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Rachel Maddow gets her own show on MSNBC

Tue, 2008-08-19 20:51 — Shai Sachs

It's about time: after months of speculation, it appears that Rachel Maddow will replace Dan Abrams in the MSNBC lineup. The move will shift the lineup emphatically to the left, and finally gives progressives a regularly-appearing female voice on one of the three major cable news channels.

Maddows' ascension comes after a somewhat convoluted path that began with a radio show on Air America, continued with her role as a frequent commentator during MSNBC election coverage, and, perhaps most significantly, her occasional stints as a replacement for Keith Olbermann on Countdown. In other words, this is perhaps the first example in recent memory of a progressive commentator "bubbling up" from the new progressie media machine into traditional corporate media, and as such it's an important milestone. It would be nice to see this kind of thing happen more frequently, and perhaps, if Maddow's show receives good ratings, CNN might take notice. Olbermann's diary on DailyKos suggested that both he and Maddow's grassroots supporters helped make the show a reality, but, unfortunately we don't have much of a roadmap for the next progressive cable TV coup.

Last year, when it appeared that Tucker Carlson's show was in jeopardy, I wrote that replacing Carlson with a second progressive voice in the MSNBC lineup should be a short-term goal for the progressive movement. Now that we've achieved that goal (or half of it), it's worth looking farther down the road. What should be the next milestone that the nascent progressive media machine strives for, when it comes to Cable TV? Here are a few that come to mind:

  • Establishing more avowedly progressive talk shows on MSNBC or CNN
  • Getting more progressive commentators to appear on MSNBC or CNN
  • Expanding the racial and gender diversity on cable talk shows
  • Establishing a fourth, and genuinely progressive, cable news channel
  • Expanding the reach and programming of fledgling progressive networks like Link TV, Free Speech TV, or Real News Network
  • Indirectly altering cable news through regulatory reform - e.g., a la carte retail cable

Any others? And more importantly - what can we do to reach these goals? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Total time spend: 00:24:15

Comments

Tue, 2008-09-30 11:06 — Singapore Property (not verified)

New media

How about stronger integration with the new media, eg. Youtube?
Mon, 2008-09-08 13:56 — Eco-Friendly Promotional Items (not verified)

Reply

I like Rachel Maddow - she's witty, smart and talented - good choice!
Wed, 2008-08-20 09:59 — CableTechTalk (not verified)

The problem with "a la carte"

The problem is that when you examine the economics of producing and distributing programming, a mandatory a la carte policy would undoubtedly lead to less diversity in content. Take a look at this blog post I wrote, which describes how programmers will lose revenue, while simultaneously having to cope with rising marketing costs. Remember when FOX News was king? Suppose MSNBC hadn't been around to provide an alternative point-of-view? Now Olbermann gets great ratings and Maddow is getting her own show, but that's because viewers had FOX, CNN & MSNBC and got to choose what they wanted to watch. That new "genuinely progressive, cable news channel" you want to launch? It will rely on two revenue streams: a fee from cable operators from carrying the network and advertising fees that are based on how many homes it is available in (not just ratings). If that network is a la carte, that means it has to spend the promotional dollars to get America to subscribe, before it can get the viewers, so that it can then charge advertisers. This would make it a much tougher road to travel.