I don’t understand why people don’t understand that this was a demographics decision.

Yes MSNBC has gone left ideologically, but they’ve also skewed toward a younger demographic with their new shows.

It fits with the general demographics of their new owners over at Comcast.

Who IS this “InsiderCableNews” tool? 

MSNBC is a lot of things, but one of them is definitely not “hard left”. You want “hard left”? Go to the online War & Peace Report. Go to Narco News. Go to Chris Floyd’s place, Empire Burlesque:

http://www.chris-floyd.com/ 

This person hiding behind the “InsiderCableNews” avatar is no reporter, or at least certainly not acting like one, but instead as a winger tool, a propagandist.

This supposedly ‘controversial’ statement from Morning Goe on behalf of the hosts thereof isn’t controversial in the least & wouldn’t have to be checked off on as a courtesy. So this ICN tool is also a liar. 

All sorts of MSNBC hosts have gone after GE in the past for GE’s war profiteering, & now they go after the new Comcast co-masters. I’ve heard it from Maddow, from Schultz, from Ratigan, from O’Donnell, from regulars on Morning Goe, and we used to hear the same sort of thing all the time from Olbermann before he left & also from Cenky Uygur during his time as a MSNBC talking head. And this is not unusual among centrist moderate talking heads, & is not any sort of an indicator of having ‘gone far left”. I’ve heard David Letterman go after whatever network he’s on, tho never the sponsors. Anyone who watches Colbert knows he’s relentless in going after Sumner Redstone, owner of the comedy channel. 

I think Mediaite could do with a policy requiring reporters to keep up with basis political realities, & that the first remedial learning student should be ICN.

No one should feel sorry for Buchanan… he will survive!!

Pat Buchanan’s Departure From MSNBC: A Case Of Not Wanting To Rock The Liberal Boat?

Gee – ya think?

He had a 10 year run, not sure he should complain that much.

MSBNC also fired Phil Donahue, so what was that a case of?

This wasn’t a slam dunk either way, but I do wish they would have erred on the side of more speech versus fear of being accused of promoting his views.

I’ll miss (although he’ll show up somewhere) his mostly jovial always thought provoking perspective; Pat well-represented a strong differing viewpoint, as opposed to the milquetoast punching bag Democrats Fox parades around as proof that their “fair and balanced” moniker isn’t really a cruel inside joke shared by Rupert and Roger on our democracy.

I haven’t agreed with Pat Buchanan on much the last forty years, but I respected him and will miss him. Neither he nor the ESPN bad headline writer deserve firing in this economy or this atmosphere of intolerance that we simply must get control of before it destroys what shreds of comity remain in America.

who cares? Pat was great when he was on!
BRING PAT BACK, MSNBC

If you sell your soul for ratings gold, what do you have left when you look in the mirror?

Al Sharpton, which seems counter-intuitive.

Pat Buchanan is Exhibit A as to why  journalists, comedians, writers and all other media personalities are just petrified to say or write anything negatively about Obama.  They know what the consequences will be if they do.

PMSNBC fired Donahue on February 25, 2003.  It was once a credible news organization but a lot has changed in 9 years.  They are now the laughing stock whose only viewers are radical extremist liberals.

Absolutely dead on article.

or maybe he’s just a backwards racist who has no place in civilized discourse.

I just don’t believe MSNBC should be able to get away with this & should be boycotted by liberals before conservatives for firing Buchanan… if liberals have a fibre of consistency and integrity in their conscience, that is

I hope ICN isn’t Mark… always enjoyed his work. The blog is horrendous from a visual and design standpoint. Tough to read in all but the WordPress mobile format. Beyond that, it seems poorly imagined from a content perspective… little insight come from the pirated profiles and “free for all” feature. Whats hot? Not what ICN got. Now to this specific article… What exactly does the sentence on markers and interest groups and chasm’s hope to assert? This key sentence is so imperfectly formed as to leave the authors intent almost completely obscured. Bad pick up y’all. ICN needs to step up his/ her game.

An awful lot of people watched Donahue a lot, like every day; he was like the cable TV version of a chat line. And over the period where the Bush administration was gearing up towards invading Iran, Donahue was balls-to-the-walls 100% mobilized [in a daytime talk show sense] against going into Iraq. So the Bushies pulled everything they had to take out one show, one host. Down the line, that meant they gave rise to Olbermann & the rest, but at the time, it must have seemed vital. I think the Bushies were right about this: if they hadn’t gone all out to have Donahue silenced, there’s no way Bush would have been re-elected in 2004 – the Donahue ‘chat line’ would have been too strong & influential. Instead, what we got was the pathetic sight of Tim Russert completing his life goal of selling every last square inch of his integrity in hiring legal counsel to protect him from losing his precious access, and incidentally Scooter Libby for several years. 

You haven’t the first clue of a what a “radical extremist liberal” is, do you? It’s not possible to be a radical liberal , or an extremist liberal; the word liberal is a corrective for that. Anyway, there aren’t any progressives or socialsts at msnbc – well, maybe O’Donnell, but even Maddow even Schultz is mostly just liberal. So at most, there’s a few liberals some of whom have progressive povs but are just not aware of it. 

I have a partial list for what YOU might call a “radical extremist liberal” that I posted above. 

He didn’t complain, He’s done lots of stuff since. He’s a happy camper; he knows he was right; he knows he was wronged; he got the ultimate revenge by living well.

its called presenting the total picture to these “younger” self important spoiled next generations. MSNBC lies by omission. Its all the stuff they dont report.   Oh and the ratings say few watch now.

MSNBC is the hard Left.  Your joking right?  Insane Larry, sloppy Schultz, aloof and off Maddow?  Morning Joes circle jerk of LIBS every morning.

Buchanan is a screechy arrogant man who yells and screams his opinions to all who will not listen. I avoided him whenever I could including when he was on CNN. He is anti-semitic and misogynistic , and please don’t tell me that some of his best friends are Jewish women. If they want conservative opinion, then ask Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, or Kathleen Parker, people who can disagree with taste and civility. It is not a matter of politics, it’s a matter of what listeners prefer.

The ratings beg to differ with your assessment of younger viewers. Percentage wise it’s the old folks channel. check out the primetime numbers.. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/02/22/cable-news-ratings-for-monday-february-20-2012/121207/

1) Bush was directly responsible for getting Donahue off cable
2) Donahue’s show was popular
3) Because of Donahue’s cancellation, Bush was able to win re-election

These are the three funniest things I’ve ever read on this site. You have no facts to back up any of that, and basic logic would tell you you’re wrong.

Way to go, Hout. Hilarious!

I don’t recall Bush invading Iran

Its pretty settled that MSNBC is a hard leftist “news” organization

If by rocking the liberal boat you mean getting rid of an overt racist, then yes, dumping Buchanon was a wise choice. Besides, MSNBC has a rather different, younger target audience then, say, Fox Noise, who’s average aged audience is practically on life support. Pat would be most welcome at the number one racist network in America. Besides, this was obviously a market decision. I thought right-wingers were all about the free market.

Duplicate

What the hell are you talking about?

I’d go with that.

That was really funny!

If Fox’s audience was really all on life-support, they wouldn’t win the 25-54 demographic every day. That demo is what advertisers are looking for. Their overall age of viewers is higher, but that in no way takes away from the younger viewers that do watch Fox. Im only 30 and I watch some of their programming. Is 30 that close to death?

We Conservatives are all about the free market. We agree that MSNBC can fire or hire anyone they please. We just disagreed with the reasoning for firing Pat. It is ultimately their decision, but we highly disagree with leftists and how they want to silence opinions they don’t like. You may find his comments racist and some of them very well might be, but Joe is right in that you should have a discussion on this instead of sending them off on the cable news leper colony. Perhaps we can learn something from each other. We will never get anywhere on race relations as long as the leftists want to just silence everyone that doesn’t buy into their way of thinking.

The fact that you watch Fox News at all speaks volumes. Their target audience is the most ill-informed out of all the major news networks.

I personally don’t watch any of them because their idea of an open conversation on anything, including racism, is purely sensationalistic and designed to throw out whatever red meat is necessary on order to sell ad time. Their contribution to the political discourse is the most toxic it has ever been. Jon Stewart drove that point home on CNN’s Crossfire, which saw it’s died in the wool program disappear after many years being on the air.

MSNBC=the pretend cable network.

Unlike some people, Im not opposed to watching programs I ideologically disagree with. How could I ever truly know if I disagree or agree with someone if I don’t even have the stones to watch them and listen to them? Liberals amaze me when they say that Fox spews so much hatred or racism or all the other “ism’s” in the world but when asked if they actually watch, they say no. Where are you getting your information on what they are saying then? Media Matters? HuffPo? Politico? Mediaite? 

If you are, then you’re using biased sites that are already out to get Fox. I’d rather just watch the program I disagree with so I can at least get my own context of what they say, instead of someone elses bias. You can listen to what MMfA says, but I encourage you to do your own research on what Fox says instead of letting places like MMfA spoon feed you what they think you should know about Fox and others.

 ”Programs?”

Man, truth IS always stranger than fiction.

Fox News DOES spew hatred and racism, ALL the time.  And you watch 30% of it.

I’ve done plenty of research on Fox Noise.  If you really want a laundry list of their falsehoods, I’m totally happy to oblige.  And I have all the references I need.  Tbe real point here are the FACTS, a concept which Fox Noise is the worst at adhering to.

Here’s a stunning example, and it’s from none other then your Satan in residence, Media Matters:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201202210011

Seriously, look at these two charts, and then tell me that Fox Noise is fair and balanced in discussing the rise and fall of gas prices, let alone the OBVIOUS fact that SPECULATORS are the ones driving these prices up.

Again, the fact that you even watch Fox Noise “30% of your time speaks volumes.  I don’t think we need to continue this discussion.

I would find myself scanning MSNBC during the Chris Matthews show hoping to catch Pat and Chris go at it.  I’ve stopped that practice.  I don’t ever put on MSNBC anymore.  There is nothing for me there.

Blacklisting is not something I support.

Where are you getting your 30% number at? I said i’m 30, as in 30 years old. I also referred to programs as shows I disagree with, not Fox. Libs need to learn to read better.

Where did I say anything about fair and balanced? What part did I say they absolutely were fair and balanced? I didn’t. I only said I watched “some” of their programming. I don’t even watch after 8pm. Did you even read what I wrote before you got all jacked up on stupid and decided to go on a rant?

You sound so saturated with hate toward anyone that doesn’t agree with your leftwing ideology that you can’t even keep an open mind to the other side. I realize that the rise in gas prices isn’t directly related to Obama, but I also realize he can’t do anything to fix it, no matter what he says. I also know that liberals did nothing but blame Bush for high gas prices and are now huge hypocrites trying to shuffle the blame to someone else instead of the current White House resident. We are only playing the game the way liberals set it up. Dont like it? Then don’t blame Conservatives for every problem that ails you. 

Seriously, if Media Matters is who you look to in your “research” about Fox, then you have already decided what your outcome should be. If I was looking for research on MSNBC, I wouldn’t be looking toward partisans in the Fox Nation message boards. I would look toward someone more non-partisan and in the case of MMFA, an org with less douchebags.

I didn’t know it was possible for MSLSD to go further left. I guess they had to catch up with their real boss and current President of the United States. Which is one step away from Marxism. If BO could truly have his way there would be no opposing news media.  Joe better start looking for another job now before he has to. I know Joe is a Progressive and a self called moderate Republican but that not left enough for this network. So he better know he is expendable. 

(You know MSLSD is the poster child of why the right calls most the media in this country the state run media)

” Buchanan is a screechy arrogant man who yells and screams his opinions to all who will not listen.” 

As apposed to Ed Schultz?  The only way Ed wins any argument is by shouting over any one he disagrees with. He even shouts when he’s not even talking directly to someone. The crap he has pulled at MSLSD would have gotten any conservative fire there many times over. Heck, he once threatened to burn the place down. But hey, he does crack me up. Arrogant? Ed has not equal!

 The Left’s definition of a racist is anyone who disagrees with them. Or maybe more accurate anyone who disagrees with Obama. Heck, his stormtroopers even called Hillary racist. The Left throws it out so much it’s much like the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf. No body listens any more unless you are on the Left. The Left has this credo.. If you are losing the argument cry racism.

 Pat is a white nationalist/supremacist. 

He often put his racist/racial views on the backburner and was able to make sense in other political issues and perspectives.

It’s good that MSNBC got rid of him.  Similar to what Oeno says the white nationalist/supremacist views don’t mesh with MSNBC’s liberal bent.  Pat’s views don’t really mesh with Fox’s conservative/Republican bent either.  They don’t need someone else to make them look racist.  CNN doesn’t want to mess up their image either.  The only place Pat can go is on Beck’s radio program.  There’s no place left for him. 

OH NOS! One less old, white, racist, bigot, right wing blow hard on cable tv! The world will surely end!