Matthews, Maddow, Schultz, Olbermann Lead MSNBC's Decline

THE PARTY'S OVER

Mainstream Media Finally Notice MSNBC's Sagging Ratings







After close to a year of fawning praise driven by relative ratings "success" and election year hype, the mainstream media has suddenly noticed MSNBC's rapid audience erosion. With the seeming flick of a switch, the far-left cable network's once-puffy press coverage has made a 180-degree turn.

Between today's Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune, our MSM friends are not afraid to label evening host Rachel Maddow yesterday's news, for example.

But much of the rest of their coverage gives NBC suits every opportunity to make the case for the fading cable network's future. Since Maddow's views (often derived from astonishing ignorance) match those of the reporters covering her, how could it be any other way?

From the Chicago Tribune:

"I think Rachel is a rock star," said Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC, where the show airs weekdays at 9 p.m. Eastern. "We've never had success anywhere near that in our 12-year history at 9 p.m. right out of the gate. From Day One, she established herself."

And even though Maddow's ratings slipped last month, she still beat out CNN's "Larry King Live," a consistent cable news heavyweight, among the 25- to 54-year-old demographic. But she's still a good distance from Fox News' "Hannity's America," which continues to dominate the time slot.

The shift in her ratings fortune hasn't changed her attitude toward the show, said Maddow. And, despite her political similarities with the new president, there is a president to hold to account. She's already gone after Obama on issues such as wiretapping and torture.

"She has not at all been afraid to be critical of Obama when she disagrees with him," said Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communications. "It's a place for people to tune in and hear intelligent conversation about differences of opinion."

A former AIDS activist and Rhodes scholar, Maddow's journey to becoming MSNBC's ratings darling began on a whim, when she auditioned for a job as a morning radio sidekick in Massachusetts. By 2004, she had made it onto Air America, a liberal talk radio network.

The platform brought her to the attention of a cable news producer. She eventually became a frequent substitute host for "Countdown with Keith Olbermann"—a stint that would lead to a show touting her own name in the title.

Seven months since the show's launch, Maddow said she has yet to "find her groove" in television hosting. But her bosses are confident she'll find it.

"She's still in infancy of knowing this medium," Griffin said. "The show will evolve as she continues … but, honestly, I can't believe where we are right now. I can only imagine where we'll be a year from now."

Who in their right mind could call Larry King "a heavyweight"? His time passed years ago and beating him means little.

As for Phil Griffin, he's made the same mistake that kept Air America from building strong ratings: allowing one's personal feelings and political viewpoints to interfere with good programming judgment.


At the Baltimore Sun, television critic David Zurawik isn't quite so accommodating:

MSNBC show host Rachel Maddow has suffered some steep audience erosion in recent months, down more than 40 percent in viewership from her peak last fall during the election.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Maddow's audience has gone from a high of 1.9 million viewers in the fall to just over 1.1 million in March. That's a big drop.

Readers of this blog know I am just as troubled by Maddow's brand of ideologically driven partisan propaganda as I am by that of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity on Fox. Maddow was at her worst last week, falsely minimizing the tea parties held across the country as "the fizzle in the drizzle" and mocking the participants.

Nine months ago, this site wondered whether Maddow's relentlessly-fluffy press coverage (particularly from the New York Times) would ultimately damage her career. While that certainly didn't help, it now seems more likely she simply rode the Obamist wave in 2008, only to come crashing down to earth as the euphoria subsided.

Maddow herself doesn't offer much of a defense, except to play dumb and pretend they don't follow the ratings, nearly impossible to believe in the cutthroat world of cable news.


But why stop with Maddow? Where are the stories noting the disastrous start to fellow libtalker Ed Schultz's program, or the embarrassingly-low audience figures for Chris Matthews? Mr Leg Thrill had just 117,000 average viewers in the key 25-54 demo during Tuesday's show.

Meanwhile, even some of parent company GE's shareholders are wondering what is going on, calling particular attention to Keith Olbermann's ridiculously soft interviewing style and the network's overall bias.


Ultimately, what has caused MSNBC's downfall is its cozy relationship with the Obamists. A smarter strategy for a liberal network would have been to chart an independent, nonpartisan course where hosts are not afraid to hold Barack's feet to the fire.

For her part, Maddow has occasionally dropped hints that she'd like to like to follow this path, but it's not clear the network will allow that kind of independence.

During George W Bush's second term, this approach was taken by conservative talk hosts and kept the medium from sinking along with his poll numbers. That divide became especially apparent when Bush pushed amnesty for illegal aliens, which talkers and their audience adamantly oppose.

Clearly, NBC and GE have placed protecting Obama's reputation ahead of its own best interests. But the price for that posturing could be steep, especially as MSNBC's ratings continue to sink.



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