“F” gets added to “MSNBC”

Did anybody catch Joe Scarborough dropping an F-bomb on live morning TV on his show on MSNBC earlier this week?

That’s a great statement above. Let’s deconstruct it for the average American (not my enlightened readers). The average American might ask, “Joe Scarborough has a show in the morning now?” but probably won’t. The average American might ask, “Who is this Joe Scarborough fella?” but probably won’t. What the average American will ask is, “What the fuck is MSNBC?”*

*Seriously, ask the guy sitting next to you in Starbucks what MSNBC stands for. What might he say? Certainly not “Microsoft Network National Broadcasting Corporation.” That’s the official definition, but it doesn’t even fit. He might guess close, like “Microsoft National Broadcasting Corporation.” Or he might guess at a charitable organization like “Multiple Sclerosis Needs Better Care.” Really, he could say anything. Try it and tell me what he says in the comments.

In light of this, Joe Scarborough’s fuck-up is probably the best career move he’s made since his intern died at his office and he quit politics.* Seriously, this might be the only way the guy gets face time on another network, the only way anyone links to anything MSNBC has on the air (besides hilariously self-righteous Keith Olbermann rants), and is certainly the only way I’m going to talk about Scarborough on my blog (for what that’s worth).

*My interpretation of Scarborough’s motivations and timeline may or may not be entirely accurate.

Scarborough used to be a Republican stooge on national TV, defending RNC talking points like a less irritable Bill O’Reilly. Then MSNBC decided to revamp its evening lineup to become the liberal to Fox News’ conservative and moved Scarborough to inane morning chatter. Scarborough, for his part, complied and became MSNBC’s stooge. The guy’s got the spine of an amoeba. But hey, he’s in the news now! He said “fuck” on cable TV! Now he’s getting referenced by Jon Stewart, Will Leitch, and me!

I’ve been watching MSNBC for years. (I might be the only one.) I used to like that it was less biased and that it used NBC’s great news team. Then they lost Brian Williams and slowly started creeping to its current incarnation, which is increasingly more like every other news station. Want to watch the news at 8pm? Tough shit, every network has its own smarmy commentator at that time. You can’t watch news, but you can get your opinion. Even Headline News doesn’t show headlines or news anymore. They get better ratings with some guy telling you how to interpret the news.

That bottomed out when MSNBC had its commentators in charge of discussing political primaries. They took their party-line stances and argued rather than reporting on the debates and whatnot. MSNBC lost most of what credibility it had left. It became no better than Fox News. (Ok, maybe a little better.)

I even like Olbermann, but I also like, you know, the news.  At least he doesn’t pretend that he’s an anchor not a commentator. I want to hear the story before Olbermann tells me his take on the story. That is, when it’s a story with substance and not another story about a pretty blond girl who went missing six months ago.