I was going to write a blog today about the latest unconscionable plan Republicans have hatched in their vendetta against President Obama. I gather from the headlines in the local paper that they’re going to sabotage the roll-out of Obamacare to “enrage” the public and win the mid-term elections. But I figured what’s new about that? You and I know Republicans would stop at nothing, not even endangering the health and welfare of their fellow-citizens, to poke Obama in the eye. They hate the guy.
Sandra thinks it’s simply because he’s black, and I agree there’s some truth to that. But there’s more to it than racism. They hate him for beating them up in the past two elections. They hate him because he is – unlike so many Republicans – NOT a crook. If there’s one thing scoundrels can’t stand it’s a goody two-shoes like the president. Where the hell are his feet of clay, anyway? Failing to discover feet of clay, they spend their time inventing “scandals.”
Anyway, enough of that.
What caught my attention this morning was an article by Alex Pareene in Salon.com pondering the ratings woes of MSNBC. It’s a channel Sandra and I usually watch, and to tell the truth we haven’t been that loyal lately. We have even stopped staying up for Rachel.
Noting that MSNBC came in fourth in April, after Fox, CNN, and HLN,the Salon piece reminded us that “last year MSNBC was challenging Fox for ratings dominance some nights.”
According to Pareene, “conservatives” think we liberals stopped watching MSNBC because we’re “dispirited” by negative news about the president. As far as Sandra and I are concerned, nothing could be farther from the truth. What we’re dispirited about is the cable channel’s craven rush to give President Obama’s critics a soapbox. I guess the cable channel’s bosses think they’re being fair and balanced, but as far as we’re concerned, they’re just being disloyal. And dumb.
If they’d kept Ed at 8 o’clock instead of that mealy-mouthed Chris Hayes, we would have had a strong voice we liberals could tune in for. Now, all we have is Al Sharpton at 6, and he’s sandwiched between two doses of that awful Chris Matthews, who never lets anyone else finish a sentence.
To expect viewers to endure the same Hardball show twice in a couple of hours is not just dumb. It’s insultingly dumb.
What’s even more dumb is the way the network’s pundits have been feasting on the “scandals” the Republicans dreamed up. They actually talk as if these were legitimate issues that needed serious discussion. Surely, MSNBC must realize there is not one shred of evidence implicating the president in any of the concocted “abuses of power” Republicans keep trotting out.
Ed would’ve told it like it is if he still had his 8 o’clock show. Could that be why he is gone?
The MSNBC anchors we’re left with sometimes sound as if they’re piling on Obama with the rest of the media hacks. I certainly am not going to stay up past my bedtime to hear Rachel find fault with the president. And, by the time Lawrence O’Donnell comes on at 10, I am long gone – either to Dreamland or to some whodunnit on one of the movie channels.
Click here for the Salon.com article.
