But somehow I doubt that we will be hearing complaints from the Democrats that the network is skewed in its presentation of the issues.

Just in time for the closing rush of the presidential election, MSNBC is shaking up its prime-time programming lineup, removing the longtime host Dan Abrams — its onetime general manager — from his 9 p.m. program and replacing him with Rachel Maddow, who has emerged as a favored political commentator for the all-news cable network.

The moves, which were confirmed by MSNBC executives on Tuesday, are expected to be finalized by Wednesday, with Mr. AbramsÂ’s last program on Thursday. After MSNBCÂ’s extensive coverage of the two political conventions during the next two weeks, Ms. Maddow will begin her program on Sept. 8.

The scary thing is that, as skewed to the left as Abrams often was, he was at least professional in his approach most of the time. I'm not sure that we will see any such thing out of Maddow, whose time in the cesspool that is Air America should disqualify her from work in any sort of news organization.

But key to all this is that MSNBC is abandoning all pretense of ideological neutrality and balance. And in doing so, it raises serious questions about the entire NBC brand, given the cross-over work between the two networks in the NBC stable.

Posted by: Greg at 11:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 245 words, total size 2 kb.