PERSONNEL NOTES

Posted at 6:58 a.m. ET

Some stories take on a delight of their own.

Apparently, the ruling classes at NBC have finally realized that running a news outlet that raises mental-health questions is not a good idea.  It's especially not a good idea when the outlet is frantically leftist, and it suddenly appears that the left-wing guy may not become president.

There are, therefore, personnel changes at MSNBC.  The New York Times tells the story:

MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election.

That experiment appears to be over.

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.

This is the correct move.  Executing it will have to be done carefully so it isn't just cosmetic. 

Executives at the channel’s parent company, NBC Universal, had high hopes for MSNBC’s coverage of the political conventions. Instead, the coverage frequently descended into on-air squabbles between the anchors, embarrassing some workers at NBC’s news division, and quite possibly alienating viewers. Although MSNBC nearly doubled its total audience compared with the 2004 conventions, its competitive position did not improve, as it remained in last place among the broadcast and cable news networks. In prime time, the channel averaged 2.2 million viewers during the Democratic convention and 1.7 million viewers during the Republican convention.

The success of the Fox News Channel in the past decade along with the growth of political blogs have convinced many media companies that provocative commentary attracts viewers and lures Web browsers more than straight news delivered dispassionately.

I was taught a wonderful notion at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism:  "Never underestimate the viewer's intelligence, never overestimate the viewer's knowledge."  MSNBC consistently underestimates the intelligence of viewers.   It became, in recent months particularly, a childlike operation.

In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”

That is correct.

Mr. Griffin, MSNBC’s president, denies that it has an ideology. “I think ideology means we think one way, and we don’t,” he said. Rather than label MSNBC’s prime time as left-leaning, he says it has passion and point of view.

That is a ridiculous statement, and thorough disingenuous.  "Passion and point of view"?  What point of view would that be?

Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams, the past and present anchors of “NBC Nightly News,” have told friends and colleagues that they are finding it tougher and tougher to defend the cable arm of the news division, even while they anchored daytime hours of convention coverage on MSNBC and contributed commentary each evening.

I guess they didn't like "passion and point of view."

Just last year, Mr. Olbermann signed a four-year, $4-million-a-year contract with MSNBC. NBC is close to supplementing that contract with Mr. Olbermann, extending his deal through 2013 — and ensuring that he will be on MSNBC through the next election.

Most unfortunate.

Also unfortunate is that the people who run MSNBC don't understand why Fox is so successful.  It does things well, that's why.  Its news broadcasts are straightforward.  It's commentary shows are clearly commentary.  Although considered "conservative" it gives liberals a fair shot.  Its panels during the convention were the best, and kept disciplined.

There are reasons for success.

September 8, 2008.