I don’t even know why someone has to say this.
Dan Abrams, who took over about a year ago as news director at MSNBC, needs to be fired. Canned. Shown his walking papers.
His reign at the top of the network has been a complete disaster. He’s transformed NBC’s cable presence into the Paris Hilton Network. All Paris, all the time. Or any other white woman who may be in trouble. Or any conservative whackjob Fox won’t hire.
His ratings are abysmal. Beyond Keith Olbermann’s Countdown, which continues advancing only because Olbermann knows how to write and has reasonable autonomy, everything else has gone to hell in a handbasket. (And even Olbermann couldn't get away from doing a one-hour Pariscast last Friday, despite his obvious discomfort. The order from this came directly from Abrams, who followed with a one-hour Paris special of his own. What an embarrassment.)
You know what MSNBC’s top-rated show was? Imus. That’s gone. Outside Olbermann, which is run entirely by Olbermann, absolutely everything else is a disaster. Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, Tucker Carlson. No one is watching any of it. They're not missing anything either.
And the day-time. God what bullshit. Studio crap or live car chase feeds. Fox with Cops.
You can say some of it is not Abrams’ fault. You can partly blame the evisceration of the budget. MSNBC has no independent news gathering budget, period. Absolutely nothing, bupkis, the null set. The only “news” it can use consists of the reports NBC grants it, and whatever NBC affiliates may decide to run with live. Thus car chases or fires-in-progress and courtroom scenes. It’s boring.
As I said none of that is Abrams’ fault. That’s GE’s fault. They decided a year ago not to invest any more money into the network, because it’s losing money, so Abrams has had to make do.
But the fact is he hasn’t made do. Most of his anchors can barely read or write, they seem to be there strictly for their looks, and for sidekicks you’ve got a bunch of weather bimbos and himbos standing in front of maps making jokes about the “worst weather in America,” by which they mean wherever there’s rain. I live in Atlanta. I’d like some “worst weather,” please.
MSNBC’s studio “shows” consist of either people yelling at one another or right-wing hacks expressing “expertise” on things they know nothing about. Every single one of Abrams’ military “analysts” is vetted by the Department of Defense, which is selling war. Every one of his “business” analysts is vetted by Wall Street, which is selling stocks. Any other analysts on his air? I don’t see any. That’s Dan Abrams’ fault.
There is no one at MSNBC, either on-air or off-air, with any sound, impartial news judgment. That’s also Dan Abrams’ fault. He doesn’t exercise any, and he doesn’t force anyone else to, either.
At least with Fox I know I’m getting right-wing crap I shouldn’t believe. With MSNBC I’m just getting crap.
Oh, and before you note that MSNBC does have the best-rated news Web site around, please know this. Dan Abrams has nothing to do with the Web site.
NBC should either buy out Microsoft’s interest in the network and invest in it, make Olbermann (or someone like him) the full-time news director so at least we’d have a contrast to Fox, or close the thing down.
But it all starts with firing Dan Abrams.
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