MSNBC and a Decade of Change

Chris Hayes, who begins a new prime time show on MSNBC next week, was interviewed on Fresh Air yesterday. When asked about his new time slot, airing opposite Bill O'Reilly, Hayes explained that he doesn't see himself in competition with O'Reilly:

"...When people say, well, you're up against Bill O'Reilly, I just - it's really unclear to me - it's genuinely unclear to me whether that's true in any real sense, which is to say if we are competing for the same pool of viewers. I genuinely don't think of myself as in competition with Bill O'Reilly or in relationship to him in any real way. I think of myself as in - having a relationship with the viewers, building a viewing audience that I have a relationship with and trying to grow that. I mean believe me, I want as big an audience as possible, but the conventional wisdom about this being a competition with Bill O'Reilly is not necessarily accurate."

I think Hayes's idea about not competing for the same viewers is right on and is a clear statement about how cable news has evolved over the past ten years. There are some casual viewers and waiting rooms that might just put Fox News on because it's the news or maybe even because of an interesting guest, but anyone with well-formed opinions about politics or public issues will likely have an ideological preference between Bill O'Reilly and Chris Hayes. And in that sense, there is no real competition between the two; however entertaining or informative Hayes's show is, much of O'Reilly's audience will remain uninterested.

Those in charge of programming at MSNBC know this and are using it as a business strategy. This is an evolution from a not-too-distant time ago when it seems the idea was very much to compete for a homogeneous audience. It was ten years ago that MSNBC fired Phil Donohue because, as a critic of the Iraq war, he was too liberal for prime time:

"An internal MSNBC memo leaked to the press stated that Donahue was hurting the image of the network. He would be a “difficult public face for NBC in a time of war,” the memo read."

That passage is from a recent article by Chris Hedges, who isolates the day that MSNBC fired Donohue as indicative of "when commercial television decided amassing corporate money and providing entertainment were its central mission, when it consciously chose to become a carnival act."

I agree with much of Hedges's critique of corporate media and it is worth reading. It is true that the economic interests of giant media corporations constrain debate on television, limiting the topics of discussion and points of view to what can attract profitable audiences. Hedges's article misses the change that has occurred at MSNBC over the past ten years, though. While its prime time lineup remains cable news and corporate journalism, with all of its flaws, the change has been dramatic.

By counterprogramming Fox -- seeking a different audience -- MSNBC has expanded the range of debate on cable TV. Sure, the debate remains within corporate bounds, but Chris Hayes is editor-at-large for The Nation. Giving him a prime time slot -- as part of a liberal prime time lineup -- is quite a distance from removing the network's only anti-war host because of his views.