Now THIS is interesting. The Daily Kos posted an online survey asking Kos-sacks how they were watching the Democratic National Convention--as in, what channel or medium. And the answer, as of 4:45 ET, was a shockeroo. Who was the winner? C-SPAN! And MSNBC was second!
That's right, C-SPAN, a channel with no commentary, and no ideological lean whatsoever, received 4334 votes. Nothing wrong with that. But the real surprise is that MSNBC came in second, with 3972 votes. (See screen grab above--it's a little small, but you can see C-SPAN as the clear #1.)
Now let's think about that a bit. MSNBC has moved into a hard left posture, as Keith Olbermann has become not only the star of the channel, but also the commissar of ideology. Not only does Olbermann blog regularly for Daily Kos, but he has launched a campaign of on-air intimidation and off-air harassment against anyone who doesn't fit his Maddow-esque vision of the channel. Such an ideological posture is obviously a turn off to most viewers, but KO and MSNBC must figure that they can corner the market on lefties, and that that's a good plan. (And obviously The Jeffs-- NBC chief Jeff Zucker and GE chief Jeff Immelt--are going along.)
And yet lookee here: The Kos-sacks are not rewarding Olbermann or MSNBC. Barely more than a quarter, 28%, of Kos-sacks responding are watching MSNBC.
Obviously the potential viewing audience is larger than just Kos-types, but every network needs buzz as well as big numbers. and the Kos-types are buzzy. So if MSNBC isn't winning them over, well, that's ominous.
For the record, CNN is third, with 951 votes, and, amazingly, Fox is fourth, with 312 votes. As for the broadcasters, they're way back--NBC has 156 votes, CBS 34, and ABC 30. And 1470 say that they are watching online.
It must be frustrating to be Olbermann. In his fevered mind, he is surrounded by right-wing goons, such as Joe Scarborough, and just plain goons, such as Chris Matthews. And yet for all of his efforts, KO can't even count on his base among the Daily Kos Krowd.
Maybe the Kos-sacks are more discriminating than I have given them credit for being. I guess that even on the left, not many want to be propagandized, and even fewer want to watch a bully.
