What is going on with MSNBC right now?
At this point MSNBC’s early afternoon shows pretty much only exist to dishonestly hype the border situation. These hosts don’t care if their false narratives end up sabotaging President Biden and handing power back to the Republicans, or who gets hurt in the process. They just care about hitting their ratings marks.
It’s the latest reminder that MSNBC isn’t your friend; it’s a billion dollar corporation that literally exists to get ratings and turn a profit. The better MSNBC hosts try to work around this by making sure that they’re accurately informing you of the day’s news, while trying to hit their ratings marks.
The weakest hosts tend to get stashed in the early afternoon, when the fewest people are watching to begin with, meaning they’re desperate to hit their ratings marks – and they’re the worst at being able to do it legitimately. So they resort to nonstop hype about things like the border, even if it means simply repeating phony Republican talking points. The kicker is that these antics don’t tend to boost ratings anyway, they just prompt smarter viewers to change the channel.
This stands in stark contrast to the late afternoon and evening hosts on MSNBC, who don’t generally resort to this kind of nonsense. If they can hit their ratings marks just by being good at their jobs, why can’t the early afternoon hosts do the same?
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report