MSNBC's Griffin Refuses to Accept Petition To Bring Back David Shuster

He'd already said he wants to be more like FOX News, so maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that Phil Griffin makes it clear he doesn't care what MSNBC viewers have to say by refusing to accept their Petition To Bring Back David Shuster...
The petitions were sent via certified mail to Griffin, Jeffrey Zucker, and Steve Capus of NBC Universal, as well as to Brian Roberts of Comcast and Jon Klein of CNN in an effort to demonstrate to these employers and potential employers that David Shuster does, indeed have a loyal following and there is an audience for a progressive and assertive media.

Though it's highly doubtful that a Corporate Executive who publicly proclaims his admiration for, and desire to emulate Roger Ailes, woul gb reading Democratic Underground, just in case, and, as we expect he has a Google alert set for his name, our cover letter read:






And here is the

Petition to Bring Back David Shuster

http://www.petitiononline.com/NewsFans/petition.html


We, the undersigned consumers of progressive media, urge, in the strongest possible terms, the return of David Shuster to the regularly scheduled MSNBC lineup, preferably in his own branded show.

As progressive consumers, we recognize and appreciate that Mr. Shuster's allegiance is not to us, but to journalism. We are not advocating for him because we expect him to tell us what we want to hear.

Mr. Shuster’s dedication to real journalism, his assertive and passionate style, and his singular preparedness for interviews, are evidence that his loyalties, professionalism and ethics are well matched for MSNBC's core demographic.

We further request that MSNBC President Phil Griffin reevaluate his demands that his journalists' loyalty be solely to his corporate "team," rather than to a higher standard of objectivity and truth.

Either bring David Shuster back or cut him loose so that we, his loyal audience, can follow this exceptional newsman to greener pastures.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned





Join us at our FaceBook Group Punish David Shuster With His Own Show

You can still sign the Petition
and leave your comment for Mr. Griffin.

We'll get it to him if we have to nail it to the wall of 30 Rock.

shows for ratings and they pretty much have the lock on progressives. And Rachel said her bit from last night comparing 1979 to the Gulf disaster made it to the floor of Congress today. Don't think any of their hosts can make that claim.

Bummer about David - I really like him. Hope he gets a great gig and that we can find out when and where he settles.

but in employing a similar strategy of targeting one PORTION of the political spectrum (e.g., as Fox targets the Right, Griffin's strategy for MSNBC is to target the Left).

He has said in at least one interview that they have some popular, successful shows (obviously referring to K.O. and Rachel), and he wants MSNBC to be doing more of that.

and who else to be targeted to his core progressive demographic?
I see Shultz, Maddow and Olbermann. The rest of the time MSNBC is his frat house.
His interview was widely seen as a shout out to Ailes because no one expects him to survive the Comcast takeover and he and Zucker are known to be looking for work. Exactly what he suspended Shuster for.
MSNBC is a corporation first, and foremost, Griffin has no ideology or interest in progressive politics, and does not deserve our loyalty.

That he singled out the prime time programming they have now (Keith and Rachel) as an example of what he wants more of, suggested to me that there may be some changes in store for morning programming. (And don't Joe and Mika have a radio show they're expanding, or about to expand, to three hours?)

I could be reading too much into it, however. The interview comments I saw were pretty disjointed and not entirely clear.

Obviously, conservatives like Scarborough and Buchanan don't fit the strategy that Griffin seems to be suggesting, which is why I was left wondering what kind of changes may lie ahead for the network.

as him looking for new work of his own, with his tenure at MSNBC expected to end after the Comcast buy out. The man is apolitical and doesn't give a shit about progressives. He's got them by the short hairs and he knows it. Name any move he has made this past year in his dizzying daytime line-up changes that reflects an appeal to progressives.

All the anchors and the ones with shows, except for the gracious Rachel, were acting like Fox and really going at obama. I was waiting for Glenn Beck to arrive and be cheered on.
the rejection of the petition shows how little MSNBC cares about their viewers.

but not outright refuse to sign for it like a professional would.

It's entertaining, factual, informative, and it has great guests.

Olbermann is better now that he's dropped the 30-minute entertainment portion, although the poetry readings on Fridays are a snoozer. I realize some people really like that part of the show, and it is at the very end so it works out fine for those of us who aren't interested.

Tweety's show can be shrill at times, as can Tweety, and his annoying and rude habit of not SHUTTING UP so people he asked a question of can actually answer it sends me running for the remote.

Ed Shultz is pretty good, he's just not on at a great time for me.

Dylan Ratigan is also OK, but I watched David Shuster more often in that time slot.

Morning Joe? Blah. Mica should just sit on Joe's lap and rub around on him, she's just there for the visuals. They could drop the pretense of being a news/talk show and just have everyone sit around and talk about Joe. You know, how handsome he is. How smart. How entertaining. How he should be President. That kind of stuff because naturally EVERYONE is interested in Joe. :eyes:

MSNBC is going to run their cable network into the ground. But what would you expect from a network that would cancel good shows like Medium, Southland, My Name Is Earl, and others to make room for an hour of Jay Leno every night? FAIL. Most could have told the idiots making that decision that the idea sucked feces, but they did it anyway and cost the network a ton of money. Good choice.

Just like the choice to suspend David Shuster. Good talent is hard to find these days, just look at the people still on NBC properties for proof:

Andrea Mitchell - really? Sleeping with the guy who helped lead the country into recession, yet no disclaimers on the air about the conflict. Hmmm...

Luke Russert - :rofl: Enough said.

David Gregory - a right wing partisan hack if ever there were one. The big goon would be better suited for a clown at the circus, although that would be a challenge too I suspect.

Jim Cramer - Wrong 100% of the time. Gives out bad advice 100% of the time. People, yes you will lose money if you listen to this screamin' idiot.

Chuck Todd - Another loser. He and Gregory get off on promoting the right every chance they get. Another boring snoozer. Personality of road kill. No, sorry, road kill would be more interesting.

I think everyone gets the idea.

and he does not read poetry on Fridays, he reads Thurber (who was not a poet). And I like it.

Try learning something about Olbermann's show before you attempt to post intelligently on what it has or used to have.

Olbermann used to use a large portion of his show, normally the second half, to cover important things like who was on American Idol and what they'd done and whether or not they were going to get dumped. He had the female DJ from a New York radio station on to discuss things. The last half of the show leaned more toward "Entertainment Tonight" than politics.

Do a search of DU, you'll find threads about it because at the time others here expressed that they were not thrilled with it either.

As for Thurber, you can call it what you want. (Snoooooze.)

I've been watching Olbermann's show for years, so I'm very familiar with it, and if you'd bothered to check instead of wasting everybody's time you'd have seen I've been a big supporter of his for years, but you obviously did not in your rush to post an insulting remark.

:eyes:

good analysis, i like it! :thumbsup: (although i don't agree with all of it)

Facts are so important...and usually not up for interpretation or discussion - they are facts. Heres' one for ya: Ratigan is on at 4 pm EST. David was on at 3 pm EST. It would have been hard to watch one instead of the other, as they were never on at the same time. Ratigan is still on, M-F, btw.

Also, I've been watching Keith for years, too - and never noticed a half hour of Entertainment each night....don't know where you got that from (I'm not going back into past posts to read about it, either, so please don't suggest that I do that - I'm just saying that I never noticed a full half hour of entertainment news EACH night on Countdown, is all)...but I do remember Matthews being embarrassed that he had to cover the whole Anna Nicole Smith fiasco...since those days they've gotten an "Entertainment Correspondent" on board, Courtney somebody, who dishes it out on the daytime shows, but never on Keith...however, disappointingly they do now cover things like Tiger Woods or Lindsay Lohan as real news, and I really don't give a crap about any of those people...It is now common to see entertainment news sprinkled throughout MSNBC's "news" shows, to my chagrin.

I'm sorry you do not appreciate Keith's trying to edify you, with some honest-to-God American culture. I think it's funny that you think it's somehow cool and hip to be against learning a thing or two from James Thurber...but then again, you would need to concentrate for a whole, say 3-5 minutes, on one topic....so boring, I suppose, especially if you are used to getting your news in 30 second blips.

Thurber is an American tradition, and his stories are a fantastic edition to Keith's show in my opinion - the main reason being that Keith is obviously really into it, and so, puts a good deal of effort into his selection, for the week (or so it seems to me)...it is also an homage to his recently deceased father, so there's some nostalgia in there as well...and most importantly, Thurber compartmentalizes life into nice, easy to assimilate (if you can concentrate for that long) parables that might help one to conduct oneself a little better in today's world, and in dealing with life's challenges. I'm sorry you cannot appreciate those stories, because they are the "teaching moment" each week for Keith, and those of his followers that can stay engaged for that long. I highly recommend you give it another chance, and just prepare yourself to have to stay involved for longer than most news stories, it's really worth it. Do you read? It's like that...

Ratigan is more than just okay - he is the closest thing that MSNBC has to Shuster....like David, he calls both parties out on their shit, even though he very heavily leans to the left....further to the left than the Dems, actually...so you might want to give him a bit more attention, I find him as informative as Rachel - he will tell you how the Dems are as much on the dole as the Repubs...I know many Dems don't want to hear their team bad-mouthed, but I'd rather hear the truth, myself.

Jim Cramer isn't on MSNBC, to my knowledge, don't know when you've seen him...but avoid him, if you do see him on there.

Agreed, Andrea, yuk, Chuck yuk, David Gregory, double yuck.

I don't think Chuck is a rightie, nor Gregory, they just aren't very gripping journalists, and Gregory is too concerned with people liking him (i.e. he danced with Rove, for chrissakes), rather than putting politicians' feet to the fire the way David does.

The worst though, is the constant string of new people they are throwing at us every day lately, in an effort to fill the hole left by Shuster...every one of them has been a full yawn for me...

Please don't start a war with me - I just enjoy making snarky comments, and once I type in a really good, pithy comment, it's hard to delete it, but I do agree with almost everything you said..

Who the hell is Tweety?

1. Tweety
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tweety
Nickname for Chris Matthews, host of 'Hardball.' His staff nicknamed him Tweety Bird because of the shade of yellow he dyes his hair. First divulged at mediawhoresonline.com
May 9, 2004

I read somewhere (here at DU, I think) that they may be coming back in September.

That was a very good post, btw! (Even though I didn't agree with all of it, naturally. :) )

Thanks for the compliments on my post, sorry you didn't agree with all that I said! I'm such a newbie that I didn't realize that you had even responded to my post, either!! How does it work, here? Do they send emails when someone replies to a post,and I just missed it, or do I just have to return to my original post to see if there are new messages?

If someone has responded to a post you've written, records will track for about 48 hours. If you want to keep a handle on comments longer than that, there's a journal you can activate and place the post there. This is kept indefinitely.

I've only been here a little over a year myself, still lots to learn, and I could be wrong. Likely best to verify through a member 'longer in the tooth' as it were.

Welcome to DU :hi:

I will never forget the coffee that flew out of my nose the day Contessa Brewer (of all people), in utter frustration with one of his run-away rants, told him he needed to slowly back away from his dog-eared copy of "The Fountainhead."

And while I was an early fan of Olbermann, I am capable of getting my culture and parables from the usual sources. I would like a little less of the blinding "illumination" he so painfully explains in his new promo spots that he is providing those in his audience he apparently considers armed with some knowledge, but limited analytical capacity, and a little more in the line of disparate viewpoints. Bringing in a constant stream of the same "villagers" to lend their stamp of approval and to certify that he is not "wildly wrong," is almost the very definition of an "echo chamber." I don't like that on the right, and always imagined that on the left we could weigh thoughtfully presented issue all by ourselves.

corporate TV media whores. <no offense to sex workers>

I hope less and less people watch. Each day when a thread is posted from Mourning Ho-Jo, I think, why do you folks give them publicity? Their ratings are bad and if democrats REFUSE to watch, they'll drop them.

Don't watch the whores on the TV MSM and they'll get the hint to either move LESS corporate right or become *obsolete.* :evilgrin:

Let him go to Capitol Hill and replace that worthless excuse for a journalist, one each, nepotistic shill, Luke Russert?