Posted on 07/21/2011 1:59:56 PM PDT by lbryce
After giving a nearly six-month tryout for the Internet talk show host Cenk Uygur, the cable news channel MSNBC is preparing to instead hand its 6 p.m. time slot to the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Mr. Sharpton’s imminent hiring, which was acknowledged by three people at the channel on condition of anonymity because the contract had not been signed, is significant in part because MSNBC and other news channels have been criticized for a paucity of minority hosts in prominent time slots. Mr. Sharpton, who is black and is a well-known civil rights activist and radio host, has been guest hosting in the 6 p.m. time slot for the last three weeks.
There had been uncertainty about the 6 p.m. slot ever since the channel’s marquee anchor, Keith Olbermann, departed in January, prompting Ed Schultz to be moved to 10 p.m. from 6. Suddenly Mr. Uygur, who had been made a paid contributor to MSNBC months earlier, was handed 6 p.m., a big coup given that he had earlier campaigned to have his progressive Web show “The Young Turks” picked up by MSNBC.
He earned solid but not stand-out ratings; in late June the channel’s president, Phil Griffin, decided to try out Mr. Sharpton, and offered Mr. Uygur a new contract that included a weekend show, but not a higher-profile weekday show.
Mr. Uygur, who by most accounts was well liked within MSNBC, said in an interview that he turned down the new contract because he felt Mr. Griffin had been the recipient of political pressure. In April, he said, Mr. Griffin “called me into his office and said that he’d been talking to people in Washington, and that they did not like my tone.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Well! It’s about time. Now all MSNBC needs to do is hire Louis Farrakan as his co-host!
As if there weren’t enough reasons to avoid MSNBC before...
What with his command of the English language and all............
Meeting Al 20-30 in the break room might help her little pole dancer/stripper mind figure it out...
(Actually, I think I may have insulted the intelligence of pole dancers and strippers everywhere.)
I saw Sharpton interviewed at a marketing forum a while back.
Without a TV camera in front of him and a cause to represent, he came off as a fairly reasonable person. Someone that you, or me, or Hannity could easily talk to... if you can handle talking to liberal, which I know many of us can’t.
During the interview, he said something along the lines that, “In New York, you can’t get any attention if you’re not outrageous, so I’m outrageous.”
Cynical, yes. Is it true? Yes.
He’s found a way to make a living exploiting real or perceived injustices, and has duped the press to promote his causes.
The press are the evil ones here. They are giving this actor his stage.
Because that’s all he is. An actor.
WHY do we pander to these useless people?
Too bad Ted Bundy got the needle. He’d have his own sitcom by now.
Idiotic people still watch MSNBC? =.=
Sharpton? Are they freakin’ kidding? LOL. Wow... that’s really the bottom of the barrel.
YAY! Now he won’t be on Fox anymore.
The liars new liar.
That white hating racist assclown will eventually be fired.
On that day, the hell that MSNBC is going to be put through..... is going to be insanely hilarious. Heck, I’m already laughing.
His old excuse was that he had no personal money, everything including his clothes belonged to the Church.
I don’t see how that can hold water now that he has taken a job.
How do you pronounce “Cenk Uygur”? Can someone spell it phonetically for us?
Is that what he said? LOL~ Like he’s a monk or something. Did he ever mention the church?
As tweeted by Larry Elder: “Sharpton an MSNBC show? Tax deadbeat, falsely accused man of rape, provoked Crown Heights riot, anti-Semitic, race hustler=qualified!!” https://twitter.com/#!/larryeldershow/status/94199834319392768
The Young Jerk wasn’t far enough left so they had to pick the country’s foremost example of utter absurdity, the “Reverend” Al Sharpton. They could have plucked a wino from the gutter and had more credibility.
Pee Wee Herman is available.
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