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For the news website, see MSNBC.com.
MSNBC
TypeCable news television network
Country
 United States
Availability United States,  Canada
OwnerNBC Universal, Microsoft
Launch date
July 15, 1996
Official website
http://msnbc.com

MSNBC is a 24-hour cable news channel in the United States and Canada. Its name is a combination of Microsoft Network and NBC.

A separate company, MSNBC.com, is the news website for the NBC News family, featuring original stories and video as well as content from NBC News and partners [citation needed] such as The New York Times, Newsweek and The Washington Post.

Two partnerships with the name MSNBC were founded in 1996 by Microsoft and General Electric's NBC unit, which is now NBC Universal. Although Microsoft and NBC shared operations of MSNBC cable at its founding, it was announced on December 23, 2005 that NBC Universal would purchase a majority stake in the television network, which left Microsoft with 18%. The two companies remain 50-50 partners in MSNBC.com.

MSNBC, like sister channel CNBC, shares the NBC logo of a rainbow peacock.

History

Development

Microsoft invested $220 million for a 50% share of the cable network, while MSNBC and Microsoft would share the cost of a $200 million newsroom based in Redmond, Washington. NBC supplied the space with an 18 month old America's Talking network. Roger Ailes, then president of America's Talking, was passed over when NBC executives were looking for someone to run their new cable news operation. Ailes subsequently joined News Corporation as president of the newly-formed CNN rival, Fox News Channel.[1]

MSNBC's Launch

MSNBC HQ in NJ

MSNBC was launched on July 15, 1996 at 9 a.m. EDT, not in Redmond, but from studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The first show, which was anchored by Jodi Applegate, broadcast a lineup of news, interviews, and opinions.[2] During the day, rolling news coverage continued with The Contributors, a show that featured Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham, as well as interactive programming coordinated by Applegate, John Gibson, and John Seigenthaler Jr. Stories were generally longer and more detailed than the stories running on CNN at the time.[3]

MSNBC originally demonstrated the interactive value of the Internet. The network's first slogan was It's Time to Get Connected, and e-mail addresses and phone numbers were displayed regularly.[4]

Primetime featured an hour-long interview program called Internight (which showcased the stars of NBC News),[5] followed by the network's flagship newscast, The News with Brian Williams, and The Site, a show about the Internet and computers co-hosted by Soledad O'Brien and a computer-generated character played by Leo Laporte.[6] The first Internight included an interview with President Bill Clinton, who took questions from callers and e-mailers.[7] Other shows that made use of the internet included News Chat featuring Mary Kathleen Flynn, and a look into the past with Time & Again anchored by Jane Pauley. Black Entertainment Television host Ed Gordon also contributed to the new network by hosting the Saturday version of Internight.

The start was a bit rocky due to a series of changes in management and continuing internal squabbles over the direction of the network. In addition, NBC affiliates were concerned that the cross-promotion would divert viewers from their own programs, although that fear abated as the years passed.[8] However, MSNBC was often first to break news. It broke the story of the crash of TWA Flight 800 eight minutes before CNN, ushering in an era of hypercompetitiveness between the news channels that continues today.[9]

MSNBC signed a simulcast agreement with Infinity Broadcasting station WFAN to carry the Imus in the Morning radio show, which began on September 2, 1996.[10] In November 1996, the network moved to the new Secaucus studios.[11]

MSNBC Evolves

The original goals of the network attracting a younger, tech-savvy audience, failed to materialize. In September 1997, MSNBC laid off 20% of its staff[12] and canceled The Site due to low ratings and the death of Princess Diana, causing howls of protest from its viewers, many of whom considered O'Brien a cult figure.[13] The network began moving away from its Internet roots and began covering fashion and celebrity like the other news channels.[14] In October 1997, Internight was replaced with The Big Show, hosted by Keith Olbermann, in hopes that his irreverent style would spike up ratings.[15] After its first year, the network had 24,000 households viewing it per night, paling by comparison to the 578,000 of CNN and the 30,000 of Fox News (which was four months younger than MSNBC)[16]

The MSNBC web site remained relatively successful, becoming the most-used online news site in 1997,[17] 1998,[18] and 1999.[19] MSNBC significantly increased during the impeachment of Bill Clinton, following a new covering the Big Story format that provided saturation coverage for the top stories. Keith Olbermann left over MSNBC's continuing focus on the impeachment. He returned in 2003 as host of Countdown, currently the network's most popular show. When Olbermann left "The Big Story" he was replaced by John Hockenberry, who achieved some success. Hockenberry's Edgewise program focused on newsmakers and showed off Hockenberry's documentary skills. Ratings began to drop after the impeachment trial was completed. Fox was beating MSNBC in numbers of viewers per 24 hours, which was more impressive considering MSNBC's distribution advantage. NBC News stars began shunning the network. Low-rated chat shows such as Watch It, and Equal Time, a Crossfire knockoff, filled out the schedule.[20] Hockenberry was replaced after six months by a rebroadcast of Hardball from CNBC.[21]

That show was replaced by Headliners and Legends, a biography program that has been a weekend staple on the network ever since. Also in 1999, the management of MSNBC replaced midday news coverage with a delayed broadcast of NBC News Today called Today on MSNBC and repackaged Dateline NBC stories into MSNBC Investigates, a decision that angered NBC affiliates. On the other hand, 1999 saw a partnership with the Washington Post that permitted more integrated coverage on the web site.[22]

On April 3, 2000, a three woman anchored show named Home Page hosted by Ashleigh Banfield, Gina Gaston, and Mika Brzezinski began.[23] Along with Home Page, MSNBC tried to attract female viewers by signing a deal in February 2001 with Detroit radio station WJR to simulcast the first two hours of The Mitch Albom Show. While the pairing was a ratings winner, both shows would eventually be canceled: Home Page due to sinking ratings; and The Mitch Albom Show due to its constant preemptions and some disagreements with the MSNBC management.

2000 also saw John Gibson, one of the original MSNBC hosts, leave the network. His confrontational tenure as the host of the Feedback primetime program foreshadowed his opinion program on the Fox News Channel.[24] MSNBC continued to repackage NBC News programs (Special Edition and Crime Files), and during the 2000 presidential election cycle, reporters and interviews were cycled constantly between broadcast NBC and the cable news channel.[25] MSNBC also commissioned original documentaries similar to The Discovery Channel for use as filler on weekends. Later in the year, Lester Holt received kudos for his daily coverage of the Florida election controversy, allowing MSNBC to beat Fox News during November 2000.[26]

Ratings Issues

MSNBC continued to trail both Fox and CNN. With the success of Fox News Channel, MSNBC tried to emulate the Fox News Channel's emphasis on opinion hosts.[27] In January, Mike Barnicle got a show on MSNBC, but it was canceled in June 2001 due to high production costs.[28] In June, as a sign of the continuing trouble of MSNBC, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that he wouldn't have started MSNBC knowing what he knew now.[29] After the September 11, 2001 attacks, MSNBC did prove useful as an outlet for NBC News to provide up-to-the-minute coverage, in contrast to broadcast NBC's longer stories. CNBC and CNBC Europe, with little financial news to report, ran MSNBC for many hours of the day following the attacks. The year also boosted the profile of Ashleigh Banfield, who had escaped injury while covering the World Trade Center on September 11. Her Region In Conflict program capitalized on her newfound celebrity and showcased exclusive interviews from Afghanistan.

In 2002, MSNBC's focus continued on opinion journalism and low ratings. MSNBC scored up to triple the usual ratings during the 2002 Winter Olympics (of which it aired several events), but not for its news programming.[30] Alan Keyes is Making Sense debuted in January, featuring the conservative one-time candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination.[31] MSNBC rebranded itself as America's NewsChannel, with a patriotic theme proclaiming MSNBC to be fiercely independent.[32] Jerry Nachman joined MSNBC as its editor-in-chief and host of a news analysis program in May, and liberal talk-show pioneer Phil Donahue began hosting an evening talk show in July.[33] The News with Brian Williams was moved to CNBC, leaving MSNBC with primarily opinion shows in the evening. Afternoons replaced the rolling news coverage with talk shows featuring Curtis Sliwa, Ron Kuby, Bill Press, and Pat Buchanan.[34]

The experiment did not last long. Keyes was gone by July. Sliwa and Kuby were removed in October, and Nachman's show was moved in October. Donahue's ratings plunged spectacularly, from 660,000 households his first week to just 136,000 households his sixth week, a drop of 80%.[35] The network was regularly beaten in the ratings by CNN Headline News. Overall, ratings dropped 36% from the previous year.[36] MSNBC publicly proclaimed support for Donahue and moved some shows around to try to stabilize his ratings, which helped increase his viewership to 446,000 households.[37] Nevertheless, the cancellation of his show would stick in the craw of some left-leaning viewers for years. They saw it as an indication that executives had no faith in liberal viewpoints. Donahue himself claimed that MSNBC was trying to "out-fox" Fox by removing him and adding Joe Scarborough to the lineup.[38] Donahue's time slot was replaced by "Countdown with Keith Olbermann".

In March 2003, MSNBC featured a weekend show hosted by conservative radio host Michael Savage, which turned out to have been an embarrassing move when Savage snapped at a prank caller on his show, calling him a "pig" and a "sodomite," telling him that he "should get AIDS and die" and "go eat a sausage and choke on it." Savage was immediately fired.[39]

On December 23, 2005, it was announced that NBC Universal would acquire an additional 32% share of the television network from Microsoft, solidifying its control over television operations and allowing NBC to further consolidate MSNBC's backroom operations with NBC News and its other cable properties. MSNBC.com will continue to be 50% owned by both NBC and Microsoft, and its operations will be largely unaffected. NBC will have the option to buy the remaining 18% share from Microsoft after two years. Due to Microsoft's declining influence, rumors are currently circulating in the broadcast industry that the network will eventually be rebranded as NBC News Channel, which is currently used for the network's news service to NBC affiliates.

In June of 2006, Don Kaplan of the New York Post (owned by News Corporation, who also owns Fox News Channel) wrote a column titled "Do We Need MSNBC?" Addressing MSNBC'S low ratings, Kaplan quoted CNN co-founder Reese Schoenfeld, who said that "Everybody compares MSNBC to Fox and CNN - when its real competition is Headline News". Schoenfeld pointed out that the ratings for MSNBC and Headline News are roughly the same, about 300,000 viewers on average and that "by comparison, Fox and CNN regularly average three or four times as many viewers." In the column Kaplan even joked that "the running joke in TV news is Fox and CNN are news channels with websites, but MSNBC is a website with a cable channel".[40]

New Leadership

On June 7, 2006, Rick Kaplan resigned as president of MSNBC, after holding the post for two years.[41] Following the announcement, it was announced on June 12, 2006, that Dan Abrams, a nine-year veteran of MSNBC and NBC News, had been named General Manager of the NBC News 24-hour cable news channel, effective immediately. NBC News Senior Vice President Phil Griffin will oversee MSNBC. Griffin will also continue to oversee NBC News’ Today and Abrams will report to Griffin.

On June 29, 2006, Abrams announced a revamp to MSNBC's early-primetime and primetime schedule. On July 10, Tucker (formerly The Situation with Tucker Carlson) started airing at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. ET (taking over Abrams' old timeslot), while Rita Cosby's Live & Direct was taken off the schedule. Cosby instead was given the role of primary anchor for "MSNBC Investigates" at 10 and 11 p.m. ET, the new programming that took over Cosby and Carlson's timeslots. According to the press release, "MSNBC Investigates" promises to "...complement MSNBC's existing programming by building on our library of award winning documentaries." [7]. The move to taped programming during 10 and 11 p.m. is likely a direct result of the success the network saw with their Friday "experiment" by replacing all primetime programming with taped specials.

Carriage Issues

As a result of a carriage agreement, MSNBC is currently not available to Verizon Fios TV subscribers in Verizon's Northern New Jersey grouping as well as areas in New York City. The reason for the lack of availability is an exclusive carriage agreement that MSNBC entered into with Cablevision, which services the areas in question. [8] The terms of the agreement (i.e. when the exclusive agreement expires) are unknown. The result of the agreement is that a competing content provider will be unable to offer MSNBC from where the broadcast originates. Also, as Verizon's subscriptions rise, MSNBC will be increasingly unavailable in one of the largest markets in the United States unless viewers subscribe to a second provider (either Cablevision or one of the satellite TV providers).

Broadcasts

MSNBC is only shown in the United States, Canada and parts of Latin America. In Europe, Asia and Africa MSNBC is not shown on a channel in its own right. However, MSNBC is shown for a few hours a day on the 24 hour news network Orbit News in Europe and the Middle East. During breaking news MSNBC is also shown occasionally on sister network CNBC Europe.[citation needed]

In Turkey, NTV-MSNBC is the news network of the Turkish broadcaster NTV Turkey. The network is a joint partnership between the two, although very little Turkish content makes its way onto English MSNBC. English content on MSNBC is translated to Turkish. [9] In the UK, during major US breaking news the now closed ITV News Channel (ITN) occasionally showed MSNBC and some of its reports appeared in the ITV News bulletins. For a brief time a Canadian version was developed in 2001 called MSNBC Canada, however it was soon discontinued in 2004 and the American station began airing in Canada.

Online

MSNBC.com Turns 10 in 2006
msnbc.com Newsroom
Main article: msnbc.com

MSNBC.com, is the online news outlet for the NBC News family, including networks shows such as Today, NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC as well as MSNBC TV. In addition to NBC News content and material produced by the site's own staff, MSNBC.com also hosts articles and features from several partners, including The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine.

The web site is developed in Redmond, Washington on the Microsoft campus and news content is produced out of newsrooms in Redmond, Washington, New York, New York, and London, England. It is the news provider for MSN, the portal site and online service operated by Microsoft, but is editorially and financially separate.

MSNBC.com is currently in a fierce battle with CNN.com for the position of top online U.S. news site.

On April 2, MSNBC.com launched a new logo and a new slogan, "A Fuller Spectrum of News."

Current Programming


MSNBC/NBC News Anchors and Correspondents

Criticism and Controversy

MSNBC has received criticism for its programming and journalistic ethics. Media Matters for America, a liberal group, has stated that MSNBC carries a conservative bias; meanwhile a conservative media watchdog group, Media Research Center, has argued that MSNBC has a liberal slant. Media Matters claims that shows such as Tucker, The Savage Nation, Scarborough Country, Smerconish Live, Imus in the Morning, and Hardball[42][43][44] show a conservative bias. MRC points to Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Hardball, and The Stephanie Miller Show programs most frequently as examples of liberal bias on MSNBC.[citation needed]

The most well known criticism has been from Fox News Channel and its pundit Bill O'Reilly, who has criticized the network repeatedly, citing that the network is "in trouble" because its liberal slant is pushing viewers away. Many MSNBC hosts fire back, however, from Tucker Carlson criticizing Bill for doing stories that have no redeeming value, to Keith Olbermann citing various "inconsistencies" and listing "Billo" many times as the "Worst Person In The World," to Joe Scarborough challenging O'Reilly's contentions that MSNBC is "moving to the left." Recent criticism of MSNBC has pointed-out that their programming contained 708% more references to the death of Anna Nicole Smith than to the Iraq war on February 8, 2007.[45]

In early April 2007, shock jock Don Imus, whose radio show Imus in the Morning was simulcast on MSNBC, made comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. The comments sparked outrage, as many individuals considered the comments to be both racist and sexist. Initially, this resulted in a two-week suspension of Imus' program from MSNBC starting the week of 16 April 2007. However on April 11, 2007, two days after this announcement, MSNBC announced that it canceled the simulcast, effective immediately as sponsors started withdrawing their advertisements from the show. CBS Radio, who owns both the radio show's flagship station (WFAN in New York) and its syndicator (Westwood One) initially suspended Imus, later announcing they had canceled his show, effective late in the day on April 12, 2007. NBC News, as well as Imus has apologised to the Rutgers Basketball team for the remarks.[46] MSNBC began filling the 6-9 AM slot with a series of rotating talk hosts which includes Michael Smerconish, Stephanie Miller, Tucker Carlson, Larry Elder, and Joe Scarborough. Scarborough's program, dubbed Morning Joe, had aired consistently since late May, and became the network's permanent replacement for Imus in the Morning.

In April 2007, NBC News and MSNBC received heavy criticism for airing pictures and videos sent to them by Cho Seung-Hui, the man who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University. In less than a day NBC news avoided airing the video and pictures sent by Cho Seung-Hui.

In August 2007 Joe Scarborough revealed an incident of some people in the MSNBC newsroom booing President Bush during a State of the Union address.

10-year Anniversary

In 2006 MSNBC celebrated 10 years on the air with a video retrospectve on its website msnbc.com

MSNBC Logos

1996-2001

File:MSNBC old logo.JPG

The network's first logo, it combines MSN with NBC.

2001-present

File:Msnbc.jpg

Combining MSN with NBC, this logo still in use as a secondary logo.

2001-2002

File:Logo msnbc ANC.gif

This logo was utilized in the aftermath of 9/11, in the "America's News Channel" phase. From this point on, the "N" in the logo was changed from red to match the rest of the letters' colorations. The peacock is colored with a pattern of the flag of the United States.

File:Msnbc.svg

Before the graphics and logo change, the Doc Block began using this version of the logo. Since August 21, 2006, MSNBC started to use this logo as the network's new official logo.

File:April 2nd MSNBC.png

Since April 2, 2007, a deviation from the original font and look previously used since the company's inception; used on MSNBC's website.

References

  1. ^ Collins, Scott Crazy Like A Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN, ISBN 1-59184-029-5
  2. ^ Jodi Jodi Applegate WNYW biography: [1]
  3. ^ Collins, Scott Crazy Like A Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN, ISBN 1-59184-029-5
  4. ^ Beato, G. Media Circus, April 11, 1997, Salon Magazine [2]
  5. ^ Goodman, Walter. "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; New and Familiar Faces In News Channel Debut", The New York Times, July 23, 1996. [3]
  6. ^ MSNBC at Ten; Remembering The Site. [4]
  7. ^ Burelle's Transcripts: [5]
  8. ^ Siklos, Richard. "This Little Peacock is Showing Some Pluck. BusinessWeek, August 17 1998.
  9. ^ Towery, Terry. "MSNBC proves it is ready." Peoria Journal Star, July 21, 1996. Page C12
  10. ^ Bianculli, David: "BEST OF 'IMUS IN THE MORNING' ON MSNBC? THEM'S THE BREAKS." New York Daily News, September 29, 1996.
  11. ^ Collins, Scott Crazy Like A Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN, ISBN 1-59184-029-5
  12. ^ Flash, Cynthia. "MICROSOFT LEARNS COSTLY MEDIA LESSON". Tacoma News Tribune, September 24, 1997. Page C9
  13. ^ "MSNBC CHANNEL CANCELS `THE SITE,' AWARD-WINNING TECHNOLOGY SHOW". Seattle Times, September 21, 1997, Page E4.
  14. ^ Pope, Kyle. "Future Seems Bright at MSNBC Despite Tiny Ratings." The Wall Street Journal, October 28, 1997, page B1
  15. ^ Bauder, David. "`BIG SHOW' A TALL ORDER FOR OLBERMANN". Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 17, 1997, page 5.E
  16. ^ Johnson, Peter. "MSNBC hasn't plugged into a big audience yet." USA Today, June 4, 1997.
  17. ^ PR Newswire: "MSNBC.COM RATED #1 ONLINE NEWS SITE FOR 1997", January 20, 1998
  18. ^ PR Newswire: "MSNBC.COM RATED #1 ONLINE NEWS SITE FOR 1998", January 19, 1999
  19. ^ PR Newswire: "MSNBC.COM RATED #1 ONLINE NEWS SITE FOR 1999", January 22, 2000
  20. ^ Jensen, Elizabeth. "Cable News Rivals Prepare for Life After Monica". Los Angeles Times, February 12, 1999. Page A1.
  21. ^ Mifflin, Lawrie. "Too Few Viewers for 'Hockenberry'." The New York Times, July 12, 1999. Page C12
  22. ^ "Washington Post, NBC to collaborate". Houston Chronicle, November 18, 1999. pg. 4
  23. ^ Curpisin, Tim. "MSNBC wants to be women's `Home Page'". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 3, 2000.
  24. ^ "Gibson Jumping to FNC." New York Post, August 16, 2000.
  25. ^ Saunders, Dusty. "NBC SCORED EARLY SUCCESS IN ANNOUNCING BUSH WIN", Rocky Mountain News, December 15, 2000.
  26. ^ Lavin, Cheryl. "HOLT HITS THE NEWSROOM RUNNING FOR MSNBC." Chicago Tribune, November 24 2000. Page 1.
  27. ^ Moss, Linda. "MSNBC Shifts Shows" Cable World, July 2, 2001.
  28. ^ E! Online, Bits and Pieces, June 26 2001.
  29. ^ Ballmer: Would not launch MSNBC again. CNET News.Com, June 7, 2001.
  30. ^ Bauder, David. "BAD DECISIONS HURT MSNBC" Associated Press, February 25, 2002.
  31. ^ Huff, Richard. "MSNBC GETS KEYES TO TALK." New York Daily News, January 8 2002.
  32. ^ Battaglio, Steven. "MSNBC STARTS TO SPELL OUT NEW APPROACH." New York Daily News, April 12, 2002, page 139
  33. ^ Jensen, Elizabeth. "Donahue's Back, With No Plans to Be Neutral." Los Angeles Times, July 10, 2002. Page F1
  34. ^ Bard, Ed. "MSNBC relying on personalities as it revamps lineup." Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. June 13, 2002.
  35. ^ Bauder, David. "CAN'T PHIL THE BILL? / Donahue's numbers sinking on MSNBC" Houston Chronicle, September 4, 2002, Page 10
  36. ^ deMoraes, Lisa. "MSNBC's Nachman Takes One for the Team" Washington Post, October 5, 2002. Page C07
  37. ^ Huff, Richard. "MSNBC: Weak ratings snuff Phil Donahue" Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. February 26, 2003.
  38. ^ Huff, Richard. "DONAHUE LIBERALLY FIRES BACK AT MSNBC" New York Daily News, February 27, 2003. Page 89
  39. ^ Lowry, Brian. "Savage gets the boot after on-air anti-gay outburst" Los Angeles Times, July 8, 2003. Page E1.
  40. ^ [6], New York Post Columnist Asks 'Do We Need MSNBC?'
  41. ^ Rick Kaplan Exits: Effective Immediately, President Of MSNBC Steps Down, TVNewser, June 7 2006
  42. ^ http://mediamatters.org/items/200505310005
  43. ^ http://mediamatters.org/items/200605120003
  44. ^ http://mediamatters.org/items/200701230006
  45. ^ http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/09/anna-nicole-media-embarassment/
  46. ^ MSNBC drops simulcast of Don Imus show. MSNBC.com. 11 April 2007.

See also
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