Posted on 01/23/2011 6:39:28 AM PST by raccoonradio
The ink wasn't even dry on FCC and Anti-trust approval of the Comcast - NBC merger when the channel's highest rated host got the ax. Keith Olbermann has been fired. At least they let him say good-bye (contrary to standard industry practice). This, of course, is not the first time NBC has done something dumb (probably not the last, either). Nor is it even the first time MSNBC has fired it's highest rated - and coincidentally liberal - host: Phil Donahue was dumped for daring to challenge Dubya's invasion of Iraq (that one may have had something to do with GE being one of the largest US defense contractors).
Is this a progressive talk purge? Another one. Clear Channel programming exec Darryl Parks started cancelling progressive talk on the company's stations throughout the Midwest bragging that he wanted to be the "grim reaper" of progressive talk. Has Brian Roberts decided to assume that role? Comcast is a company known for ruthless and anti-competitive business practices and terrible service. They made all sorts of promises before the merger was approved about being good guys now. Are they already starting to break them?
What's going to happen to Big Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow? Big Ed's radio show is syndicated by Dial Global (live at 12noon, some stations take Thom Hartmann at noon and Big Ed at 3pm). Rachel dropped her radio show some time ago (although audio from her cable show was syndicated to radio for a time). Big Ed is pretty well set on radio (only question is will he stay in DC or go back to Fargo?). The progressive talk field is already full (given station demand for progressive talk). Rachel might have trouble finding a syndication deal and if she does, she might have trouble getting cleared (meaning pushing another host aside). Olbermann came from sports, not progressive talk radio. Might he try to enter the progressive talk line-up? When the music stops, who gets left without a chair? Currently Talkers Magazine estimates a dead-heat among the three Dial Global progressive talk hosts: Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz (covering 9am-6pm Monday through Friday Eastern; 6am-3pm Pacific). Bill Press in East Coast morning drive is not setting the world on fire and may be vulnerable but neither Keith nor Rachel seem like morning drive personalities.
Will another cable channel try to establish itself as the new home for progressive talk? This could provide an opportunity for the buzz-challenged HLN, which really has been foundering since it gave up all news, all the time.
Stay tuned.
Hmmmmmmm Inquiring minds want to know. Good observation.
What’s radio-info.com?
MSNBC cannot make money as a left wing news org, so I guess lefties are stuck with PBS and Couric for news.
Is Comcast Killing Off Progressive Talk?
Not fast enough, imo!
LOL. They must be in a total flop sweat over at MSLSD.
Who cares about competition? And really, “free speech” is over-rated. If monopoly ownership of media pushes the Libs out, that’s a good thing... we don’t need alternative viewpoints. What is there left to think through?
If you lefties had anything to say, people would listen and you, too, could have Talk Radio.
Whine Radio, Blame Radio, Rant-n-Rave Radio — they are just toooooo banal. You have to have intelligent thought as a foundation.
Free market at work.
There is way too much progressive talk as it is. They’ve got 6 major networks that do nothing else.
Someone pointed out how we complained about Juan Williams being silenced by NPR but then we have the reaction about Olbermann’s firing
and I said, “uh, so is NPR commercial?” Comcast wants to make mnoney. NPR is taxpayer funded liberal talk
>>The progressive talk field is already full
...of crap
>>Might he try to enter the progressive talk line-up?
Who knows. Clear Channel’s Premiere division is mostly conservative hosts who make money but I believe they also distribute Randy Rhodes and Jesse Jackson
Note one response:
>>Firing one host doesn’t necessarily mean a format change for MSNBC. Olbermann has been fired before, maybe he’s hard to work with, maybe he was paid too much making the show unprofitable.
These big companies don’t care about ideology, only money. If those CC progressive stations had been making money they wouldn’t have changed formats. I once worked for a fairly major media company where the CEO/biggest stockholder was quite liberal. All the talk radio stations were conservative, because that’s where the money was.
I can’t see Ed Schultz going back to Fargo if his TV show is axed. He doesn’t even have a radio affiliate in Fargo.
PS — Since you lefties own every newspaper and every other TV station, what is it about sharing you cannot do? One MSM TV channel owned by conservatives and you get your knickers in a bunch.
Cutting out the deadwood to encourage profit.
Exactly. Nobody wants to hear it.
Perhaps Comcast is looking at the bottom line, the ratings, the red ink associated with MSNBC.
Olbermann had the highest ratings in the evening on MSNBC, but his ratings were not even close to the competition.
Perhaps Comcast is more interested in the bottom line, the red ink than in the political agenda. The bottom line and red ink are good evidence that the political agenda hasn’t been bringing droves of viewers.
It's not station demand, it's audience demand. And I have an issue with him calling liberal gibberish progressive. Whatever happened to Air America?
They should be happy that they still dominate newspapers and CNNABCNBCCBS.
...and a future, not a dead end politically and economically...
This is probably due to public enlightenment.
My local paper called the other day offering to sell the Sunday paper for $1.00 a week. The local paper is a liberal rag sheet. The local paper has had to winnow down its staff because people are tired of reading communist party drivel and have stopped subscribing. So, now it is willing to do ANYTHING to build back up the subscribership including sell it below cost prior to the next round of elections, in order to spread its corrosive influence in a few places. I declined.
The station manager stated , "Talk radio is ultimately about selling advertising, if we can't sell ads for your show, you're out of here, I don't care who you are."
Saying that Olbermann is “highest rated” is an attempt to pretend that a 12 year old school yard bully is a Championship Heavyweight boxer. “Highest rated” on MSNBC is near the bottom of the ratings chart. Comcast probably wants more than a few thousand looney lefties (and a few hundred conservatives looking for a laugh) watching the channel.
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