What’s Going On Over At MSNBC?...

MSNBC has long made its stock and trade in left-wing nuttiness, from Chris Matthews “tingling legs,” to his referring to West Point as “enemy territory,” to his inane State of the Union Address “post-racial” gushing, “It's interesting: he is post-racial, by all appearances. I forgot he was black tonight for an hour"...to David Shuster’s inane tweet directed at James O’Keefe “@JamesOKeefeIII a) you are not a journalist b) the truth is you intended to tap her phones c) it's a felony d) you will go to prison,” all the way to Keith Olbermann’s calling Scott Brown, the new Senator from MA., “a homophobic, racist, teabagging, ex-nude model,” and even more recently,  MSNBC has done its best to alienate mainstream America, while plumbing the depths of cable news depravity.

All of which is almost certainly why the most recent ratings scoreboard looks like THIS:

The Scoreboard: Monday, Feb. 8

By Kevin Allocca

Tuesday, Feb 9^th, 2010

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/the_scoreboard_monday_feb_8_151592.asp

25-54 demographic: (L +SD)

Total day: FNC: 455 | CNN: 144 | MSNBC: 116 | HLN: 155

Prime: FNC: 792 | CNN: 181 | MSNBC: 241 | HLN: 185

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	Beck:	Baier:	Shep:	O'Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O'Reilly:
	835	629	559	1154	734	478	448
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	Brown:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	89	109	158	141	178	225	184
MSNBC	Matthews:	EdShow:	Matthews:	Olbermann:	Maddow:	Olbermann:	Maddow:
	46	112	205	302	230	181	157
HLN	Prime:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	Behar:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	119	97	129	245	167	155	143

It’s gotten so bad at MSNBC that even the business channels are speculating about the demise of one of its stalwarts. DailyFinance even asked, “Is America Getting Over Keith Olbermann?”

In that piece, it noted that, “Ratings for Olbermann's Countdown have been soft recently, and the 8 p.m. shows on CNN and HLN have narrowed the gap. In the important demographic of adults 25 to 54 - the group advertisers are looking to reach - Countdown was down 44% year-over-year in January. It averaged 268,000 viewers in that demo, only 3,000 more than Nancy Grace's show on HLN, and 12,000 more than CNN's Campbell Brown. Fox News's O'Reilly Factor dominated the hour with 964,000 viewers age 25 to 54, and was the only cable news show in the time period to increase its audience, by 55%.”

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/media/is-america-getting-over-keith-olbermann/19337944/

For his part, Olbermann responded with his typical aplomb, calling DailyFinance "a right-wing site" and accusing them of “cherry-picking” ratings data.

MSNBC’s far-left tilt was initially bankrolled by GE, but they’ve sold NBC and its affiliates to ComCast Cable and the dismal ratings at MSNBC can’t possibly sit well with a real media company!

Maybe GE’s Jeffrey Immelt would subsidize a televised version of Air America, but is ComCast Cable really going to do the same?

And why even bother?

Especially with “Countdown’s” pulling in only slightly more than a QUARTER of O’Reilly’s viewership.

All of this has had MSNBC president Phil Griffin forced to respond:

"Keith has been our tentpole," he says. "I watch the show every night. It's a great show. It's as smart and clever and fun as any out there, and I'm pleased with where we are."

Griffin claims to attribute Olbermann's January ratings slip to a news cycle in which international news, rather than domestic politics, was the No. 1 story. "On big, breaking international news, CNN tends to do better than us. They did a great job in Haiti, and I tip my hat to them," he says. "We're the place for politics, and there are times when politics does great, and there are times when it doesn't." Looking ahead to this year’s primaries and the coming midterm elections, he says, "I think we'll get our momentum back."

Hardly a ringing endorsement, eh?

Sounds more like what you hear when a sports team is looking to unload an aging player.

For the final word, Keith Olbermann retreated, appropriately enough, to the Daily Kos, where he wrote, “Let me cut to the chase (since this is besides the point, except insomuch as it contradicts the meme): the show isn't about to be cancelled. It isn't slumping. MSNBC isn't worried about it. NBC isn't worried about it. It is making them a - damned fortune, in fact (and they'd owe me a - damned fortune if they did cancel it, which they aren't going to).”

TRANSLATION: “Alright the jig appears to be up, but MSNBC’s going to pay through the nose for firing me...I sure hope Sports Center’s saved a spot for me...Dan?...Dan Patrick???...Hey bud...How ya doin’?”

At any rate, I have three questions for old "Red Bell Bottoms" Olbermann; (1) When your station's President has to acknowledge that a competitor "does international news stories better than we do," isn't that a cause for concern?...(2) Would you please define "damned fortune" for us?...and (3) "Tentpole?" That sounds waaay too close to A$$hole, doesn't it?!