Business as usual for MSNBC

The Olympics finally drew to a close last night. By harnessing the power of their empire of cable networks, NBC was able to provide unprecedented, nearly round-the-clock coverage of the Games. The biggest contributor to the effort was MSNBC, which gave over almost their entire broadcast day (save for a few hours of regular programming in the evening) to the Olympics, so now with the Games now at an end they’re going back to news.

My advice? Don’t.

Let’s be honest, MSNBC is a sub par news operation. It’s a perennial third-place finisher to Fox News and CNN; its main purpose seems to be to serve as a farm team for the big leagues (aka NBC’s “Nightly News”, “Today” show, etc.). While CNN tries to position itself as the news station of record and the place for international news, and Fox goes by the empowering tagline “We Report, You Decide”, MSNBC is well…it’s hard to say just what they are. Their latest slogan is “the home for politics”, but that’s the flavor of the month.

It was different when MSNBC started back in 1996. It was originally a collaboration between Microsoft and NBC (hence MS+NBC), and intended to blend TV and the internet. Its first signature show was “The Site”, an hour-long tech news show and Soledad O’Brien’s first national anchoring gig.

But this was before broadband, blog and MP3 were household words, the blending of the ‘net and TV mediums never came together (in reality MSNBC was ahead of its time). The tech side slowly faded and MSNBC became a more traditional news channel, but still one that lacked an identity. That’s why in its history it’s had hosts ranging from the very liberal Phil Donohue to the rabidly conservative Michael Savage. Neither lasted long.

Today MSNBC is best known as the home to Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. Matthews’ “Hardball” is a passable, if slightly overblown, political chat show. Olbermann’s “Countdown” though has gone from being a fresh, innovative news hour, to a dull hour-long ego trip for Olbermann – a place for him to vent his political views (he loves Obama and hates Bush), and continue his creepy obsession with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly. MSNBC’s announcement that they will be adding Olbermann’s vapid yes-woman Rachel Maddow to their line-up isn’t a good sign that the network will improve anytime soon.

MSNBC should take a lesson from their Olympic coverage and ditch news entirely in favor of sports. Right now sports coverage on cable is dominated by ESPN, a family of networks so dominant they started their own sports awards show, so a little competition would be a welcome thing. Do it with an international flair – show some of the European leagues: football (what we call soccer), basketball, heck even water polo proved strangely compelling during the Olympics, and they play it professionally in Europe. Throw the wild and wooly Australian Football League as well, and round it out with some college sports.

Why not try something different? I don’t think a lot of people missed MSNBC during the Olympics, I know I didn’t.