MSNBC, CNN and FoxNews - It's All E!

I've been watching MSNBC since probably 1994. I think it was the entire OJ Simpson mess that got me hooked on the cable news outlet. I bet I wasn't the only one who discovered cable news during that fiasco.

And over time, NBC News or NBC Entertainment or whoever the hell runs programming at MSNBC has re-tooled that mother a number of times. They've given Geraldo a show and Michael Savage a show and Charles Grodin, Rita Cosby... the list goes on and on, all in the attempt to break into a solid second place, ahead of CNN and below FoxNews. (Didn't Dominick Dunne have his own show, too?)

Regardless, the re-tooling hasn't worked. MSNBC consistently ranks third behind CNN and FoxNews, that is, if you can believe the accuracy of television ratings. (Sounds like a good follow up blog subject to me.)

Currently, this young guy Dan Abrams, whose father is a well-known Beltway attorney, was given the keys to the station and told to 'get 'er done.' (That was me, borrowing a catch-phrase from a Neanderthal-like stand-up comic who appeals to modern-day Cro-Magnums. I don't really think that the owners of MSNBC actually said to Dan Abrams, "Get 'er done." Perhaps if it was FoxNews, they may have used that phrase.)

Regardless, Abrams is doing his best, but the results are slow coming. I remain a solid viewer of Hardball, the political forum show hosted by Jesuit-trained, rapid-fire recounter Chris Matthews. The guy can be a pain in the ass, but all-in-all, it's political entertainment, the best you'll find over the tube.

There's a couple of other shows I'll watch, except for Keith Olbermann, who, although he's still a relatively young liberal, manages to exude the smugness of a liberal twice his age. Kinda like he should have been born in the late twenties so that he'd be his current age in like 1972, circa George McGovern. And, although his competition on Fox, Bill O'Reilly, is a guy whose show I'd seldom ever check into, (I liken watching O'Rielly's show to drinking someone else's cold cup of coffee) just a minute of Olbermann makes me want to put Fox on for some reason I cannot yet discern.

But despite Olbermann, MSNBC remains one of my favorite destinations.

I say all this a day after I watched MSNBC news coverage of an event that brought to mind news coverage of past catastrophic events. Yesterday, I saw crowds shifting, en masse, past a brave, selfless female reporter. Hundreds sprinting toward a final destination, perhaps safety, like tsunami victims scurrying uphill to save their souls or French Jews 30 minutes ahead of the Panzers, or finally, like Best Buy patrons at 4AM as the doors fly open and the iPhones await their new owners' bookbags.

Yes, MSNBC was on top of yesterday's BIG story - ah, the humanity. And as the helicopters whirled overhead and the brave, selfless reporter sprayed her hair off-camera, the cause of all this commotion, one, Britney Spears, arrived late for her custody hearing.

Back on camera, the female reporter (man, were her teeth white) joked with the anchor back in the studio regarding the absurdity of the situation, yet the show went on. And, although we can all agree that covering the Britney Spears of the world, in a world where millions starve and wars continue is perhaps not the best use of Mr. Marconi's airwaves, let's get one thing straight - CNN is MSNBC's target and if Dan Abrams and his news editors have to climb aboard the Britney Spears' express to the nether regions, then all aboard.

Remember Dan - Just 'Get 'er done.'