The Ratigan Effect comes to MSNBC…
Dealbreaker.com’s Bess Levin notes some “turmoil” during Morning Joe yesterday when Dylan Ratigan “grilled” Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm
Big D was a guest host on Morning Joe yesterday and during an interview with Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm on the matter of General Motors, seemingly horrified his colleagues with his line of questioning. To us, people who are forced to watch CNBC all day and are familiar with the Englewood Cliffs Guide To Interviewing, it really doesn’t seem that bad. But I guess at MSNBC, you’re not allowed to get all up interviewee’s grills, cut them off, and demand they answer the question before giving them the chance to do so. It’s at around 4 minutes in that Joe and Co. start apologizing to Granholm, referring to D.Rat as “a spaz,” instruct him to “ask a question and be quiet,” and end the show by saying, “We’re very sorry about Dylan.”
Watching the video I think Levin is overstating things quite a bit. It wasn’t nearly that bad and I don’t think Ratigan was browbeating Granholm much if at all.
June 5, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Ratigan’s interruptions are reminiscent of Chris Mathews’ style and are certainly unbecoming of a questioner unless we’re talking GITMO interrogations.
But I agree that Ratigan’s old outlet, CNBC, is unusually tough on guests. I wish more national TV was confrontational once in a while.
I’ve seen him rise like a phoenix from Bloomberg to CNBC and now another notch up to MSNBC. I’m a fan and wish him well when he gets his own show at the end of the month. He’s certainly better than most of the daytime talking heads including that Mr. Ed guy.
If all you can do is softball stuff you end up doing weekends or weekdays at FNC.
June 5, 2009 at 8:56 pm
I think the jury is still out that this is “up another notch”. It all depends on how things unfold…
June 6, 2009 at 9:29 am
I agree Spud. How does moving from being a star at CNBC to the ratings hell that is MSNBC Dayside qualify as “up a notch”?