NBC News, the legendary television and news organization that
once starred such journalistic pros as Chet Huntley, David
Brinkley, John Chancellor and Tom Brokaw was declared officially
dead on Wednesday afternoon.
The death was preceded by a stunning divorce announcement
between Microsoft and NBC that had resulted in a long, tempestuous
televised and website union known as MSNBC.
The details of the divorce are
reported by Daily Beast media columnist Howard
Kurtz.
In the traditional style of liberal journalism, the real story
was buried deep inside the Kurtz piece and revealed this
way:
…as the MSNBC channel has forged a separate identity as the
liberal home of Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz and
others, the company has worried about the brand confusion caused by
its straight-news site bearing the same name.
Catch that?
There were worries at corporate about “brand confusion” between
“the liberal home of Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz and
others” with the so-called “straight-news site bearing the same
name.”
So the obvious question.
Why in the world would NBC be worried about “brand confusion”
with a cable version of itself?
That’s right. Because there was nothing “straight-news” about
what has evolved at MSNBC.
Let’s take a stroll through some of MSNBC’s greatest hits,
hits that became immutably identified with the NBC
brand that includes Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams and Matt Lauer. An
MSNBC created by its current head Phil Griffin.
- The Daily Caller
reported that Schultz “recently and regularly” used Media
Matters content for the programming of MSNBC’s The Ed
Show.
- The Daily Caller
reported that MSNBC’s Schultz had been on labor union payrolls
since 2005.
- Newsmax reported
that MSNBC’s Schultz had his radio show “bankrolled” by liberal
“Sens. Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle and Debbie Stabenow” who “lined
up $1.8 million in funding for Democracy Radio, which underwrote
Mr. Schultz’s show.”
- Mediaite
chimed in with a story showing that Schultz’s far-left rantings
had become a ratings loser for MSNBC. Shortly thereafter the
network
fired conservative commentator Pat Buchanan.
- And who could forget the famous Schultz rant calling Laura
Ingraham a “talk slut”?
- Or the time when Schultz called for ripping
out then-Vice President Cheney’s heart?
- Not to mention the time CNN’s Anderson
Cooper couldn’t resist running through Schultz’s fury at being
named the third least influential man alive — by that liberal
favorite GQ?
One could go on — and on and on and on — with all the MSNBC
hits. Moments that have immutably branded the network as
having problems with race (Al Sharpton’s use of the n-word”) and
Chris Matthews saying of
President Obama that “for a moment I forgot he was black.”
Moments that have branded the network as the home of
gay bashing (Al Sharpton again and his videotaped “punk faggot”
routine.) Not to mention
misogyny (the Shultz “slut” business and calling the wife of
Senator Joe Lieberman a “whore”). And religious bigotry (a staple
of MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, as seen here and here). O’Donnell’s
distaste for Mormonism, by the way, mysteriously doesn’t extend to
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Mormon — presumably hoping no
one noticed the double-standard.
Only this week there was Andrea Mitchell, once a serious
journalist, now establishing the Obama case — badly — at MSNBC in
this foolish dust-up with
former New Hampshire Governor John Sunnunu. Even Jon Stewart took
Rachel Maddow and MSNBC to task for using the sexual term
“teabagger” when discussing the Tea party.
This month Vanity Fair has a
long piece on the woes of Microsoft. The company’s association
with MSNBC is never mentioned by the left-wing magazine.
But it is abundantly clear that Microsoft has enough problems
without having its brand associated with what has become a wacky,
far-left media culture that specializes in hosts who have problems
with racism, misogyny, gay bashing and religious bigotry.
Now comes the news that Microsoft and NBC News are getting
divorced.
The “brand confusion” will be ended by renaming MSNBC as
“NBCNews.com”.
Finally, formally and officially, the spewings of hate and hard
partisanship that gush forth from MSNBC will belong to NBC News.
And NBC News alone.
The NBC News that is today the network of Brian Williams, Matt
Lauer and the retired Tom Brokaw, the NBC News network that once
boasted of names like Huntley and Brinkley and Chancellor — is now
the NBCNews.com of Ed Schultz, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell,
and Rachel Maddow.
To borrow from Charles Dickens?
NBC News is dead. There is no doubt whatever about that. The
register of its burial was signed by Schultz, Sharpton, O’Donnell,
Matthews and Maddow. Phil Griffin signed it. And Brokaw, Williams
and Lauer’s name put their seal of approval on it.
NBC News is now dead as a doornail.
