Melber in tough spot. Playbook on the spot. Plus: Milley-Nilly. | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room

One MSNBC host has been steadily delivering from his difficult timeslot for a long time, and that’s no small thing, says Mediaite’s Colby Hall, who explains the ins and outs of today’s media win:

Cable news programming is difficult. In some cases, it’s very difficult, especially in those awkward parts of a daily sked. Morning shows start the day and collect whatever leftover glory hasn’t been gobbled up by prime time hosts. And daytime anchors are charged with mostly “advancing the runners,” to use a baseball metaphor.

But that space between traditional 9-5 day part and prime time is sort of a nether-region of programming. The cable news “taint,” if you will.

And while it’s almost impossible to find the right host for those hours, it’s a critical time as it leads into prime time, where ratings can power an entire network. We don’t need to spell out how much easier it is to draw good ratings when the show before you brings in millions of viewers. (Right Bret Baier?)

There are few television hosts who have dared to exist in this sweaty buffer zone of cable news programming, but one has come out smelling like a rose: MSNBC’s Ari Melber, who as of today is the longest-running host of MSNBC’s 6 p.m. hour in network history.

The 6 p.m. hour of MSNBC has had an absolutely wild series of custodians, ranging from Tucker Carlson and Oliver North to Al Sharpton and Ed Shultz.

It has taken an enormous amount of tinkering to land on Melber, who has now clocked 1,007 shows as host of The Beat, surpassing the previous record held by Al Sharpton. Third in the history of MSNBC’s 6 p.m. slot is Mediaite founder Dan Abrams, who hosted The Abrams Report from 2001 to 2006.

A lot could contribute to Melber’s unique longevity, but one thing really stands out in Hall’s analysis: Popularity. Or as they say in the business: it’s the ratings, stupid!

Politico’s newsletter isn’t new to political tempests. Wednesday’s edition featuring leaked texts has met such a reception from some fellow journalists, explains Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher:

Politico Playbook uncritically leaked texts from Stephanie Grisham that they obtained from Trump allies attempting to undermine claims from Grisham’s upcoming book “I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House.”

This is a truly baffling case of who do you root for, because Grisham stood by and cosigned four years of Trump horrors before trying to paint herself in a more favorable light with this book, while Trump and his minions are insurrectionist scum still trading on racism, and Politico is lending them credibility and a platform for craven PR work. They all stink.

That said, Politico gets special attention for lending its credibility to a naked PR campaign that doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny at all. In the most recent edition of Playbook — bylined by Tara Palmeri, Rachael Bade, Ryan Lizza, and Eugene Daniels — the “insider” publication trots out the leaked texts with the subject line “Scoop: Grisham texts cast doubt on book claim.”

The problem is that none of the leaked texts actually contradict Grisham’s (admittedly likely self-serving) claim that then-First Lady Melania Trump “didn’t listen to Grisham when she tried to explain to her that there are small irregularities in all elections but there was no grand conspiracy to unfairly remove Trump from office,” as Politico excerpted it.

Yes, if Grisham had an ounce of decency or patriotism, she would have resigned and told the world what a traitorous fraud she’d just ejected herself from. That’s not the issue.

The issue here is Politico’s failure to live up to their duty as journalists, argues Christopher’s oped. Read the complete analysis here.

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