Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 11

This one comes courtesy of MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts and is predictably catching fire on the right side of the blogosphere. This is the problematic part…

THOMAS ROBERTS: Well, that is something that affects everybody across this country. It doesn’t have to be – it doesn’t have to be with the LGBT community, it talks about all Americans. But I do want to talk about what GOProud is doing in reaching out an invitation to Michele Bachmann to take a meeting. Where does that stand right now? Has the Bachmann camp gotten back to you? Will they meet with you?

JIMMY LASALVIA: Well, at this point we are having a dialogue with them. And when there’s something to report, I’ll let you know. You know, we’re reaching out to all of the presidential candidates because, frankly, gay Americans are living in the Obama economy too, and it’s important that we beat him next November and replace this failed president. So we’re reaching out –

ROBERTS: But you will replace him with a person that would extinguish you. You’re replacing him with a person that doesn’t believe that that you have a right in this country to get married, that believes you don’t even have a right in this country to be gay because she co-owns a clinic that will convert you.

LASALVIA: Well, I think all the presidential candidates should hear our perspective as gay Americans who, like you, live our lives openly and honestly because we bring a unique perspective to our American experience. And I think it’s important for anyone running for that office to hear that perspective.

It’s not quite to the level of Ed Schultz screaming that the “Republican party wants to see you dead” but it’s in the ballpark. Roberts clearly feels passionately about this issue but more restraint is called for on dayside news. “Extinguish” was an extremely poor word choice on his part. If Roberts wants to take on more of an advocacy role he’s free to do so…on primetime where that kind of vitriolic rhetoric is all too common. It doesn’t have a place on a straight news hour.

The Hazards of Live TV: #25,066 – Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 10

Two words…train wreck…

Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 9

Just a few minutes ago MSNBC had another one of those interviews that probably looked interesting on paper but should have been killed before it aired. It was David Shuster and Andrew Breitbart shouting at each other for about five minutes. The interview began and immediately went south when Breitbart brought up Shuster’s tweets. From there it was lots of crosstalk and accusations and not much in the way of news. This was followed by Shuster interviewing Media Matters Representative Eric Boehlert about ACORN and O’Keefe and Breitbart.

This would be fine if this segment aired during Countdown or Maddow or The Ed Show. But it aired during the supposedly straight news portion of MSNBC Dayside. I can’t even recall the last time I saw either Breitbart or Boehlert on the air during Dayside, that’s how rare their appearances were.

Phil Griffin said that MSNBC would be returning to a more news oriented focus on dayside. It appears Griffin still has his work cut out for him. This was a travesty. No. Travesty is the wrong word. Joke is.

Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 8…

Donnie Deutsch is filling in for David Shuster this week on MSNBC Dayside. That would be non-journalist Donnie Deutsch. MSNBC has so many other people it could have brought in who are journalists; Peter Alexander, Jeff Rossen, Amy Robach, Natalie Morales, Lester Holt, Chris Jansing…hell Monica Novotny isn’t doing much these days. It’s just mind boggling that MSNBC would pick Deutsch. But they already have one non-journalist anchoring news these days (Carlos Watson) and another who occasionally does (Dr. Nancy) so what’s another non-journalist on the air?

This says a lot about the state of MSNBC Dayside and what the network wants to do with talent these days. And none of it is any good…

Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 7

NewsBusters’ Kyle Drennen catches MSNBC’s David Shuster weighing in on Sarah Palin’s future and Tamron Hall taking one for the home team…

On Wednesday, MSNBC anchor David Shuster made a bold prediction about Sarah Palin’s political future: “I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Sarah Palin will never recover from this…No matter what people say, no matter what these polls, she has no future.”

Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 6

Well Carlos Watson got his solo anchoring hour on MSNBC and it’s at 11. As I watched it, I couldn’t help but think about the identity crisis that’s slowly infecting the news division at NBC. It’s more like a virus and MSNBC is the host.

Where do I start? Well first let’s look at the elephant in the room. I’ve been avoiding looking at it for a while now but it can’t be ignored any longer. Watson is not a journalist. He has no journalism background. And yet, he is anchoring news on MSNBC. Not talking head stuff. News. He’s tossing to reporters in the field. He’s reporting stories on the air. The question is why is NBC News allowing a non-journalist in such a key position on its air? Watson, as anchor, serves as a brand identifier for NBC News. And yet he has no formal training in the very brand he is supposed to be serving. Why? I’ll get to that in a moment.

Second, and even more troubling from a journalistic standpoint, is the fact that Watson is injecting his opinions into his newscast. A news anchor is not supposed to spout off their opinion on the topics of the day. They’re supposed to tell stories and ask questions. I do not tune in to a newscast to hear news anchors tell me where they think a story is going or what the future may hold. I’m educated enough to figure that out on my own thank you very much. I do not need or want an echo chamber for a news cast. Unfortunately this is a problem that is happening more and more these days in cable news whether it’s a Rick Sanchez or a Mike Galanos or a Julie Banderas or a Megyn Kelly. Or a Carlos Watson. Watson is a liberal and his opinions are such, which of course flies in the face of “what happens in primetime has no bearing on dayside” which we kept hearing over and over when NBC got defensive about Olbermann, Maddow, Matthews, and Schultz being a “stain” on the news division. Not anymore. Liberal opinion is now welcome on Dayside too.

What we are seeing now is the “New MSNBC”. It’s not about news anymore. Forget about that reputed “firewall” between the news division and the pundits which we’ve heard so much about. It’s gone. They tried to get rid of it last year with Olbermann and Matthews anchoring political events and it spectacularly blew up in their face. This is round 2. It’s going to have Dylan Ratigan talking about whatever he wants. It’s got David Shuster mixing it up with his interviewees. It’s got interview guests like John Ziegler, who have no business being on the air in the first place except for the gratuitous factor. It’s going to have Watson, a non-journalist, anchoring news and giving his opinions. Keith Olbermann would be right at home anchoring an hour during the day now because there’s nothing to distinguish what he does at night and what MSNBC is setting up to do during the day. Andrea Mitchell and her non-opinion show, by comparison, now reminds me of one of those segments you’d see on Sesame Street; “One of these things doesn’t look like the others…”

Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 5…

Well this appears to becoming more and more frequent (much to my chagrin). So much so, that I’ve had to create a Category field to hold posts like these. Today CNN’s Rick Sanchez spent considerable time rebutting Bill O’Reilly. I know this is a Sanchez trademark, to stick his opinion into a story. But the thing is, this is dayside news, when news is supposed to happen. It’s not primetime when opinion takes over (though apparently that concept is being downplayed at CNN these days).

In the end is it really necessary to rebut O’Reilly? Sanchez is a big Tweeter. Why not put it there? Is it so important for CNN to devote a whole segment to fact checking O’Reilly? Why give him the publicity? I’m just askin’…

Update: O’Reilly comments. “A rare correction”…cute. What about the ones that should’ve come but didn’t? (via J$)

Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 4…

Real Clear Politics has video of MSNBC’s Tamron Hall losing it when someone points out her network’s “obsession” with Rush Limbaugh. There are ways to handle the baiting from the pundit from the Right. Mixing it up with him is not one of them. Bringing up Keith Olbermann, someone not known for news but partisan opinion, is not a good retort either. Is Hall angling for a primetime show?

But then what do you expect? You toss a match on gasoline you get an explosion. You do opinion and talking heads instead of news, you get shouting matches. And this doesn’t just apply to MSNBC…

Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 3…

Ok, I’ve taken some shots at David Shuster for ideological theatrics on MSNBC Dayside. He’s not the only one that engages in them however. FNC’s Megyn Kelly is another one. HotAir.com has the video from the latest back and forth. I agree with Allah Pundit that there’s no value in this aside from the rubbernecking quotient. It would be nice if the guest and the host were arguing about the same point but they aren’t. One is arguing about people being convicted of voter registration fraud. The other is arguing that there hasn’t been voter fraud. Both are true and neither side is listening to the other. What a waste of airtime.

Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 2…

I’m watching the Mark Simone/David Shuster interview right now and it’s almost as bad as the John Ziegler interview with Shuster once again challenging conservatives (in general, not Simone whose politics I’m not clear on) during MSNBC dayside and Simone trying to correct/clarify Shuster on the air and Shuster having none of it, this time over the Dick Cheney/Scooter Libby/Richard Armitage/Valerie Plame mess. Once again, clearly Shuster had an agenda he wanted to push and he pushed it. On MSNBC Dayside. Which is supposed to be about news and not opinion according to NBC execs. I’d love to say more on this but I’m literally headed out the door and I just know this is going to be all over the blogs today and I wanted to get in on it first, and give y’all a place to comment on it. I’m sure someone will post the video and/or a transcript soon enough.

In Depth: Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime…

Ok, I’m supposed to be packing for Monterey right now but I just cannot ignore the above without commenting.

If you were presented the above clip and you were a seasoned viewer of cable news you would have naturally assumed that this sort of in your face back and forth ideological shoutfest was taken from one of the many cable news primetime programs. And you would be wrong. Dead wrong.

And that is what is so troubling about David Shuster’s ridiculous over the top “interview” of John Ziegler. I put “interview” in quotes because it was less an interview than it was an embarrassment for NBC News in general and MSNBC Dayside in particular. It was so wrong on so many levels it defies categorization.

NBC News from Jeff Zucker, to Steve Capus to Phil Griffin have said over and over and over again in defense of Keith Olbermann’s and Chris Matthews’ primetime shows that they’re supposed to be opinion; that the viewer understands there’s a difference between what transpires on NBC News and MSNBC News Dayside and what happens on MSNBC Primetime. Well today’s interview didn’t occur during primetime. It occurred during daytime, during MSNBC Dayside…you know the time of the day when it’s supposed to be about news and not opinion. The supposed line that Zucker, Capus, and Griffin have maintained exists between dayside and primetime was most certainly blurred today, if not outright trampled over. This was a massive mistake.