Appearing on Fox News’ MediaBuzz on Sunday, Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik mercilessly mocked MSNBC’s low ratings, calling the network “24-hours a day of mess.”
Zurawik appeared on MediaBuzz to discuss a recent Quinnipiac poll that found Americans consider Fox to be the most trusted television news network whereas MSNBC was the least trusted network.
Host Howard Kurtz began the discussion on MSNBC's low ratings by observing that the network "has become 500 liberals and Joe Scarborough meaning I don't see a lot of dissent on that channel most of the time.”
After Kurtz called out MSNBC for being essentially an exclusively liberal network, Zurawik noted that they “tried to do Fox from the left. It's been a disaster. MSNBC is in chaos. It's an embarrassment.”
The Baltimore Sun media critic concluded his critique of MSNBC by arguing that the network has become such an “embarrassment” that it has started to hurt the entire NBC News brand:
You know, everybody says what’s Andy Lack, the new president of NBC, or chairman of NBC News going to do with Nightly News and Brian Williams? No, what is he going to do with MSNBC? He’s got 24-hours a day of mess over there. People don’t watch it. It’s unwatchable. Even if you were an ideologue you can’t watch that channel anymore.
And I've been saying this for years about MSNBC. They took a really wrong turn, Phil Griffin the president over there, took a really bad turn in trying to go hardcore ideology. They didn't know how to do it and they have lost the news credibility and I think it hurts the NBC brand, as well.
See relevant transcript below:
Fox News’ MediaBuzz
March 15, 2015
HOWARD KURTZ: Alright, MSNBC finished last. I joked on Megyn Kelly's show the other night that MSNBC has become 500 liberals and Joe Scarborough meaning I don't see a lot of dissent on that channel most of the time. What does that number reflect besides low ratings?
DAVID ZURAWIK: Howie, it’s amazing. You know, MSNBC tried to do Fox from the left. It's been a disaster. MSNBC is in chaos. It's an embarrassment. You know, everybody says what’s Andy Lack, the new president of NBC, or chairman of NBC News going to do with Nightly News and Brian Williams? No, what is he going to do with MSNBC? He’s got 24-hours a day of mess over there.
People don’t watch it. It’s unwatchable. Even if you were an ideologue you can’t watch that channel anymore. And I've been saying this for years about MSNBC. They took a really wrong turn, Phil Griffin the president over there, took a really bad turn in trying to go hardcore ideology. They didn't know how to do it and they have lost the news credibility and I think it hurts the NBC brand, as well.
KURTZ: Starting to cancel some shows.
