Good morning, afternoon, or evening, ladies and gentlemen, fellow news junkies,and welcome to the Magnificent Seventh (Dum-Dum-DA-Dum-Dum-DA-DEH-DEH-Dum-Dum-Dum-DA-Dum-Dum-DA-DEH-DEH-DUM!) edition of Steve's Blog, Steven L. Eisenpreis here, you there, as one of my favorite sports talk hosts, (and fellow Steves, Steve Somers of SportsRadio 66 AM and 101.9 FM WFAN New York, to be exact) likes to say.
Suppose ESPN said, "If you're looking for scores and highlights of the Indiana-Chicago game, call someone who cares," or FOX said, "If you tuned in for a rock-'em-sock-'em NFL match-up, you're gonna be VERY disappointed, buddy, the game on CBS is WAAAAAAAAAAY better!" (Come to think of it, MTV has said, "If you want non-stop music, try Fuse!" ever since Snooki and her unindicted co-conspirators took over.)
That's pretty much the situation over at MSNBC, which began life seventeen years ago as a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC showcasing MS's computer and internet acumen and NBC's storied news operation which gave birth to many of the formats we now take for granted, but gravitated towards pretty much all politics all the time, or as many pundits have called it, the liberal answer to FOX News. (Read into this what you will, but MSNBC and CNN are viewed at the 24 Hour Fitness Derek Jeter locations on 26th Street and Madison Square Park and Houston and Crosby while MSNBC, CNN, AND FNC are all available to members of the 24 at Citigroup's Manhattan headquarters building. Just sayin'.) During the recent
events in Oklahoma, Texas, and Boston, MSNBC's ratings have experienced a fall of Humpty-Dumptyesque proportions as viewers have gravitated to CNN and FNC. Unfortunately, friends, that seems to be the path MSNBC has chosen for itself. I don't want to sound like Sean Hannity (Much as I respect his work and the friends I have, both Facebook and actual, who have done work for him.) or Piers Morgan, (Again, much R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I had the pleasure to be on the other side of his mic when he did a man-on-the-street interview for Aol's morning show when they were still part of CNN's parent company, Time Warner.) but if a channel promises Fair and Balanced News (as FNC has) or runs a promo showcasing important news events while a chorus encourages you to "Experience Life" (as CNN has), naturally, you're going to watch that channel instead of one that proclaims itself "The Place For Politics" when politics is (Politics are?) supposed to take a backseat to events that are infinitely more important. MSNBC's boss, Phil Griffin, has taken responsibility for his channel's abysmal ratings,(He actually said, "We're NOT the Place for Breaking News!") and now that NBC has bought MS out of MSNBC, I believe they should study the extensive NBC News library and learn from its long history of breaking news coverage from "JFK Blown Away" to the tragedy in Boston and everything in between, before and since and rededicate themselves to news coverage that would make legendary NBC TV reporters such as Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, John Chancellor, Tim Russert, and my close, warm personal friends Mary Alice Williams and Garrick Utley proud, and not wallow in politics the way TMZ wallows in Kardashians.
You have been reading the "When Is A Peacock A Turkey?" portion of Steve's Blog,and, of course, your comments and questions are welcome. The opinions expressed are STILL not necessarily those of Google, in case you were wondering. If you would like a transcript of today's show, just hit "Print." Portions of the preceding show were last seen deleting MSNBC programming from their TiVO. On behalf of the management and staff, this is your announcer reminding you that you have as much chance of seeing real news on MSNBC as you have of seeing Justin "I-Am-A-True-Artist" Bieber performing at the Metropolitan
Opera.
Bye, Buckaroos!
Steve
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