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Inside Up With Chris Hayes: The Best (And Worst) Part Of Waking Up Weekends

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by Tommy Christopher | 12:53 pm, December 12th, 2011

» 28 comments

Another key to the show’s success is the chemistry between Hayes and his diverse rotation of panelists, who span the ideological spectrum, but can be tough to pigeonhole because they’re speaking more as individuals. I asked him if he gets guff from fellow liberals for “playing nice” with conservatives.

“We get some guff for conservatives being on the show sometimes,” Hayes says, “less, I think, the principle, and more for what they say, which is totally fair and legitimate. When I see conservatives on TV who say things I don’t agree with, I get angry and respond.”

He explained that the show tries to navigate between the two poles of “principle-less fake centrism, he said/she said ‘objectivity’ in which you exercise no judgment over the veracity of claims,” and “epistemic closure” in which “everything is strictly viewed through a narrow ideological lens,” by having a point of view that Hayes represents and articulates, which becomes the springboard for dialogue.

“People know where I stand, but where I stand is not the sum total of what we’re presenting on the show,” Hayes says. “So we’re trying to negotiate those two extremes. It’s hard, where that line is.”

He explains that sometimes, conservatives will say things on the show that aren’t true, but “if you respond to every little thing, then you stop the train of the conversation.”

One of the “trickier things” about conservatives on the show, Hayes says, is that even though it’s understood he doesn’t agree with them, “in a way, we’re vouching for them, so there is a certain standard” that he says is tough to articulate. “I think it has to do with where they are on the good faith/hackish spectrum.”

All appearances aside, Up is by no means a part-time job. Although it only airs on weekends, the Up staff starts working on each show Wednesday mornings, “even though the show is spontaneous and improvisational,” Hayes explains, “you have to be prepped and read in on” every direction that a topic can take. “We try not to overproduce too early, because you end up spinning your wheels and throwing a lot away, because things happen.”

“Thursday and Friday are pretty long days,” he says, “and on Saturday, I get up around 4:30, I’m in around 5:15. The script is pretty established by then. We stick around Saturday afternoon, prepping Sunday, and sometimes there’s something like a GOP debate Saturday night, and we have to get in early on Sunday.”

Unless he’s got some grind of an interview to do, Hayes normally leaves after a brief post-show meeting with his staff and Executive Producer Jonathan Larsen on Sundays. In observing Hayes’ and Larsen’s interactions with their staff during this week’s post-show meeting, I was struck by the way they all spoke about the show. They didn’t talk about it like a product, like a pack of Twinkies they’re moving to faceless consumers, but rather, like a meal they cooked for friends and guests. It reminded me of the refrain I heard from Phil Griffin, and other MSNBC staff, that Hayes loves what he’s doing, and it shows. The same appears to be true for the rest of the show’s staff.

There’s a lot more to come from my interview with Chris Hayes, but here’s a section in which we discuss the media and where he gets his news, and I ask him the tough questions that have famously tripped up some famous conservatives:

Pages: 1 2

chris hayes, Frances Martel, Inside Up With Chris Hayes, Jonathan Larsen, Phil Griffin, Rachel Maddow, The Nation, Up with Chris Hayes

http://gregingleright.weebly.com/ Greg

A very smart addition in a few ways…much needed.
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

Chris Hayes’ show is so much better than the incoherent drivel on ‘Fox & Friends Weekends’… Hayes actually covers important issues viewers want to see!!
http://twitter.com/aipfan aipfan

Enjoy the show the 2 times I’ve caught it, especially the one with Gary Johnson. Hayes just needs to be careful not to book shows with all left-leaning guests — roundtable political discussion gets really boring when there are little substantive disagreements to exploit.
Moderate

“The show combines the fun, accessibility, and sleep-interrupting qualities of a Saturday morning cartoon with the smarts and savvy of a crackling wonk dinner party”

Damn, how much are they paying you to write such drivel?
Anonymous

Sure!
That, I suppose, is why Fox & Friends Weekends beat this little Maddow look a like about 4 to 1!
BTW you can put 154,000 viewers in some of the major football stadiums around
the country! When you people going to accept that Fox beats MSNBC every hour every day
365 days a year. Live with it!
Anonymous

Two comments.

Is it just me, or is Chris Hayes look like a feminine version of Rachel maddow?

When will they start fact checking him and his panel. I watch it frequently and there seems to be a lot of truth stretching, even for MSANBC standards.
Anonymous

I’ll give it a watch. I have been very disappointed AMESSNBC over the last year – I detest FOX news for the lies and bias that permeates their network. As a long-time liberal – I have been disappointed with the increasingly slanted view AMESSNBC has been incorporating in their broadcasts – like they decided to start competing with FOX in the bias arena. I am now pretty much down to the Daily Show, CBS Evening News and Farid Zakaria’s GPS for watchable TV. But, I’ll give it a try.

http://www.wordsofwhizdumb.com

ps – I agree with Detroit (above) – the first time I saw Chris my immediate thought was he was a slam dunk male twin of Rachel’s
Anonymous

I’ll give it a watch. I have been very disappointed AMESSNBC over the last year – I detest FOX news for the lies and bias that permeates their network. As a long-time liberal – I have been disappointed with the increasingly slanted view AMESSNBC has been incorporating in their broadcasts – like they decided to start competing with FOX in the bias arena. I am now pretty much down to the Daily Show, CBS Evening News and Farid Zakaria’s GPS for watchable TV. But, I’ll give it a try.

http://www.wordsofwhizdumb.com

ps – I agree with Detroit (above) – the first time I saw Chris my immediate thought was he was a slam dunk male twin of Rachel’s
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

First, when you have every single hillbilly watching Fox News, sure the ratings are going to be high!!

Though, that doesn’t seem to apply to Chris Wallace’s Sunday show… has the lowest ratings of any Sunday morning news program for years!!

Also, the Fox Business Network has been a total failure from the start… it’s so bad that Neil Cavuto has to beg for people to “demand it”, just to try to bring their ratings above ‘The Magic of Oil Painting”… Lol!!
Anonymous

“Up” is by far one of the worst shows on cable news, making Fox & Friends look almost good. Chris Hayes is another one so full of himself that he needs no guests just a mirror.
http://twitter.com/susani56 Susan

I tried watching his show, couldn’t understand a word he was trying to say. he is like a child that is prancing up and down about ready to explode with some tattle on someone.
and eldave1: getting your news from the Daily Show is hysterical. you know it’s not real news, right?!?!? most uniformed don’t! and i’m supposed to assume that Farid & CBS aren’t biased, what a laugh!
Anonymous

My comments were pulled because I thought Chris looks like a feminine version of Rachel Maddow? I must of really hit a nerve.
Anonymous

Slobber much Tommy? Sheesh! Get a room.
Anonymous

Yeah, all 5 viewers.
http://hotair.com/ StewartIII

J$P: Tommy Christopher gushes over ‘diverse’ Up with Hayes.
Anonymous

It’s called
Bigotry,
Dude
Anonymous

Glad to read that you gave the show a try.

Next: try an remedial English class!
Anonymous

Sounds like they’re the mainstream media then, eh?

And lemme guess, McDonalds makes the best hamburgers and Bieber is the greatest singer. Since you’re going by “popularity” and all

LOL
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DFXME6LBAYMFS4IECA6GZIZ52Y Goldy Puppy

Hahahah! Waking progressives up to appear on his show so the 75 people that watch his show have someone to listen to on MSNBC! How rich is that!
Anonymous

This guy doesn’t have diverse people on. He doesn’t like PBO so he gets Obama bashers on to bash Obam a for 2 hours.
shonangreg

msnbc is terrible at publicizing its shortcut links. Rachel Maddow’s show can be accessed at rachel.msnbc.com, for instance, but good luck finding that easily-to-remember link anywhere on msnbc.

Googling “Up With Chris Hayes” gives: upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com. A bit long, but I found this much better one: up.msnbc.com It does work.

Why don’t those boneheads keep this simple?
Anonymous

Moonenuts, that would be:

“Try a remedial English class!”

“Remedial does not have a vowel sound, so you should not use “an” in front of the word “remedial.”

Maybe you should try a remedial English class?
Anonymous

Liked the mediaite interview. Agreed with Hayes that the Department of Homeland security should go away.
Anonymous

Your use of a quotation mark at “Remedial does not… is incorrect as there is not a closed quotation mark around the word remedial.

Should be “Remedial” does not have a….

Instead of being pompous and correcting grammar on comment boards… Wait for it….

Maybe you should try a remedial English class?
Anonymous

It appears you have done the same thing. Your quote of my quote is also incorrect, in that you state, “Remedial does not… (missing a close quote quotation mark at the end of your quote of my original quote).

Also, your “Wait” should not be capitalized as you do not have an ellipsis with an end mark (….) (four periods) to indicate the end of a sentence that proceeds the “Wait for it.” So, it should be part of the sentence before it. (Your final puncuation at the end of “Wait for it….” does contain the ellipsis and an end mark.)

I guess we can both use a refresher course, so I’ll see you in class. I’ll save you a seat!

“Pompous to pompous!”
Anonymous

the best thing that happen to MSNBC along with Morning Joe
easthkorn

Chris Hayes is a tool. Pseudo Intellectual drivel. He just sat and talked about how they should end the war on drugs and then proceeded to say that everyone running for president is PRO drug war, when actually he is forgetting DR. RON PAUL, who MSNBS is trying to black out because he is a threat to their globalist/socialist agenda.
Anonymous

After watching today’s show, my question is: ” Why have guests if you’re going to spend so much time talking about your own clever thoughts?” It might be instructive for Mr. Hayes to compare the number of minutes each guest spoke with the number of minutes he spoke. And Chris, please slooooooooow down.

Inside Up With Chris Hayes: The Best (And Worst) Part Of Waking Up Weekends

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