
MSNBC: former cable news heroes of the Left now increasingly losing viewership despite recent trends. Progressives aren’t buying into Trump-Russia hysteria.
It was seemingly daily during the Bush years we were tuned to MSNBC watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann listing through the political faux pas of George W., D. Cheney and Co. If it wasn’t enough at the time getting Keith’s intellectual deconstruction of everything politically embarrassing and shocking, we also had Rachel Maddow batting a high .300 with her show, covering such notable events as the poor handling of Hurricane Katrina, prisoner treatment and evisceration of rights at Guantanamo Bay, and of course, the empty promises of the withdrawal of our soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.
And we even had Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart! Though I don’t necessarily think we miss those dark times of the Bush years and the creation of the Surveillance state,post Patriot Act, I think we miss those shows for providing the intellectual commentary that was very deprived during that era. Jon Stewart is righteously pursuing his post-career life endeavors after years of his comedic truth and honesty. He has not however crossed over to the dark side, where MSNBC’s best and brightest now shine like a diamond.
The thing is, many on the Progressive Left aren’t buying into the Russia-gate conspiracy and the “progressive purist”-bashing echo-chamber that includes Joy Ann Reid, Chris Hayes, and Chris Todd, to say the least. While major cable news networks are using Trump’s supposed Russia ties and his repugnant Charlottesville commentary to drum up ratings, alternative media has increasingly stepped in to do the work of covering emergent news and put the focus back on politicians that stand to benefit by having the limelight on Donald “Tiny-Hands” Trump and not themselves.
There’s a distinction to be made here. At a time when we need these scholarly insightful torchbearers the most, they have abandoned stories much needing of the coverage that would engage many people and spread like wildfire. Where’s Olbermann these days with the bombshell of news that is the DNC Fraud Lawsuit (though he no longer is on MSNBC)? Where’s Maddow in mentioning the suspicious scandal plaguing Debbie Wasserman-Shultz and her former IT staffer Imran Awan? She means to tell us that she can connect the dots between Trump and Russia but somehow anything an establishment Democrat and their staff does that would bring upon ire and criminal probes would fail to draw scrutiny from her? The Progressive Left aren’t buying it.
We on the Progressive Left actually have the capability to self-criticize and reform, whether we consider ourselves fierce Independents, or Democrats that aren’t pro-corporate centrists such as FDR Democrats. Justice Democrats.
It is clear that the Democratic Party needs reform if it seeks to win back seats in both houses of Congress and eventually the Presidency. Speak this in specifics, and mainstream media will ignore and disavow you. Speak this in generalities, vague as such, and you sound like Tom Perez or Corey Booker. You will still get invites back to appear on the Morning Joe, or with Andrea Mitchell.


Not to lose hope, The Young Turks has emerged as a left-leaning news media powerhouse and has helped launch the successful careers of popular journalists, reporters, commentators, and bloggers such as Jimmy Dore, Jordan Chariton, Nomiki Konst……to name a few.


RT (formerly Russia Today) while often criticized by mainstream pundits as being a mouthpiece for the Russian Government, also has helped launch the careers of the increasingly popular Lee Camp of Redacted Tonight and Abby Martin who is now with TeleSur with her new show,The Empire Files.
Business often isn’t fair. Almost anyone with a dissenting voice that seeks to provide much needed commentary is relegated to either using YouTube, internet blogging sites, or state-sponsored cable news channels like RT willing to use that liberal dissention into its overarching goal of lambasting opposing world powers such as the U.S. and its partners. Would it be good for MSNBC have Abby Martin on their channel doing an exposé on one of their own sponsors? It would be terrific for the public, but likely devastating to lose a major sponsor.
It would help to note that those who are very willing to dismiss RT new reporters and commentators for their political coverage somehow refuse or sheepingly don’t admit that the widely acclaimed and respected Larry King is a regular anchor on the channel. In fact, he has recently interviewed Senator Kamala Harris, not shying away from his work on fairly covering politics.

Think about the next time you read a Washington Post story. I can guarantee they will never scrutinize the Central Intelligence Agency or multi-industry juggernaut Amazon.
And that’s where the real problem lies. It’s important to know and to recognize how the business of mass mainstream media works, to know where the present state of news lies, and where the future is likely headed. Because the business of mainstream news is often LIES. The major news networks can lie and omit the truth often. Presenting facts alone is dissention. It’s what you don’t hear, for a reason, which is often the truth in cases where intellectual alternative media stars are rising rapidly because of what we don’t get any more from the likes of MSNBC.


As of now, MSNBC’s ratings are only up to 2.6 million viewers because of Rachel Maddow’s show being no. 1 currently due to Russia-gate and President Trump’s loose-cannon tweets. They had went into steady decline after the late 2000’s, and into a freefall after the 2016 election, being beaten by ratings champ, Fox News and even The Young Turks.
The Progressive Left aren’t buying it. We aren’t watching MSNBC like we used to. With MSNBC shifting towards more neo-liberal centrists anchors reporting the same tired old talking pieces, we are running out of interest.
And who can blame us?
Well, actually, the democratic establishment is.
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