Responding to what Jon Stewart described as the Lord of the Flies situation of on-air conflict and bias accusations, management at MSNBC has pulled Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from the anchor desk for its elections events. David Gregory—less memorable but also less offensive—will take over through the election, reports the New York Times this morning.
The move may not move the ratings one way or another, and likely will not quiet critics charging bias at the cable-news network, but it will likely ease the dissonance of NBC News’ anchors such as Brian Williams, who have had to negotiate between delivering straight news on the flagship network and stepping in on news nights to do analysis with the often partisan hosts on MSNBC.
Whether this move quells the on-air backbiting (and frontbiting) that’s erupted at the network is more doubtful, and for entertainment’s sake let’s hope it doesn’t. But it’s another in NBC News’ zigzagging steps toward achieving synergy while reconciling the often opposing demands of mainstream network news (NBC) and cable news (MSNBC): broadly palatable straight news at the former, and what they call, er, “passion” at the latter.
MSNBC’s new strategy, whether permanent or temporary, is closer to Fox News’ model of keeping opinionated hosts hosting opinionated shows, while using anchors like Brit Hume and Shepard Smith to hold down breaking-news coverage. But don’t expect it to stop anyone from accusing the network of bias. For starters, the opinionated hosts are still there—Rachel Maddow debuts tonight—and presumably will keep opining.
And there’s simply too much motive out there to call bias. Yes, as the Times article notes, delegates at the Republican National Convention chanted “NBC!” in response to attacks on the press from the podium, but they also reportedly wagged fingers at the CNN team and PBS’ Gwen Ifill.
If nothing else, though, this step may ease tensions with campaigns at the official level, making election “gets” easier—anyone notice this came at the same time that Charlie Gibson landed the first and so far only Sarah Palin network interview?—and ease tensions within NBC News as well. But it may take more fiddling with the knobs in the future to keep those attention-getting “passions” simmering without boiling over.