Why MSNBC is still not a reliable "player" when it comes to news

[Bluebear]

Here Hurricane Dean is 77 miles from Jamaica as a cat. 4 hurricane, Oklahoma is underwater, and MSNBC is showing yet another weekend rerun of "Dark heart, Iron Hand!"

It's a shame they don't have the budget/will/audience to staff a reliable news desk. The best you can hope for at times like this is for some "on the half hour" update in the middle of a To Catch a Predator rerun :(

[annabanana]

1. They don't "do" news on the weekend.

It's all this kind of stuff.. Low rent 48 hours things..

[TwilightGardener]

7. Pedophiles, prison and crime shows. I can't change the channel fast enough after Keith.

[Vinca]

2. You're exactly right. I remember when North Korea was launching

missiles and there were fears of a nuke. What was MSNBC doing? Airing one of their insipid "celebrity" exposes. It's very puzzling.

[monmouth]

3. Why don't they hire an "up and comer" with some talent who knows

how to write and deliver the REAL news? Work weekends, I'm sure a newbie there would be thrilled for the opportunity. MSNBC won't go on again for me until 8:00 p.m. What a waste.

[uppityperson]

4. Are they covering Sepat? Did they when it was at sea?

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

5. They'll probably go live if/when Dean hits the US

Even so, MSNBC has not a speck more credibility than any of the other cable newsers. Outside of Countdown (and not even all of Countdown at that) they're just as insipid as the rest.

Case in point, this morning Alex Witt - who seems to channel all her thought and energy into making the two strands of hair on either side of her face almost meet under her chin - was asking some flak, in her best impersonation of a dimwitted consumer, why milk prices were rising. Now there's a big story.

The answer was, as usual, ethanol. Ethanol has been flogged as the answer so heavily that I no longer believe the answer is ethanol. The real issue is loosening restrictions on imports of fluid milk, which in light of current problems with China puts me in mind of the Simpsons episode where Fat Tony is caught milking rats to supply the school cafeteria.

But MSNBC is noticeably quiet about problems with Chinese imports. Not even Countdown has covered the story, to my recollection. NBC's coverage of the 2008 Olympics has made the topic verboten.

Hurricanes. Ethanol. Malk. Olympics. Cable news - feh.

[Berry Cool]

10. Your recollection about Countdown not covering the Chinese imports is incorrect.

They just did a story on the toys this past week, and they did the pet food story when that was big too.

The conclusion that "NBC's coverage of the 2008 Olympics has made the topic verboten" is simply not true, because the premise on which it is based is not true.

I'm not saying I love MSNBC weekend programming either. But the idea that the whole network isn't covering the Chinese imports story because it is covering the Beijing Olympics is just not the case.

[spanone]

6. i tuned into cnn 'headline news' today....it's like a murdoch rag....all style no substance

but the girls are pretty.

[Bluebear]

8. Headline news is where I used to turn first for breaking news.

Now it's a melange of Glenn Beck, spokesmodels and entertainment news.

[stirlingsliver]

9. For Some Time, News Has Equaled

For some time now, "news" has been equated with "entertainment".

Sad, but true.