MSNBC has been circling the drain for years...this should finish it off. Then it can be all Lock-up, all the time. And what an uplifting show that is.

I can only do these items in stages.

anyway, to begin with:

Ed was boring me to tears.

I cannot watch Al anymore.

I loved those kids in the afternoon.

Andrea just gets to me, in a bad way like bad Tex-Mex food.

Mika or whatever the hell she calls herself pisses me off more than Joe, and Joe is really a lying hypocritical bastard.

I like Chris Hayes and the Old bastard Chris and Rachel is a dear.

So is Lawrence who always looks like he has some inside joke.

Look, where are the numbers?

So MSNBC has to change.

the end for now

Rupert Murdoch has retired and turned over the running of News Corp to his 2 sons. Neither of them like Ailes, who is 75 years old, and have had arguments with him.  His contract come up for renewal at the end of this year or sometime next year. Rumers have it that he is on his way out. Look to see him lose his power but keep his title until the end of his contract.  

Reports vary on the exact expiration date of Ailes' contract. Some say it's as soon as early 2016; others say as late as summer 2016. The most specific report came in a Hollywood Reporter profile of Ailes that was based on an interview with him: it was published in April and said the contract comes due in 15 months, which would be July 2016, just a few months before the presidential election.

James' views, pointedly more liberal than his father's conservative positions, are anathema to Ailes, who's usually described as more conservative than Rupert Murdoch. 

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/17/media/roger-ailes-murdoch-intrigue/ 

Could the changes at MSNBC be an effort to get ahead of the changes that could happen at Fox?  The medium viewer age is 67 years old and get older every year. 

The new head of NBC wants to pull MSNBC to news-based programming through the day with opinion shows in the evening. All the juicy details are here.

Of the three afternoon shows being axed (last day tomorrow), the only hosts staying with the network in any capacity are Ari Melber and Alex Wagner. Rumors are flying that Sharpton and Hayes may be next - though "All In" just got two Emmy nods, so ...

I've been with MSNBC since they first started.  The changes, they've been many, not all for the good, but this new purge signals the end for them.  They clearly are flailing around in the dark. They won't be Fox Left, they won't be CNN Heavy, they won't be The Station To Watch.

Who is their audience if the progs/libs leave?  Moderates?  There aren't enough of them and they don't care that much about politics.  Conservatives?  They've got Fox.  No, I think they're done.

I liked The Cycle's young voices.  I like what Ed had to say even when I cringe at the way he says it.  His was the strongest voice for labor and that voice is sorely needed.  I loved Chris Hayes on his Saturday show but he's failing in prime time.  It's a place he never should have entered.

  I can't watch Rev Al.  I can't get beyond his shouting, his struggles with the teleprompter, his inevitable mispronunciation of names with more than two syllables.  He is a terrible interviewer.  He is our Wolf Blitzer, sorry to say.  He does much better in panel discussions than he does as host and moderator. 

Morning Joe is idiotic but is there to stay.  I doubt they'll really bring Olbermann back.  They know he would come back with a vengeance, ready to kick ass--mainly theirs for firing him oh so long ago.

But it doesn't matter now.  Pretty sure I'm done with them.  I'll watch for sound bites but what they're planning for their glorious future sounds boring as all get out.  No thanks.

(Edited to add:  Rachel and Lawrence are okay but not as good as they once were.  Or maybe I've just heard them say the same things in the same way too often.  Come to think of it, maybe being an MSNBC junkie was not such a good thing.  It's probably good I'm being forced to break the habit.)

The other half of the problem is the service providers.  They just plain suck.  If something goes wrong it takes a while to get them to do something that will fix it. You end up paying for service calls on their bad equipment or driving 20 miles away to trade the box in for a new one that only works for 6 weeks.  Also the 47% can only afford the wifi internet connection after the initial service contract expires.  Some of us would even drop that but the kids need it for school. 

The viewers that would watch progressive news is really locked out because of cost.  We spend our viewing time with streaming services. and watching over the air. I have decided to get a Roku box for Christmas and go with what is available on the internet streaming.  We will try a few out for free and then pick a streaming service to pay a small monthly fee that we like. The Roku box is cheaper then a service call or hook up fee and there are a growing number of free shows now on the internet.  When it drops dead I will get another box shipped to my door.  Once you get unhooked from cable and find other alternatives you really don't want to go back to expensive poor service head aches. 

Interesting conversation. I've watched plenty of MSNBC over the years. I've enjoyed a spike in viewing as I've been lucky to stay home and hang out with my youngest who just turned two on Tuesday. I have my favorites and not so favorites, as we all do. The point I want to make is that when I tune in to watch Al, for example, it's 3:00 in the afternoon out here on the left coast. Rachel comes on at 6. I don't watch that broadcast. There are more important things to do. I do, however, often catch it at either 9 or at 1 am. Chris Hayes is also on three times starting at 5:00. (Chris Mathews is only broadcast twice.) I catch some of that, depending. If I feel I missed something interesting I'll try to watch a later broadcast. Anyway, This discrepancy among time zones has always been a point of curiosity for me. Do they aggregate the ratings for instance?

It wouldn't hurt if MSNBC stopped bombarding viewers with "Caught on Camera" and "Lock Up". If people are looking for news on the weekends after early afternoon they've learned to forget that network. Honestly, when your most popular anchor makes a joke about the audience going to prison every Friday night you should get a clue.