Pew: 85% of MSNBC's Reporting Is Opinion

Liberals love to make the case that MSNBC is the left-wing version of Fox News.

Not according to a new Pew Research Center study that found MSNBC to be by far the most opinionated cable news channel in America:

Traditionally known for its attention to breaking news, daytime cable’s cuts in live event coverage and its growing reliance on interviews suggest it may be moving more toward the talk-oriented evening shows. This transition may cut the costs of having a crew and correspondent provide live event coverage.

CNN, which has branded itself around reporting resources and reach, cut back between 2007 and 2012 on two areas tied to that brand—in-depth story packages and live event coverage. Even so, CNN is the only one of the three big cable news channels to produce more straight reporting than commentary over all. At the other end of that spectrum lies MSNBC, where opinion fills a full 85% of the channel’s airtime.

So at MSNBC, only 15 percent of air time is actually devoted to straight news reporting. At Fox it's 45 percent.

As such, 85 percent of the time, MSNBC viewers are being pummeled with far-left opinions by commentators that either also work for the Nation magazine or share the opinions of those that do.

Forbes Monday noted a financial reason for this:

Not coincidentally, MSNBC also spends by far the least producing its news: some $240 million in 2012, according to an estimate by SNL Kagan. CNN spent $682 million, while Fox led the pack with an outlay of $820 million.

So Fox spends almost 3 1/2 times as much on news production as MSNBC. Any wonder why there isn't much news to be found at this NBC "news" division?

As I've said many times before, it's a farce for MSNBC to be considered a news organization and to be placed in the proximity of CNN and Fox on cable guides.