Planting Liberally

Tucker Carlson's low ratings at MSNBC have put his show on the chopping block. Not long ago, MSNBC almost inked a deal to replace Carlson with Rosie O'Donnell. O'Donnell, while not exactly a movement progressive, is certainly left-of-center in a non-establishment way, and a marked improvement over Carlson.

This is a great opportunity for the progressive movement. If Carlson is replaced by a progressive, the MSNBC line up really will start to look like a bona fide progressive alternative to Fox. I'm the last person to trust that MSNBC will stay dedicated to that kind of lineup, or that they will appropriately market the lineup and do a good job of getting businesses to advertise. Still, this is about the shortest path we have towards a progressive alternative to Fox, and we should not ignore it. (Incidentally, there was an important FCC ruling earlier this week which does create another path, though much longer and more arduous, towards progressive cable -
more on that soon.)

And yet, we are having difficulty converting this opportunity into reality. For starters, MSNBC doesn't appear to have a viable replacement for Carlson. I'm not sure why that is, exactly. Certainly there are good progressives capable of hosting a good news and opinion talk show, like Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, or Tavis Smiley. My last post on installing progressives at MSNBC offered up a few other interesting alternatives in the comments - including David Shuster, Rachel Maddow and Randi Rhodes. The problem could be a matter of availability, or it could be differences in editorial style (i.e., MSNBC might not be interested in giving Smiley a slot because they don't like his views/interview style/whatever.) Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be an organized progressive effort to get behind a replacement for Carlson, while conservatives are rallying to keep the show on the air (see savetucker.org).

What should we be doing to find a viable progressive alternative to Tucker Carlson, and to convince MSNBC management to choose that alternative? I'd love to hear thoughts on this.