Phil Griffin: MSNBC ‘Has Never Had an Ideology’
The Daily Beast’s new interview with MSNBC president Phil Griffin occurred before RNC chair Reince Priebus announced his boycott of that network, so unfortunately it does not contain his response to that issue. The article does however contain plenty of interesting tidbits from Griffin, including his insistence that MSNBC “has never had an ideology” like its competitor Fox News does.
Griffin explains, “An ideology is a single thought across all programs. We’ve never had that,” before adding, “Obviously I hire people who fit the sensibility.”
At the same time, Griffin says of Fox News, “I think they do have an ideology, because every Republican who’s in trouble goes on that network to be taken care of… They’re owned by News Corp., which is Rupert Murdoch. Roger Ailes runs it, and he comes out of the Republican Party.” He adds: “That’s fine. They’ve done an incredible job over there. They’ve been very successful. They drive a lot of the conversation.”
Griffin also explains the thought process behind the network’s newest schedule, which includes show from Ronan Farrow and Joy Reid:
“There is a rhyme or reason to this—it’s making the thread clearer from morning to night,” Griffin says, explaining that the latest line-up is organized in three-hour blocks. The first begins with Morning Joe, the bipartisan agenda-setter that airs from 6 to 9 a.m., continuing with a newsy block that runs from 9 to noon (with Hall newly installed at 11 a.m.), running through Mitchell at noon and followed by Farrow and Reid as “a more topical” bridge to an increasingly opinionated afternoon featuring The Cycle, a panel show, and Now With Alex Wagner. “Then you have the big voices of Ed Schultz, Rev [Al Sharpton], and Chris [Matthews],” Griffin continues, “and then the big deeper thinkers of Chris Hayes, Rachel [Maddow], and Lawrence [O’Donnell].”
When The Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove asked Griffin if that means “MSNBC’s day becomes increasingly Commie” as it goes along, he replied, “I prefer not to describe it that way. We get more analytical as the day goes on.”
Read the full interview at TheDailyBeast.com.
[photo via AP]
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