[sakic]

The same thing is happening all across America at many companies. Behold the recovering economy.

[Timesink]

Schadenfreude

This is the New York Times MSNBC Schadenfreude Ping List. Freepmail me to be added or dropped.

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[Jim Cane]

Maybe Lou Dobbs will do a story on it as part of his
"The Effing of America" series.

[Helms]

Great news. I wonder when Olberman will get his. MSNBC has gone thru more so-called talent than a serial seducer:

[Timesink]

"Look, we are making a profit, and the numbers are going up," said a network executive on Sunday evening, who asked not to be named.

The only reason MSNBC "makes a profit" is because of the way the partnership between Microsoft and GE is structured. GE gets a big chunk (maybe even half) of the profits realized by the web site - even though it's run almost entirely by Microsoft except for the oversight of the hard news content - and NBC gets to use the cable channel as an accounting tool to amortize the day-to-day costs of running NBC News. If MSNBC were ever cut loose to fend for itself, especially if Microsoft kept the web site, it wouldn't survive 90 days.

As for "the numbers going up", they've gone up only the tiniest bit, and that's only because MSNBC is coming off some all-time lows. When you go from a 0.1 rating to a 0.2, you can either rationalize it as "doubling your ratings", or admit the truth that you need at least two to three times that number to survive. MSNBC, as always, is choosing the former.

The executive refused to detail the exact number of people let go, but added, "The fact is, we are launching a new primetime schedule, and I think you'll see us hire people back and hire new people for new shows."

Quite interesting that he says this right after trumpeting his "higher numbers", isn't it? If your numbers are truly trending upwards, you don't wreak havoc with your schedule and bring that trend to a screeching halt. He just admitted he's lying.

[talleyman]

There's a network called MSNBC?