MSNBC is FINALLY taking a needed step, and not a moment too soon. David Gregory will replace Tucker Carlson. Now, instead of suffering through election season with an obnoxious dimwit, we will actually have some informed dialog and insight. I would have preferred Rachel Maddow, but MSNBC is trying to put forth more clout from NBC News, and she will almost certainly be a regular guest on the new program. Also, keep in mind the name of Gregory’s show: “Race for the White House.” What happens to this timeslot after November?
Gregory, as Senior White House Correspondent, knows there will be little happening on that beat for the remainder of the year. So he’s settling in to cover the campaign and he can return to the White House with the new president. Then maybe Maddow or David Shuster will get another shot at a show.
With news of the cancellation of trustfund pundit Tucker Carlson, it seems like a good time to look back on the events that led to this profound conclusion. (See Tucker Carlson Canceled for links to his dismal program performance).
It all started in a little mansion in San Francisco where the spawn of Republican ambassador and public broadcasting chief Richard Warner Carlson, and TV dinner princess Patricia Caroline Swanson, was ingloriously hatched. Thirty-eight years later it all comes screeching to a halt. Well, it actually just sort of peeters out, but that doesn’t sound quite as dramatic.
The writing has long been on the wall.
In October of 2006, Tucker responded angrily when asked about his future at MSNBC and whether he had already been cut:
“It’s bullshit. It’s total bullshit. I talked to Abrams last night. I’ve got another year on my contract. That’s my comment: Bullshit.”
I’m not entirely sure, but I think that Tucker considers this report to be some sort of bullshit. I could be wrong. This would have have placed his contract expiration some time in October of 2007. So in November of 2007 he signed off his show saying:
“That does it for us. Thank you for watching as always, we mean that sincerely to all eight of you.”
Sounds like he knew something. Maybe that’s why he chose to embarrass himself on “Dancing With The Stars” and taped a pilot for a game show called (I kid you not) “Who Do You Trust?” If he didn’t know something was up, he ought to have. After all, his boss, Phil Griffin, bragged to NPR about the network’s personalities saying:
“Keith Olbermann is our brand; Chris Matthews is our brand. These are smart, well-informed people who have a real sense of history and can put things in context.”
But when he was specifically asked whether Tucker Carlson is also their brand, he pauses and says:
“He is right now.”
There’s a real vote of confidence. And, predictably, the effort to Save Tucker fell flat on its face, even after he reportedly took a 50% paycut.
As far back as December, the rumors of Tucker being replaced were circulating. Prominent among them were reports that Rachel Maddow and Bill Wolff had taped a pilot that would fit nicely in the slot that Tucker was wasting.
Now that Tucker has bombed on on PBS, CNN, and MSNBC, some may think that it’s off to Fox News for him. But he has some history there that would need to be smoothed out first. In 2003, Tucker was asked on air for his home phone number. He thought it would be funny (in an infantile sort of way) to give out the number for Fox News instead. Not surprisingly, Fox was besieged by anxious Tucker “fans.” So Fox did what only Fox would do. They posted Tucker’s home number on their website asserting that they were merely correcting Tucker’s poor journalism. In a snit that ignored every trace of irony, Tucker called Fox News:
“…a mean, sick group of people.”
For those who think Tucker provided balance on the network, note that MSNBC already airs, in addition to Tucker, 3 hours of conservative Republican Joe Scarborough, and another two hours of Chris Matthews’ orchestrated hostility for Democrats. That’s five hours of right-wing propaganda against the one hour that Olbermann occupies. Where’s the balance in that?
Congratulations to David Gregory.
Ah, Olbermann… the guy who said recently that Laura Bush is as qualified as Hillary Clinton for the presidency.
MSNBC is 100% right wing nutjobs.
David: Olbermann is not a right-wing nutjob. (You sound like a nutjob for even posting that.) Spend a minute or two listening to Olbermann’s special reports. He has been one of the few progressive voices on any news outlet (aside from Air America).
Thanks, Roger. I couldn’t even bother to respond to that nonsense.
All Olbermann was doing was making the accurate point that being First Lady is not, by itself, a qualification for president.
Hey Mark
no problem! It can be so infuriating responding to each factually inaccurate idiocy but unless we do… well, all around are the results (war, crime, corruption…) of letting lies become acceptable in public discourse.
another brick in the wall (in a good sense!)
onward to the next idiocy!
ps good article
msnbc is getting a new start with this gregory guy. i think they should can matthews next, his views drip biased and borderline hate. people talk about how fox news is right wing driven, and touts conservative views regularly, but i am going to go off the deep end and say that msnbc is the more biased. i used to be an avid watcher of msnbc, but a while back, during this election cycle, i stayed tuned into fox. i am neutral in the current presidential contests, but each time i turn to msnbc, barack obama is forced down my throat. i am over that! and i can only listen to so much clinton bashing, my gosh, give it a rest already. i think chris matthews is terrible, i think david shuster is terrible, i think dan abrams is moot, and keith olbermann is just weird. if this gregory guy plays his cards right, he just might beat them all out!!!!!!!!1
I have problems with MSNBC, CNN, and many other news sources, but I would go so far as to say that any of them are worse than Fox.
I miss Tucker. He was kinda cute.