MSNBC or MSDNC? Network Taps DNC Video Director to Produce New Show
Is it MSNBC or MSDNC? Andrew Kirell of Mediaite reported today that the left-wing commentary network has hired the Democratic National Committee’s director of video production, Anne Thompson, to produce the network’s newest weekend show Up with Steve Kornacki. Yet, this is just another episode in the annals of MSNBC’s revolving door of hiring Obamaites. MSNBC has already hired David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs, two high-level Obama campaign advisors. On top of that, other Obama acolytes Like Ben LaBolt are recurring guests on shows like Now with Alex Wagner.
If MSNBC’s president, Phil Griffin, was really trying to distance himself from the Democratic Party, this was a poor decision. Griffin has been trying to dispel the fledgling narrative that his network is nothing more than a communications outlet for the DNC.
Stung by Its Reporting, Ed Schultz Slams Politico as ‘Freaking Whores’
Looks like this could be a rocky transition for Ed Schultz and MSNBC.
Ever since Politico reported "The Ed Show" would move from primetime weeknights on MSNBC to the network's barren weekends, bumping up against scarcely watched programming that consists mainly of reality shows set in prison, Schultz has insisted the shift is not a demotion. (Audio clips after page break)
MSNBC Boss Sells Sharpton: He’s a ‘Good Person’ and ‘Fair,’ And ‘He’s Only Going to Grow’
The New York media has a nasty habit of producing puff pieces about rabble-rousing Rev. Al Sharpton. The latest came from Daniel D’Addario at The New York Observer. It was headlined “A Reasonable Man: How Track-Suited Firebrand Al Sharpton Became the Most Thoughtful Voice on Cable.”
“He’s controversial,” MSNBC president Phil Griffin told The Observer. “But a lot of people only know him from a few things. You don’t understand that he’s a good person. He’s fair. You don’t want to be judged for just a few things in your life, do you?”
Mediaite’s Rothman Eviscerates MSNBC Host Hayes’ Simplistic, Fact-deficient Attack On FNC’s Roger Ailes
"A little perspective would inform [Chris] Hayes’ inflated sense of self-worth, particularly when he attempts to demean the notable careers of others."
That's how Mediaite editor Noah Rothman concluded a scathing piece written to address a misleading charge made by the MSNBC host in a recent Talking Points Memo (TPM) interview. Fox News is captained by Roger Ailes, who is "a lifetime, hard-right, conservative ideologue Republican partisan," as opposed to MSNBC's president Phil Griffin who is simply an apolitical "someone who worked in TV," insisted Hayes. Rebutting that charge, Rothman offered a review of Ailes's storied history in the television industry that dates back to the early 1960s, some 20 years before Griffin got his start in TV (emphasis mine)