"MSNBC got some very good people. They've got a good-looking set. All They're first-class. Somewhere along the way, they kind of lost their identity as a news channel, and they started doing a lot of other sort of magazine-type programming"
About this Quote
Brit Hume delivers critique the way seasoned TV people do it when they want to sound fair: he starts by polishing the silverware before he points out the rot. “Very good people,” “good-looking set,” “first-class” - that’s not just politeness, it’s positioning. By praising the talent and the aesthetics, he frames MSNBC’s problem as structural and strategic rather than personal. It’s the classic insider move: I respect the craft, which is why my indictment carries weight.
The real bite is in “lost their identity as a news channel.” Identity here isn’t branding fluff; it’s an implied moral category. For a veteran of legacy broadcast norms, “news” signals discipline, hierarchy, and a pretense of neutrality. “Magazine-type programming” is a coded downgrade: personality-driven segments, lifestyle pacing, softer narratives, the kind of television that sells mood and point-of-view more than verified urgency. He’s suggesting MSNBC drifted from reporting toward producing.
Context matters. Cable news has long been an attention economy in a trench coat, and MSNBC’s evolution into a more interpretive, host-centered product mirrors what its competitors did in their own ways. Hume’s phrasing - “somewhere along the way,” “kind of,” “sort of” - is deliberate vagueness that lets him gesture at a broad cultural shift without naming the pressures (ratings, partisan sorting, the collapse of the monoculture). The subtext: MSNBC didn’t just change formats; it surrendered a claim to authority, and in the cable arena, that’s the one asset you can’t easily buy back.
The real bite is in “lost their identity as a news channel.” Identity here isn’t branding fluff; it’s an implied moral category. For a veteran of legacy broadcast norms, “news” signals discipline, hierarchy, and a pretense of neutrality. “Magazine-type programming” is a coded downgrade: personality-driven segments, lifestyle pacing, softer narratives, the kind of television that sells mood and point-of-view more than verified urgency. He’s suggesting MSNBC drifted from reporting toward producing.
Context matters. Cable news has long been an attention economy in a trench coat, and MSNBC’s evolution into a more interpretive, host-centered product mirrors what its competitors did in their own ways. Hume’s phrasing - “somewhere along the way,” “kind of,” “sort of” - is deliberate vagueness that lets him gesture at a broad cultural shift without naming the pressures (ratings, partisan sorting, the collapse of the monoculture). The subtext: MSNBC didn’t just change formats; it surrendered a claim to authority, and in the cable arena, that’s the one asset you can’t easily buy back.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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