New Republic: Phil Griffin Wanted MSNBC to Be Conservative after 9/11 and Mocked Olbermann

[NOVA_Dem]

I don't trust Griffin's instincts since he "lucked" into the channel he runs now. Can you trust his programming decisions when he doesn't appear to be a progressive at all?

That changed after 9/11, when the news networks, cowed by Fox’s success and unsure of how to respond to tragedy, competed to see who could be the most patriotic. MSNBC started calling itself “America’s NewsChannel” and hired opinionated hosts like Alan Keyes, Phil Donahue, and Pat Buchanan. “Then we thought, ‘Well, maybe we should be conservative,’ ” Griffin remembers. It didn’t work. In the first year of MSNBC’s right-wing experiment, ratings fell 23 percent. In 2003, NBC was considering pulling the plug altogether.

and Tucker Carlson "discovered" Rachel Maddow

This is how MSNBC as we know it developed: haphazardly, and often over Griffin’s initial skepticism. In 2005, Tucker Carlson’s team brought Rachel Maddow into the network based on a tape her agent sent them. Maddow wasn’t Griffin’s style—she didn’t look like a Fox blonde—but Carlson insisted that she stay on, and Maddow quickly proved herself to be erudite and winning on-air. When she was hired as a regular contributor, MSNBC gave her the keys to Connie Chung’s old dressing room, an enthusiastic makeup artist, and a closet full of high-end clothing. Hint hint.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112733/roger-ailes-msnbc-how-phil-griffin-created-lefts-fox-news
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/new-report-on-msnbc-reveals-tucker-carlson-brought-in-maddow-pres-phil-griffin-mocked-olbermann-joked-he-was-a-virgin/

[alsame]

1. His plans for the future:

“It’s a mistake for us to limit ourselves to news,” he says. He wants to build something he calls “the MSNBC lifestyle,” and so he’s spending a lot of time figuring out what works for Bravo and USA, two hugely lucrative cable properties also owned by Comcast. “We may find that they can teach us more about how to find our audience than CNN or NBC News can,” he says.

He sees MSNBC covering fashion, entertainment, sports, and food, and he imagines an audience coming to his anchors not just for their takes on the immigration bill, but also for their restaurant recommendations or their thoughts on a summerblockbuster. “I’m giving Chris Matthews a [digital] channel to talk about movies and good television shows like ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Homeland,’ ” he says.

WTF?? Gee, I can't wait for the Real Housewives of MSNBC.

[NOVA_Dem]

3. Nene Leakes will be following Big Ed on Weekends!

Can you believe he tried to get a job at Fox News in 2003?

I don't know if he's very good at his job. It seems that MSNBC has achieved its success in spite of his best judgement. He want's to run a channel like ABC or CBS and eventually will try to shoehorn MSNBC into that mold.

[alsame]

8. Yes, it sounds like he doesn't want to

do much news.

WTH is the "MSNBC lifestyle"? There are plenty of cable "lifestyle" channels, he should go work there.

I think he's misunderstanding his audience if he thinks we want restaurant recommendations and movie reviews

[monmouth3]

12. By Chris Matthews?????? I hope Chris tells him where to go, that's insane...n/t

[StrayKat]

13. This is a surprise?

Matthews already won't shut up about movies on his current show-- Silver Lining's Playbook, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty. They've been showing clips of him saying he loves movies and makes sure to catch them all.

Really bad move though. There are already lifestyle channels ad nauseum. Even lifestyle and media queen Oprah has had trouble with an already super saturated market.

[Raine]

19. No, Matthews has given movie reviews within the last few weeks

on two or three of his Friday shows. I was wondering what the hell was up with that, now I know!

[KoKo]

2. amazing...Can't imagine Tucker Carlson supporting Rachel Maddow..

[NOVA_Dem]

5. Maybe he got a referral bonus? n/t

[alsame]

9. If I recall correctly, she was the

'leftie' guest that he used to argue with on his MSNBC show. I could never tolerate him at all, so I only watched him a few times, but I seem to remember her as the token liberal. I think she was at Air America at the time.

ETA: I found an article about it

http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/tv/reviews/12171/

Rooting for Lefty
The Situation’s Rachel Maddow outshines host Tucker Carlson, finally giving liberals a feisty voice.

No, the reason to watch this Situation is the program’s decision to have Air America radio host Rachel Maddow represent the left. Maddow, unlike Crossfire’s toothless hacks Paul Begala and James Carville, actually articulates leftist, progressive, sometimes even radical ideas. This immediately distinguishes her from everyone else on television since Abbie Hoffman circa The Dick Cavett Show. In her initial appearances, Maddow has made quick, cogent cases against John Bolton’s U.N. nomination and the No Child Left Behind initiative; when Carlson suggested that Guantánamo Bay detainees had it pretty cushy because there was now a dentist on the premises, she scoffed fiercely, “Well, when you hold people in captivity for life, you occasionally have to extract their teeth.”

[KoKo]

10. Ahhh...then it was a business decision. Tucker thought she'd improve

ratings for his show so her argued for her to be hired. Tuckers now gone and Rachel is doing very well with her own show. (didn't work out so well for him, after all)

Thanks for the info on that. When I read the article...it just didn't make sense. I never watched Carlson's show...but remember Rachel on Air America and that's why I didn't get the Tucker/Maddow connection from the article.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

11. There's actually some truth to that

Rachel was on Tucker's show before she was on with Keith.

I remember she even brought Tucker on to Al Franken's show when she guest-hosted for him on AAR during the week of Hurrican Katrina.

[sadbear]

4. I listened to Rachel on XM (Air America, I think) long before she got onto MSNBC.

She was destined for television. And she's so good at what she does, she would have turned any network (maybe even fox news) liberal.

[geek tragedy]

6. We owe Rachel Maddow to . . . Tucker Carlson?

I feel compromised.

[Jamaal510]

7. American news media are really going down the crapper.

[Auntie Bush]

14. People watch MSNBC because the LIKE news!

If I didn't I'd watch one of hundred other possibilities. I also like news because I can put it on for the day and night and still do other things. That's why I don't like movies...have to keep paying attention or you lose the story. I like a lot of different stories that I can listen to or not without losing the quality of the story I chose to listen to. I'm not so sure that makes sense...but in a nutshell...I watch it because I don't have to watch it all the time to understand what's going on. Of course I'm also passionate about the news and care what's happening to our country.

[Rex]

15. Everything Changed After 9/11(TM)

The country decided to go to hell in a handbasket and the M$M asked if they could decorate the basket for us. For a huge fee, of course.

[NOVA_Dem]

17. I knew things were going to be bad.

I made a comment in my graduate school class regarding how we as Americans were likely to toss away many of our freedoms after this event.

[Rex]

22. We all talked about it a lot in college.

One reason the GOP hates higher education. They want to do away with all critical thinking skills. History would no longer be relevant.

[olddots]

16. At this stage of the game its 400 channels begging for ad dollars

I think advertisers can only buy blocks of time and seem to have little say in where and when the ads get shown .Not much is sponsored anymore because the country is divided like never before.
Will MSNBC be liberal friendly two years from now ? Fox News because of it's deep pockets could last till the sun burns out while everything else will become an endless infomercial for wonder bras and Viagra .

[NOVA_Dem]

18. Griffin cares about eyeballs and revenue, that's it.

If it wasn't for Keith we probably wouldn't have a station at all.

[Raine]

20. What we need is MORE news, not less! I wish that MSNBC would have a regular

news segment for a half hour or an hour.

[NOVA_Dem]

21. They should take away 1 hour from Matthews. n/t