The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> MSNBC'S SAVAGE SIDE br> MSNBC executives can deny it all they want, but they are definitely looking to cut into Fox News's perceived monopoly of "conservative" viewers. On Saturday, the NBC-controlled cable net will air a show featuring San Francisco-based talk radio host Michael Savage . /p>

Meanwhile they mull how best to utilize former Republican House leader Dick Armey in their programming.

But it isn't just in front of the camera that MSNBC is looking to change its point of view. In the past month, the cable channel has been interviewing and hiring researchers, story editors and producers with a conservative bent.

"We don't want people who just read the New York Times," says a New York-based MSNBC producer. "We've got plenty of those types. We want people who read and understand National Review, the Drudge Report and Lucianne.com." Understand?

"Just because we put a conservative like Savage on the air doesn't mean we're going to win any more ratings points," says the producer. "We have to develop stories and issues-coverage that a right-leaning viewer wants to watch."

p> IN WITH THE NEW br> Sen. John Edwards has apparently decided he doesn't need the two men most credited for his political successes, and is instead going with a political team almost wholly made up of Clinton-Gore staffers for his presidential run.