Nicole Wallace could be a source of tension in my household, or more specifically, my marriage. I am nursing a powerful crush on my “Nicole,” fed daily as she hosts MSNBC’s latest addition to its afternoon line-up Deadline: White House. I am getting a small reprieve, though, because my wife confesses to having her own crush on Nicole, one almost as powerful as the one she has for Ari Melber.
Apparently we are not the only household that A) turns it to MSNBC throughout the day as they detail that day’s “Trump News” and “Implosion Countdown,” and B) has our favorite “On-Air” personalities. MSNBC is now the 2nd most-watched cable station, second only to Fox News. (Fox almost does not count, because the country’s aging shut-ins have long turned to Fox to deliver their daily dose of fear, which is what keeps them angry, which helps keep them alive. Were it not for Fox, Big Pharma would sell far fewer hypertension medications to the nation’s baby boomers).
Apparently, I am not alone in my “feelings” for Wallace, she appears to be “irresistible” to many:
In February and March of this year, her program began to attract more total viewers on certain days than both Fox’s Your World with Neil Cavuto and CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, regularly beating the competition in the money-making 25-54 age demographic, according to Nielsen.
In April, Deadline: White House was scoring record total viewership in its time period for MSNBC—an average of 1.3 million, representing a 71 percent spike over April 2017.
Yes, apparently the Resistance galvanizes views, and MSNBC is the prime beneficiary, though, to be fair, the afternoon and evening line-up is dotted with the best journalists of our generation, journalists that I believe would be watched even in the absence of a presidential scandal.
It has long been a basic tenet of the “Kool-kidz” on the left to look down upon “the corporate media” as “shills” for power and the ruling class, in the pockets of conservatives and big business. If you want to be cool on DailyKos, immediately go to the website, start an I.D. and write about how the “media” is wholly owned by Wall Street and does Wall Street’s bidding, always missing on the side of conservatives.
Well, F-that, and not just because they are dissing my girlfriend. No, screw it because I see many mainstream journalists taking their efforts to a new level in a day and age where they are called out by name by the President of the United States. We hope that personal ridicule is the worst consequence faced by a brave, modern American journalist. I say “hope,” because our President may be neck-deep involved with a Russian dictator who simply kills journalists who cause him displeasure. Need I mention that this same Russian president who kills journalists has already reached outside of Russia to kill? Please don’t tell me that Robert Costa of the Post and Maggie Haberman of the Times don’t worry about their safety, worry at a level new to U.S. journalists, same goes for my Nicole, and Rachel, Chris, and Lawrence.
So, I am not longer putting up with it. I am committed to confronting the “lazy” and “cynical” meme about the “corporate media” the second I see it on the usual blogs. If an individual piece of journalism qualifies as shoddy or deserves derision, great, have at it, hold them accountable, abso-friggin-lutely. But this blanket judgment, this need to prove one’s bona-fides as “cynical enough to know better” is tired, and rude, given the work being put in.
It is highly re-assuring to hear that MSNBC is surging. The lede story – near every day – is effectively the same story, some variation of: “Can you believe this shit?” Apparently the resistance in this nation has found its meeting place, this website, and that cable channel.
What’s more, both Fox and CNN have actually lost audience share compared to their 2017 viewership—a drop from 1,665,000 average total viewers throughout the seven-day week to 1,432,000 for Fox (minus 14 percent) and a drop from 809,000 to 715,000 for CNN (minus 11 .6 percent).
MSNBC, by contrast, has reaped substantial year-over-year gains (from 791,000 last year to 1,006,000 currently, or plus 27.2 percent) and these days consistently challenges Fox’s prime-time lineup.
Now, if this writer could just meet that host …
