May we have a moment of silence, please, to observe the exit of the biggest, baddest bad news bear of big, bad (as in terrible) cable news programming, now-former MSNBC prez Rick Kaplan:
Rick Kaplan is out after two years as MSNBC president, during which the perennially third-place news network showed modest gains but didn't change its competitive standing with Fox News Channel and CNN.
His exit was described Wednesday as a "mutual decision" by NBC News President Steve Capus and Kaplan.
"He came in at a critical time, he stabilized it and now we're going to grow it," Capus said, adding that he expected an announcement of Kaplan's replacement quickly.
Ok, moment of silence is over. Interesting word choices by Capus to describe MSNBC's condition and Kaplan's ministrations..."critical"..."stabilized"...kind of paramedic-speak to describe an emergency situation, no? And Capus' boilerplate also begs the question: why would you want to grow something that, quite honestly, is the cable news equivalent of a Frankenstein monster lumbering around grunting incoherently, the bolts in its head sparking at odd intervals, and breaking everything it touches? Wouldn't Capus at least convey some sincerity if he'd said "we're going to fix MSNBC...because we all know it's way broken?"
Yeah, tee hee. Of course Capus wouldn't say anything quite so candid, but the very real question remains as to whether Kaplan's replacement will put the Frankenstein monster that is MSNBC out of its misery and start over, or give it a massage and a manicure and declare it tan, rested and ready...ready to stay in third place.
