For MSNBC Viewers .......

[Stinky The Clown]

Poll question: For MSNBC Viewers .......

If you're a regular or semiregular viewer of MSNBC you know there've been some changes at the top. The old guy's gone and Dan Abrams (Floyd Abrams' kid) has taken over as general manager. In the first change under his lead, he made the (no brainer) decision to cancel Reeter Foghorn's dead-on awful show. He moved Tucker "Dead Teeevee Host Walking" Carlson to Abrams' two old time slots at 4 and 6 - to try to save the boy? Or to use him as a bandaid until a proper replacement show can be rolled out in the Fall? Keith was recently dispatched to HollyWorld to promote his show - I think that's a first. Regular Joe's show has been moved an hour earlier and ol' Reg seems to be staying away from a lot of politics and covering more pop culture stuff. When he does cover politics, he seems more .... less ... whatever .... different from his old hard right crap. Tweety .... well, no change there, but I think he's ossified in the role he plays and must have a brazillian year contract owing to his **former** position as top dog personality.

Anyway, with all that and more, what do my fellow MSNBC watchers think might be going on over there?

(Edit to change the name of Abrams' father)

Poll result (44 votes)
No serious change. Just tweaks to up the ratings.	(6 votes, 14%)	Vote
Titanic Deck Chairs. They're sinking.	(3 votes, 7%)	Vote
There's a sea change coming. They're going to try to appeal to the reality based world.	(10 votes, 23%)	Vote
They're crassly waiting for the midterms to decide how to spin shit.	(21 votes, 48%)	Vote
I have no idea.	(1 votes, 2%)	Vote
TURN OFF YOUR TEEVEE, you asshole clown	(3 votes, 7%)	Vote
Other	(0 votes, 0%)	Vote

[David Dunham]

1. Dan Abrams is the son of lawyer Floyd Abrams, a NYC Democrat.

Floyd Abrams is a big First Amendment lawyer.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. You're Right! My Bad!

I actually know that. I mistakenly typed Elliott instead of Floyd.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. I fixed the poll's preamble. Thanks for the correction.

[fearthem]

15. Thanks, I thought just the opposite, that he was GOP all the way...

great news!

[LSparkle]

2. All I can say is: Their West Coast "primetime" lineup SUCKS

If I didn't have a TV in my office (to sneak peeks during business hours), I'd NEVER "get" (have?) to see Tweety, since his show airs at 2 and 4 p.m. PST and doesn't air again until MIDNIGHT. Keith is still on at 9 p.m. but from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. -- PRIME news watching time for me, since I don't get home until 7 -- they're now showing their "Doc-Block." While CNN has A.C. 360 live from the Middle East and even Faux has live programming, MSNBC is showing CANNED DOCUMENTARIES. I'm insulted by this -- either they assume that the only "news-savvy" viewers live on the East Coast or they assume (just as stupid) that EVERYONE has a TiVo.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. I think that is the result of their 'temporary' fix in advance of bigger

changes to come ... in the Fall? Those John Seganthaller jailbird shows are truly dumb.

[babylonsister]

3. They've also (re?)hired Monica Crowley, which is a negative

in my book.

[Catchawave]

9. You are sooo right bab'sistah....

..Monica was doing Best of Imus this morning, and I FREAKED. Imus is one thing, but MONICA in the MORNING is a quick switch to CNN's Robin and Friends.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. I think what happeend is she's still under contract, even after ther show

with Reagan was cancelled. They're paying her, so now they're using her. I've even seen her do a two hour daytime coanchor stint ... which is insulting for someone who had her own show. I don't see them building her up again.

[babylonsister]

14. They need to get Ron back in the saddle; now him I'd watch!

Yes, that's where I've seen her, reading the news. I still can't stand her, knowing which way she sways.

[fearthem]

16. Cannot stomach Monica and switch channels when I see her.

[fearthem]

17. As is Nora O'Donnel (a negative)

[babylonsister]

18. Amen to that. Someone needs to give Whora her walking papers! nt

[bluedog]

5. they are waiting for the WH to tell them what to air

you know they don't air anything that will cut down the current administration. cause Rove will get on the horn and talk to the owners......

[Janice325]

7. I have no idea.

However, I wish they'd have more Alison Stewart. She's a welcome change from the two blondes (Alex someone and I have no idea who the other one was) I saw earlier today. They seemed like clones who droned on about the "news" of Dimson having to take a shorter vacation at his "ranch" this year.
News schmews.
Of course, please keep Keith!!!(but more Alison, get Rachel Maddow and more David Gregory).

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Alex Witt .... here's what she said the other day ........

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[LSparkle]

13. OMG --- I used to like her but now ...

She always struck me as a more mature, serious newscaster (not just another newsmodel) but sounds like she's had a "brain-lift" (turned back the clock about 10 years).

[LSparkle]

12. In my dreams, Rachel and David get their own shows ...

The only reason I spent more than ten seconds with "The Situation" (with Fucker) was to see if/when Rachel Maddow would be on. She TOTALLY stole the show whenever she was on -- made it look like she was the host and Fucker was the guest! Same thing about Gregory -- I like Spitballs so much better when he's subbing for Tweety. (Now is they can just get Spitballs back in a DECENT TIME SLOT on the West Coast, I'll be happy ... )

[WCGreen]

19. Actually, I kind of like they way they are using Tucker....

in this latest "MidEast Crisis"...

He is much better away from his desk and away from the obviously false ideology he painted for himself while all the cool kids were mocking him in College....

[Berry Cool]

20. I was a little disappointed with Alison's show yesterday.

She had Tim LaHaye on (author of the "Left Behind" books) and all she did was essentially let him go on and on for five minutes about how all the signs seemed to be in place for the end of the world and the Rapture. She said nothing, absolutely nothing, to attempt to challenge him on this claim. Weak. Just weak.

[Stinky The Clown]

21. My internal jury's out on Allison ... or more properly, her show

I actually admire her a lot. She's so different from the mold of young teevee newzers. I'm sure she had to work harder to get herself on equal footing. She pulled herself up from MTV to a serious show.

Her new show's been hot and cold ..... or maybe warm and cold. I'm now thinking its the format and not her, but ..... No, I'm sure its the format. She was the **best** substitute host for Keith.

[RamboLiberal]

22. Tucker is "Dead Talk Show Host Walking"

and Scarborough as one astute person put it on mediabistro is doing "Nuts and Sluts".

Carlson is dying in the ratings. One day this week he had 22,000 viewers and yesterday 43,000 in the 6pm slot.

I hate the all prison all the time shows they put on at 10 and 11. They got ridiculed the first week of the ME crisis when they foolishly stuck with that format for several days.

IMHO Abrams is a disaster and is going to kill MSNBC as a viable news cable channel.

[Stinky The Clown]

23. I continue to have hope .....

..... that he will do much more in the next few months.

(The following is 100% pure assumption and surmise on my part)

I think the job was handed to him rather quickly and he had almost no time to get anything ready to roll out. His first job was to fill his own former two hours of air. He did that with a simple schedule change: Tucker from the Dead Zone at 11 to Tucker² at 4 and 6. Then he did what hadda get done with Reeter .... the axe. He didn't even wait for her contract to run out. Then he filled her old slot by moving Regular Joe up an hour. As pure filler he put in that prison crap. So he's still left with two hours to fill .... essentially not having yet found a replacement(s) for his own former time slots.

I have said before that I think he's a pretty straight ahead guy ... not overly left or right. But having grown up eating dinner each night at the same table as Floyd Abrams, we can guess, at least a little, which direction his internal tilt might tend. That gives me hope. I can imagine he's working right now to fill those two hours.

And then there's this latest observation: Regular Joe has been doing mostly sluts and nuts and not a lot of political stuff. Tucker's clearly gotten a memo to tone his more rabid shit down. Did you hear him today do that actually quite beautiful put-down of an e-mailer who wrote in support of the Iraq War? He sounded way more like Cindy Sheehan that Tucker Carlson. Although, to be fair, he's never been in support of the war, but always quick to castigate Dems for the lack of support. That schizophrenia seems largely gone of late.

The biggest nut to be cracked is Tweety. On the flip side, they had just last week sent Olberman out to HollyDoodle to press the media flesh in support of his show. This tells me they have high regard for Olberman and realize his views represent MSNBC's future. That's a huge 'good thing'.

Any change to programming takes time. I'm happy right now to sit and watch and wait.

[LaPera]

24. MSNBC is owned by republican corporations-General Electric & Microsoft

General Electric sells weapons, making a killing off the wars and are huge republican donors...Microsoft also donates mostly to republicans...Just as Time-Warner AOL (CNN) are also in the top ten of ALL donors to the republican party.

And you expect some kind of media change? Rupert Murdoch's Fox news would proably be a better bet to change than the republican owned right-wing CNN or MSNBC!