said that for over a decade. It actually is true now.”

Mr. Griffin, the senior vice president of NBC News, was speaking on the phone to NYTV on Monday afternoon. He had brought up the unification of the two news operations as a way of explaining the internal politics underpinning the launch of MSNBC’s new prime-time show, Race for the White House, which premiered on March, 17 at 6 p.m., replacing Tucker.  read more »

Today, NBC News officials announced that as of next Monday, NBC News Chief White House Correspondent David Gregory will be replacing anchor Tucker Carlson at 6 P.M. on MSNBC.

How was Mr. Carlson taking the cancellation of Tucker?

On Monday afternoon, the Media Mob caught up briefly with Mr. Carlson.

"I'm not going to whine about it," said Mr. Carlson. "They've been nice to me."

Mr. Carlson said he was "glad" to stay on with MSNBC as a senior campaign correspondent.  read more »

Tucker Carlson is out. David Gregory is in.

Today, MSNBC officials announced sweeping changes to their primetime lineup.

Most notably: starting Monday, March 17, NBC White House Correspondent (and robo newsman) David Gregory will be anchoring a new show, Race for the White House weekdays at 6 P.M.

The new show, billed as a "a fast-paced daily look at the latest election news" will replace the long struggling Tucker.  read more »

Not only will David Shuster, the MSNBC talent who got into trouble over claiming the Clinton campaign had "pimped out" former first daughter Chelsea on the hustings, be returning to the network; his suspension will have lasted two weeks, and he'll be back in time for the NBC-sponsored debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama Feb. 26. Broadcasting & Cable reports:  read more »

Greg Sargent at TalkingPointsMemo has confirmed with sources of his that the prime beef Hillary Clinton's campaign has had with the MSNBC network is the pugilistic behavior of Hardball's Chris Matthews.  read more »

After Hillary seemed to suggest that his suspension was not enough of a punishment for his pimp remark, MSNBC affirmed to Greg Sargent at Talking Points Memo that David Shuster will not be fired.

"He remains on suspension indefinitely, but he will not be fired and will be returning to MSNBC," MSNBC director of communications Alana Russo told Sargent, who then speculates (pretty plausibly, we think) what it all means:  read more »

It was a little before midnight on Tuesday, Jan. 27 that MSNBC correspondent David Shuster hit the “Send” button on a curt e-mail to Republican rabble-rouser Roger Stone.

Days earlier, Mr. Stone and others had filed papers with the I.R.S. to form a “527” organization dedicated to educating “the American Public about what Hillary Clinton really is.” The organization was called “Citizens United Not Timid,” i.e., C.U.N.T.

“Hey Roger Stone,” wrote Mr. Shuster in an e-mail to Mr. Stone’s personal Web site, the Stone Zone. “Why not put your own name on this?”  read more »

MSNBC has now officially suspended David Shuster for his comments regarding Chelsea Clinton.

In a statement this afternoon, an MSNBC spokesperson noted that the network was still "hopeful" that Senators Clinton and Obama will participate in the Feb. 26 debate to be hosted by MSNBC.

Herein the full statement:    read more »

According to Howard Kurtz, MSNBC's David Shuster will be issuing an on-air apology this evening at 6 p.m. on Tucker, for comments he made yesterday about Chelsea Clinton's role campaigning for her mother.

"Doesn't it seem as if Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?" he asked (watch the segment above).

<  read more »

"The safer thing would have been to stay at MSNBC,” said Alison Stewart. “To abandon your comfort zone is scary but it’s also very exciting.”

Ms. Stewart was speaking to NYTV, not long ago, about her decision to leave TV for radio after roughly 15 years of experience—from rocking the vote for MTV News in early 90's to anchoring shows for MSNBC to contributing pieces to the Nightly News with Brian Williams.

This past fall, Ms. Stewart began hosting the Bryant Park Project, a quirky, newfangled morning news show from NPR aimed at a young audience, which is now carried by 18 stations around the country. The show is produced out of the NPR’s New York bureau on 42nd Street, across from—you guessed it!—Bryant Park.  read more »

Chris Matthews addresses criticism of his recent statements about Hillary Clinton's career earlier today on his cable news show, Hardball.

And here is the comment that started it all:

As expected, this morning at 8:03 a.m (PST), Judge Charles Thompson of Clark County District Court in Nevada signed an order forcing MSNBC to include Dennis Kuncinich in tonight’s Democratic debate.

Citing the “timing” of Mr. Kucinich’s exclusion, the “importance of the caucuses,” and the “obligations of the media,” Judge Thompson ordered MSNBC to include Mr. Kucinich or face a shutdown of the debate:

“[T]he Court finds that the harm to Plaintiff and the public if this Order is not granted outweighs any conceivable harm to Defendant from granting the Order.”

The judge also ordered NBC Universal to pony up a $1,000 bond.

Follow the jump to view the original document.  read more »

This morning, the Media Mob caught up with William McGaha, who is serving as Dennis Kucinich’s lawyer in his battle to be included in tonight’s MSNBC debate at Cashman Center in Las Vegas.

Mr. McGaha said his client’s case was based, in part, on two e-mails the Kucinich camp had received from Jennifer Backus, a political consultant for NBC Universal. The first e-mail, according to Mr. McGaha, spelled out the criteria by which candidates would quality for the debate.  read more »

A Nevada judge ruled yesterday afternoon that MSBNC will have to include Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich in tonight’s debate—or face a possible injunction halting the televised event from occurring.

“The judge called it a matter of fairness and said Nevada voters will benefit if they hear from more than just Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards,” the AP reported Monday afternoon.  read more »

The Politico's Michael Calderone (formerly of Media Mob fame) recently caught up with a bunch of broadcast news bigwigs in Iowa.

Along the way, NBC's Brian Williams talked up his belief in the advantage for NBC of having a sibling cable news outlet providing plenty of real estate for its anchors and correspondents to appear throughout the day.

"Williams noted that NBCs advantage for 2008 is having a cable news network, MSNBC, working round the clock — 'a game-changer,' in his words," reported Mr. Calderone.  read more »

The Houston Chronicle reports that, in an interview, Phil Griffin, who oversees MSNBC's primetime lineup, "reject[ed] the notion that MSNBC has used [Keith Olbermann's] show and others as part of a deliberately more contrarian tone toward the Bush administration as an alternative to Fox News Channel."

Mr. Griffin told the paper: "Keith was doing this show before it was popular to beat up on this president or to beat up on this war ... Because of his point of view and the 'Special Comments,' people think this is our strategy. This isn't a strategy. This is Keith."

But two months ago, The Times reported:  read more »

Today MSNBC announced plans for their so-called "Super Week" coverage of the forthcoming Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Details from today's press release after the jump...  read more »

Looks like those rumors you might have heard about Tucker Carlson being on the outs at MSNBC might have been off the mark after all. TV Newser says it's hearing from insiders that the network has no plans to cancel the conservative pundit's show.

Maybe he should thank these guys.

Over the last few weeks, we've learned from several reports that NBC is planning a series of layoffs at NBC News and MSNBC. Today, TV Newser provides some names.

According to the site, Davidson Goldin, MSNBC's editorial director; Amy Rosenblum, the senior producer of the 10am hour of The Today Show; Joe Alicastro, a veteran NBC News producer; and Jean Harper, a senior prodcuer at Nightly News who has worked with Brian Williams for many years are all on the way out.

Mr. Goldin's likely departure was first reported last week by The New York Post.

Fox News' Chris Wallace unloads to The Politico about the Democratic presidential candidates' refusal to appear on debates moderated by his network:

"Just imagine if the Republicans, under pressure from right-to-life groups, refused to appear on CNN or MSNBC. I think there would be holy unshirted hell. I think there would be such talk about these people being captives of the extreme right wing and why are they afraid to answer questions. And I think the absence of that is very telling.

"At this point, it has become kind of a loyalty test inside the Democratic Party, ... pandering to the far-left-wing. And we live with it."  read more »

MSNBC's much-noted shift left continues apace. First, on Friday, Dan Abrams used his blog to announce a new series, Bush League Justice, which looks at the politicization of the Justice Department under President Bush.

Writes Mr. Abrams: "This series is long overdue. The scandal with the firings of the U.S. Attorneys under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales exposed the underbelly of this administration’s penchant for putting politics over objectivity and qualifications. We now hope to dissect the subject more fully and help spur change."

Then yesterday, TV Newser revealed that ...  read more »

Keith Olbermann has raised his profile and his numbers at MSNBC in part by taking on other cable hosts. And last night, notes TV Newser, he opened another campaign, naming CNN's Lou Dobbs as the"Worst Person in the World" (there's a new one every night, so don't take it literally).

Mr. Dobbs provoked Mr. Olbermann's ire with a tirade of his own, attacking LA Times columnist Tim Rutten on his Monday show, after Mr. Rutten wrote a column that argued that CNN devoted too much of its recent Republican debate to immigration, as a way to help Mr. Dobbs' show, which focuses on the issue.

   read more »

NBC is planning to get rid of an entire level of MSNBC's management team, as well as making major cuts at NBC News, according to The New York Post. Two senior MSNBC staffers -- head of primetime programming Bill Wolf, and editorial director Davidson Goldin -- are set to see their jobs eliminated. But the cable network's top shows -- those hosted by Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Dan Abrams -- are said to be sacrosanct, and will escape the cuts unscathed.

As for CNBC, it too will be unaffected, says The Post, because NBC chief Jeff Zucker wants it at full strength to compete with Fox Business.  read more »

Via The Huffington Post, Joe Scarborough of MSBNC went after CNN this morning for allowing someone with ties to the Hillary Clinton campaign to pose a question at Wednesday's GOP debate.

"Don't tell me that CNN didn't know" that the questioner -- retired Brigadier General Keith Kerr, who asked about the issue of gays in the military -- was associated with the Clinton campaign.  read more »

With Tucker Carlson's future at MSNBC apparently in doubt, the bow-tied host's supporters are getting organized.

Rumors have been flying recently that Tucker Carlson could soon be on the way out at MSNBC. In a report that aired this morning on NPR, Phil Griffin, a senior vice president at the cable network, described Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as part of the MSNBC "brand". Asked whether Mr. Carlson was also part of that brand, Mr. Griffin replied: "He is right now."

Not exactly a vote of confidence.  read more »

At least once a week, usually sometime in the early afternoon after a big, heavy lunch, when our mental activity is at its absolute nadir, The Media Mob likes to head out in search of the perfect low-energy media treat. Namely, power rankings. Who's up? Who's down? Who snuck into the top ten? Which stinkeroos are stuck at the bottom?
Depending on the time of year, our power ranking fix typically ranges from football to basketball. But now thanks to the thoughtful folks at MSNBC, our options for drowsy media consumption have expanded into heretofore unimaginable power ranking territory. To wit: Today, MSNBC announced that Hardball with Chris Matthews will be launching "Hardball Power Rankings."  read more »

Jacques Steinberg had a nice bit of news in an otherwise unrewarding piece on cable network MSNBC the other day: Rosie O'Donnell was close to a deal to host a show on the network.

Then, last night at 7:06 p.m., O'Donnell posted the following to her blog:

msnbc
one hour
live
following keith olbermann

we were close to a deal
almost done
i let it slip in miami
causing panic on the studio end

well
what can u do

2day there is no deal
poof
my career as a pundit is over
b4 it began  read more »

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So we're going to be participating in a TechPresident project, along with the New York Times, MSNBC, and a diverse mix of online political commentators. It's a new political forum called 10 Questions in which you, the insightful and inventive reader, get to pose questions to the presidential candidates.

Here's how it works: Submit video questions from October 17 to November 14 on YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo Video or Blip.tv with a "10questions" tag. Afterwards, the candidates will respond to the ten most popular questions, as determined by up-or-down votes on each of the videos, which will be posted on the 10 Questions site. And then readers will determine whether the candidates actually answered the questions or not.

We'll be pointing occasionally to some of the more interesting questions, so give me a heads-up if you're working on anything fun.

Dan Abrams will stay in the MSNBC anchor chair in the 9 p.m. slot, instead of managing the cable network's news report, The New York Times reports; that means that Joe Scarborough will remain in the morning position previously occupied by Don Imus.

MSNBC said today that Dan Abrams, who has been the host of a 9 p.m. news hour called “Live with Dan Abrams” temporarily since July, will stay in the job permanently, leaving behind the managerial position he had occupied for a little over a year.

   read more »

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