Politico: MSNBC is in trouble

[bigdarryl]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/03/msnbc-is-in-serious-trouble-185770.html?ml=po_r

[Common Sense Party]

1. I wouldn't mind if both MSNBC and Fox folded. nt

[daleanime]

2. So CNN has fewer viewers then MSNBC.....

but twice the revenues?

[warrior1]

3. bullshit

[kydo]

4. Probably because

We are sick of being lied to.

I make a point to watch Thomas Roberts on Way Too Early, The Reid Report, and The Rachel Maddow Show during the week and on weekends, UP, Mellisa Harris Perry, and Disrupt.

I do like Lawrence, Al, Ed, Chris Hayes, and Chris Mathews. I don't mind the Cycle. But the rest .. I don't miss one bit, especially joe scum in the morning.

[TexasTowelie]

5. Crappy analysis.

MSNBC shows a downward turn for one single year and it is supposed to be a death knell for the network (even though the parent companies have deeper pockets than CNN). Meanwhile Fox and CNN have been losing viewers for years and everything is okey-dokey.

As a statistician, that is known as a blip or an aberration.

[doc03]

6. It looks to me like their loss of viewers coincides with putting Ed at 5 pm, getting rid of

Martin Bashir and Keith Oberman.

[frazzled]

7. Liberals have never cozied, en masse, to the "talk" format

It's always been the province of conservatives, first in radio (Limbaugh) and then on TV (Fox). Neither Fox nor MSNBC was ever a "news" network. They're politics networks, with a smattering of current events thrown in (though only the ones that advance particular agendas).

I wearied of the endless talk format on MSNBC a number of years ago: I get most all the information I need in print and on the Internet, and, frankly, I just got tired of hearing endless discussion and repetition. If anything important ever is uncovered on MSNBC, I can find it soon enough on the Internet. I also wearied of the internecine wars: it seemed that often they were paying more attention to the conservative media itself (or conservative politicians) than to ideas real liberals were proposing. It's wearying in the way the Real Housewives franchise is wearying: kind of fun to watch for a while, like a train wreck, but eventually annoying and boring.

CNN is another story altogether: I haven't watched them in ten years. They just don't know who or what they are. And then the ridiculous attempts at technical pyrotechnics. It became a joke.

So, the only time I ever tune in is when something of dramatic import is actually breaking, or on election nights. I can't even stand to listen to the jibber-jabber before and after events such as the State of the Union speech. I'll just turn to C-Span.

I think liberals are too smart, too busy, and too productive to hang around talk television forever. I think it's a credit to us that we have better ways to be involved in political activism and discussion, and to ingest news. I think the mistake was when we tried to copy Limbaugh and Fox and one-up them: that's not what liberals do.

[flamingdem]

8. bogus

schmogus

[Enrique]

9. revenue looks ok

certainly not "serious trouble"

[GoCubsGo]

10. I wonder how they are measuring viewership.

A lot of MSNBC's target audience likely watches it via other methods than through a TV cable, like I-pads, smart phones, and computers. If they are measuring only those watching on cable/satellite, they're likely missing a good chunk of the audience.

[Wounded Bear]

11. Rewrite of first paragraph...

This is the story of Fox in a nutshell: It rose to prominence on its criticism of Barack Obama's candidacy, peaked during Barack Obama's historic 2009 Obamacare struggle, and, by criticizing Democrats and championing conservative causes, sustained losses in its viewership in the years that followed, perhaps as people tired of its endless crisis mongering.

-highlighted text added.

[Vashta Nerada]

12. Meh.

I couldn't care less, tbh.

[Thew]

13. MSNBC ratings will cycle up

MSNBC ratings will cycle up as we approach the election, and will rebound sharply during the start of the national election season end of next year.

Their coverage was highly regarded last cycle, one where Fox was exposed as deranged, conservative-bubble-reinfocement.