Hmmm: MSNBC Prez Out Just Before MSNBC’s Prez Leaves

Alternate headline: Strange Things Afoot at the Progressive Circle ***K.

Or is it all that strange? MSNBC has had a ratings collapse, right along with its credibility collapse, after a season of bizarre narrative shifts around Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. After having hosts tout Biden as his best version ever this spring, the cabler’s hosts suddenly began celebrating Harris as the fresh-faced savior from their bete noire Donald Trump. And in the end, they lost half of their audience while Trump’s personal popularity soared in the post-Election Day period.

In that environment, is it any wonder that MSNBC’s leader would get the boot? Or — excuse me — “be stepping down,” as the New York Times put it oh so passively this morning?

The president of MSNBC, Rashida Jones, is stepping down from that position, the company said on Tuesday, a major change at the news network just days before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office.

Rebecca Kutler, senior vice president of content strategy at MSNBC, will succeed Ms. Jones as interim president, effective immediately. Ms. Jones will stay on in an advisory role through March.

“Rebecca is the ideal leader to guide us through this moment, and I look forward to collaborating with her as we shape our collective future together,” Mark Lazarus, the chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, said in a note to staffers.

So says the same network that insisted that Kamala ‘Word Salad’ Harris was the ideal leader to guide America through the next four years. 

The NYT continues:

Ms. Jones’s exit comes amid industrywide pressure for the cable news industry, which has seen declining ratings after the U.S. presidential election. MSNBC has been the second most-watched cable network during that period, ahead of CNN but behind longtime ratings leader Fox News.

That’s not entirely true. Fox’s ratings have gone up significantly (21%) since the election. MSNBC had lost 54% of its audience after Election Night and has only incrementally crept back up since then. They cut a deal with Rachel Maddow this week in an attempt to stem the bleeding, but only for a limited-run agreement for a full schedule for the next few weeks:

For President elect Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, primetime anchor Rachel Maddow will host her show five nights a week as the network attempts to reclaim its once-dominant position in the cable news sphere. 

The channel has rated a solid third when placed next to rivals CNN and Fox.

In the 25-54 demographic, MSNBC averaged 55,000 in December, compared to 114,000 in December 2023, while CNN averaged 69,000, compared to 108,000. Fox News averaged 292,000, compared to 214,000 a year earlier. 

But execs hope the new schedule might help stem the loss of viewers.

It seems odd that Jones would walk out after cutting that kind of deal. It seems even odder that MSNBC thinks the answer to the ratings collapse caused by their hysteria over Trump is to attempt to reinflate La Résistance Part Deux, too. It seems very odd, and somehow also on-brand, that MSNBC’s president is on the way out at the same time that the president for which MSNBC constantly shilled and covered is also on his way out, and that this is happening voluntarily. Yet apparently that is what happened, according to Mediaite:

According to a source, Jones first shared her decision to lead MSNBC with Mark Lazarus, the former chairman of NBCUniversal and the future CEO of SpinCo, the new company made up of Comcast’s cable properties, including MSNBC and CNBC, which are being spun off.

She then told top anchors and talent at the network before informing the full staff on Tuesday morning.

In a memo to staff, Jones said, “After four incredible years at the helm of MSNBC and 11 years at NBCU, I have made the decision to pursue new opportunities.”

“I came to this decision over the holidays while reflecting on our remarkable journey and the many successes we’ve achieved together as a team,” she said. “This has been the most rewarding chapter of my professional career and I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished, which has been made possible only by you.”

Well, maybe. After the complete demolition of MSNBC’s credibility, and especially with Comcast teeing it up for a fire sale, one might have expected NBCUniversal to impose accountability. It’s not terribly surprising to see a lack of effort in this regard from this particular organization. Perhaps they just hoped Jones would leave on her own and exhaling with relief now that she has. But that means we can expect nothing much to change in the next leadership of MSNBC, assuming it survives the sale process at all. Rachel Maddow’s limited run won’t save them from that fate.