MSNBC: The Place For Politics (And Taped Programming)

I'ts 8:00 pm on the day of primaries in Nebraska, Washington State, Louisiana and Kansas, and MSNBC just started its live coverage. During the day, while CNN was covering the ongoing voting via "Ballot Bowl" and Fox News was doing the same with "You Decide 2008," MSNBC was running taped programming like "Sex Slaves in America" and "Lockup: Holman" and "Born in the Wrong Body," up until 6pm when Tim Russert's show began, followed by a taped documentary on the career of Hillary Clinton, narrated by Lester Holt. Now the coverage is in full swing, anchored by Norah O'Donnell along with Chuck Todd, Lee Cowan, Alex Witt, Eugene Robinson, Pat Buchanan and Rachel Maddow, but earlier today, when Mike Huckabee took Kansas and when Washington — a state where Obama has led in fundraising and endorsements and which has almost as many delegates as New Jersey — was caucusing (in a voting system that tends to favor Obama) and even the U.S. Virgin Islands was getting in on the act, American Samoa-style, MSNBC was off the case. Why, with so many correspondents in the field and what could be a decisive day for the Democrat side going on, was the decision made to go to tape? I asked MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines, who pointed out that the network would be running three hours of live coverage tonight. "We're always live when there's breaking news to report as there is tonight when there are election results to report," said Gaines. (Though I can't help pointing out that Huckabee's win in Kansas sort of counts as news.) Gaines declined to give any other reason for the decision to go to tape; it should also be noted that MSNBC was live during the day of the South Carolina primary.

What MSNBC missed during the day: Huckabee's Kansas win; live coverage of Huckabee addressing CPAC, including this already-widely-quoted line about why he's still in the race: "I did not major in math. But I did major in miracles. And I still believe in 'em!"; Fox News being sure to mention David Shuster's suspension from MSNBC because of his comment about Chelsea Clinton — but did not, however, mention that David Shuster had formerly been at Fox News.

Related:
'Significant Saturday': Three Things to Watch [Newsweek]
Not Super, But Still Important [Forbes]

Comments

[peachfuzz]

Those taped shows make them money when there isn't super-duper sensationalism to report.

[brwnizofmine]

It seems to me whenever something is good for Barack they do not cover live, if Hillary had been projected to win all of the states today, they would have been there to cover it!

[SteveCox]

LMAO!! you really have Huffed the kookaid.

You mean the channel where all the anchors say they get chills listening to Borat speak and Joe Scar Belly tells how his repug friends txt him on his crackberry that they got chills too? The network that said Hillary was "PIMPING" out her daughter?!! That's the network your saying is bias to HILLARY?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can I ask you a serious question?! ARE YOU FREAKING RETARTED OR SOMETHING?!!!

[Malkintent]

I long for the day when Olbermann (the only person I watch on the Tweety Network) moves over the CNN. One can only hope...

[Witchitalineman]

I agree.

[Ohg]

MSNBC has hit new lows in journalism. Pat Buchanan seems like a moderate. The extremism reflects sadly on Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw. It is almost too sad to watch.
Ohg
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/02/09/pimpep-by-david-shuster-and-msnbc/

[SUNRAI]

Pat Buchanan is an ULTRA conservative...and it shows...

[rickd24]

Sometimes you just can't win. Lots of people complain when the media covers the campaign 24 hours a day, even when nothing is going on. Now there are complaints where there isn't enough coverage!

We're big football fans in our house, but we don't watch 8 hours of Super Bowl pregame shows, we just watch the game. We are paying close attention to what's happening in this election, but we aren't going to watch 8 hours of caucus/primary pregame shows either. Especially when there are only 3 states involved on each side, and it's only been 4 days since Super Tuesday. And more to watch next Tuesday. It may not seem like it, but we do have a life. :)

Rachel, it's not like you didn't have other choices if you needed your election fix. As you pointed out, you could watch on CNN or Fox (ugh!). Or on dozens of sites on the Internets. I don't see what the big deal is here.

[Rendon76]

Even so can't they have DIFFRENT SHOWS? Jesus they play the same ones over and over, Lockup and To Catch a Predator with Chris F***** Hanson, Jesus.

[newswatcher]

I agree that the taped programs, not G rated either, is a travesty for a network that claims to be the best political news channel! What a joke that is. I actually prefer the MSNBC political folks, but if there's news on a weekend, I forget about MSNBC and go to CNN. I wish they'd have more live news hours on weekends. If they want to fill the odd hours, let them replay the shows from Tucker Carlson through the Dan Abrams show. It's a shame that a supposed political news network can be an embarrassment if a child turns on the tv on a weekend and sees sex slaves in America.

[SteveCox]

Sad but MSNBC is probably the best political analysis even if some of the personalities have a little too many agendas. Chrisie Mathews who said, " I guess we're all neocons now" when they pulled down the Sadam statue.

The biggest critisism I heard him say right before the war was "I wish Bush had read some more books." He never got brave about his critisisim of the war until it was clear it was going badly. Then he's got the balls to rake Hillary over the coals for voting to just authorize the use of force.

He also voted for Bush, said so, said he liked the guy, repeated Republican talking points like calling the estate tax the death tax. Continues to repeat a boldface lie that rich people are taxed at 50% of their income ( me thinks he needs a new accountant). Continually repeats the republican myth that ross perot was the reason clinton was elected, when there have been many peer reviewed studies conducted that have proven statically that Clinton would have won anyway, and the fact that he never let's anyone answer a damn question! They should call it Hardballs, He asks 5 questions at once! And yet I still tivo his show every damn day. Every once in a while he does actually have some good insight, better than Wolf and Lou and Candy Crowley who in 2000 I thought she was going to jump on Bush and start humping him!

[SteveCox]

And actually, that would have been the best thing Candy ever did for her country. Probably would have saved us ALL from a lot of problems if she would have crushed the little monkey!

[LoRiseAntlers]

I don't have MSNBC on my cable anymore(they got replaced by Fox years ago),but I seem to remember they had a ton of taped crap at all times of the day and night.I wondered then,and I guess I still do,why the hell a new network spends so little time reporting the current news.CNN,HLN and Fox loop their primetime stuff all night long,but it's at least from the night before,and not some five year old documentary about baboons in the Serengeti or so or a pile of crap about Anna Nicole from last year.My sister,who has a satellite receiver,trellis me that MSNBC is invariably the last on just about any kind of breaking news.

It's always seemed to me that,for some reason,NBC doesn't really care if their news network is worth a shit.

[robotfog]

it's worth shit, alright.