General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I will tell you why Maddow's "Hubris" aired NOW and not back then. And you won't like it. [View all]BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)MSNBC is no different from any other big media outlet. They are looking for a niche that will give them high enough ratings to sell the advertising that pays the bills. It ain't nuthin' but a business proposition.
But I think there is one element to that that the OP overlooked. The fact that MSNBC thinks it is helpful (to their bottom line of course -- nothing else really matters) to air that story now is evidence of a shifting landscape. There is plenty of other evidence: The election of people like Warren, the loss of Faux ratings, the collapse of Limbaugh's syndication revenue, etc.
So we should celebrate the fact that there is enough of a shift to cause MSNBC to change their calculations, even if it would have been a lot more helpful to do this much sooner.
I do think it is interesting that Maddow began with the parallel to the Gulf of Tonkin, and noted that it took 10 years for there to be a real backlash against that. It has been 10 years since we were railroaded into war and we really don't have the "Gulf of Tonkin Backlash" yet. Maybe this will be the beginning of a period of truth telling.