NBC News President Steve Capus has apparently chosen the "if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with B.S." tactic to divert attention from the fact that MSNBC's out on the ledge in Secaucus, asking passerby why it shouldn't jump. In today's Los Angeles Times, Scott Collins quotes Capus on the real reason he thinks MSNBC's having a dark night of the (ratings) soul:
Four years ago, when Fox News and its host Bill O'Reilly began dominating cable news ratings, executives retooled MSNBC to focus on "opinion journalism." Hence the recruitment of right-wing shock-jock Savage and other stars. But that approach largely hasn't worked...
Generally, executives want broader thinking about what viewers want, something news purists may not welcome. "I fault news producers at times for being too narrow in their determination of what constitutes news," Capus said. "I think of MSNBC as a news and information network."
Well, we can define and re-define "news" and "information" and their similarities and differences all day long, but the fact of the matter remains that if you can't figure out how to program and interpret either or both of them, your "infonews" cable news channel is still going to tank.
