Here’s what will change now that MSNBC chairman Andy Lack has been abruptly ousted
NBC News abruptly announced a corporate “restructuring” today that’s designed to sound like it’s some sweeping overhaul, but in reality it only makes one key change: MSNBC chairman Andy Lack is being ousted. Considering that MSNBC has spent the past five days in the midst of controversy and viewer backlash over the network’s decision to dishonestly hype a phony scandal about Joe Biden, it’s not difficult to figure out why Lack was ousted. The real question is what comes next.
The new MSNBC chairman is Cesar Conde, who is currently in charge of NBC Telemundo. He comes in with a series of fires to put out. All you have to do is look at social media over the past week to see that large chunks of regular MSNBC viewers have been demanding apologies from MSNBC stalwarts Mika Brzezinski, Andrea Mitchell, and Ali Velshi – while the backlash against 8pm host Chris Hayes is so overwhelming, a significant portion of his audience is demanding that he be fired.
Cable news networks are corporate entities that literally exist to turn a profit, and the only way to turn that profit is to keep ratings high. Fox News can push false and misleading narratives all day that are custom designed to rile up its gullible viewers and keep them tuned in. MSNBC has it harder, because its viewers are looking for something that at least resembles the truth – meaning it has to figure out how to manufacture high ratings while keeping its nose fairly clean.
The trouble with the current election cycle is that while Donald Trump represents an endless supply of ratings-friendly scandals, Joe Biden simply isn’t going to generate much news. He’s a broadly popular candidate with high character, and he’s (for now) stuck trying to run his campaign from his basement during a pandemic. Even when Biden tries to put himself out there, he’s just not ratings-friendly.
Cesar Conde faces not only the short term challenge of putting out the fires of the past week and restoring trust with viewers, but also the longer term challenge of getting sufficient ratings out of this election cycle without another debacle like the one that took Lack down. MSNBC viewers have made clear that while they’re not looking for the network to be a cheerleader for Democrats, they’re not going to tolerate it when MSNBC hosts promote phony scandals about Democrats just to try to bait them into staying tuned in.
As for specifics, that’ll be up to Conde. For instance, while Chris Hayes’ overall ratings have long been fairly anemic for a primetime slot, he’s served as the network’s primary conduit to the “Bernie or Bust” crowd, and thus somewhat shielded the network from being criticized by that crowd. Now that Bernie Sanders is working with the establishment instead of against it, does the increasingly radioactive Hayes still serve a purpose for the network?
There’s also the question of Chuck Todd. His 5pm weekday ratings are terrible, and he probably would have been canceled by now if not for the fact that he holds the powerful title of Political Director for NBC News. But will Todd have the same favor with Conde that he appeared to have with Lack? There are numerous MSNBC hosts, currently stuck in throwaway time slots, who could do a better job (and likely deliver better ratings) than Hayes and Todd are currently getting. There’s also the never-ending buzz about Shep Smith joining MSNBC. In addition, Chris Matthews still hasn’t been officially replaced, with Steve Kornacki still filling in on what appears to be an interim basis.
In any case, because NBC News is going so far out of its way to give the appearance that Andy Lack’s sudden ouster has nothing to do with the fallout from the phony Biden scandal, any controversial move such as ousting Chris Hayes could be delayed until the smoke clears. For now, look for any subtle change in the overall narrative coming from various MSNBC hosts, as some of them begin shifting their on-air narratives toward what they expect Conde wants from them.
