Concha: MSNBC Made Wrong Decision to Preempt Mandela Coverage for Taped Obama Interview

MSNBC ran into quite a conundrum on Thursday night, and couldn’t have handled it any worse. Chris Matthews finally got an interview with the president, a conversation he has coveted for five years, but Nelson Mandela passed away at the age of 95 that same day.

So here was the problem the network faced: Matthews conducted said interview at 2:00 p.m. ET. The time is important, because, nearly three hours later, Mr. Mandela — easily one of the most iconic and inspirational figures of any lifetime — died peacefully at his home in Johannesburg. A huge story that was covered extensively by CNN, Fox News and MSNBC at 6:00 p.m. leading up to the Matthews conversation with the president.

But in what can be generously be called poor editorial judgment during its 7:00 p.m. hour (a timeslot across the three cable news networks that will be the sole focus of this column), MSNBC decided to go ahead with the Matthews taped (a key aspect) interview at 7:02 p.m. The first two minutes of Hardball—yes, two whole minutes—was a quick reflection by the host on Mandela’s impact. But before you could blink, there was Matthews and Mr. Obama, together on stage at American University, before an adoring student audience.

Meanwhile, on CNN and Fox, the entire 7:00 p.m. hour of OutFront with Erin Burnett (Jake Tapper filling in) and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, respectively, dedicated the full hour to Madiba.

So what’s so bad about going ahead with the interview instead of sticking with continuing coverage of Mandela?

Think about this scenario: Let’s say you were about to leave work when you get word Mandela had passed. You go through your usual long commute, and you get home before 7:00 p.m. You turn on CNN and see the live reports from Johannesburg. You flip to Fox and see a live interview with Jesse Jackson.

You then go over to MSNBC at the top of the hour—which you figure is completely all over this story—and you hear the president talking about the ease of healthcare.gov (without one follow-up question when one was begging to be asked), the life of John F. Kennedy, the role of government, the role of the media, Republicans disenfranchising voters and destroying democracy, etc.

And you keep waiting for the president to share his perspective on what Mandela meant to him, because no one in the MSNBC control room thought it would be a good idea to place a “taped earlier” disclaimer at the top of the screen.

But that comment never came, and that’s obviously no fault of Mr. Obama. Remember, the interview was taped before the Mandela news broke, it therefore didn’t allow any Mandela questions to be asked and answered. The backdrop of Mandela’s death only makes the interview — which has no ability to broach the topic — awkward to watch. This was a generic interview about a range of friendly topics.

Instead of celebrating the life of Mandela during the 7 p.m. primetime hour, with help from MSNBC’s numerous black voices, viewers were treated to an uninspiring, un-Hardball-like offering for nearly 45 minutes. And even after the conversation with the president ended, the network made the are-you-kidding-me decision to do 15 minutes of reaction to the interview from contributors Howard Fineman, Joy Reid and David Corn. Going to live Mandela coverage there would have been the smarter play, in an effort to save face.

One more incomprehensible moment: Out of the two commercial breaks during the program, MSNBC could have at least had someone at a breaking news desk do a live cut-in on Mandela (3-4 minutes), particularly to pre-empt the panel discussion, which could have always been edited down to accommodate the time used for said cut-in.

Instead, MSNBC decided to throw the tape in the machine at 7:02 p.m., put the channel on cruise control, and go out for a bite to eat. But that interview really could have waited until Friday, or even Monday, when audiences tend to be higher.

Covering Mandela — as the network did heavily from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and again from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. (Hayes, Maddow, O’Donnell) — was the only way to go.

But MSNBC chief Phil Griffin said earlier this year his network wasn’t the place for breaking news.

Turns out he wasn’t kidding.

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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.