MSNBC all day election coverage

It's great that MSNBC is devoting an entire day to something besides the usual man-bites-dog coverage they love so much, but it's truly an exercise in aggravation.

I've been watching for about an hour and so far I've seen the following:

Timmeh letting Mehlman totally off the hook regarding the racist advertising he sponsored in TN.

Chris Jansing saying "No one likes Ned Lamont" for about 15 minutes, spouting slogan after slogan that sounded like it was printed directly off a LIEberman press release.

Tucker basically laughing at the "Macaca" comment because he personally doesn't think it's relevant.  Tweety responds with, "Well, it might make a difference to you if you happen to be a Macaca."  (Cringe.)

It's a conventional-wisdom-alooza!

I hope you'll use this diary as an open thread to document the atrocities.

•  Flips?

  by Mr Met on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 12:44:48 PM PDT

•  To MSNBC:

  If you're going to do something, do it right.

  If you're going to do something half-assed, don't fucking bother.

  If you can't put together serious analysis of electoral politics, I'm sure there's a pretty white girl missing somewhere.

  by leftilicious on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 12:45:23 PM PDT

  •  Best analysis of their crappy coverage.

    GE must be  real happy with their anchors (read shills) today.

    by Phil S 33 on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 02:10:11 PM PDT

•  Assuming this is a TV related open thread,

  I wish someone could diarise this

  article about a bizarre sounding Iraqi TV comedy show.  I would do but have hit my daily limit.

  It's both inspiring that people can still laugh, and totally tragic at the same time:

  Mr. Sudani, the writer, said he has lost hope for his country. Iraq’s leaders are incompetent, he said. He fears that services will never be restored. The American experiment in democracy, he said, was born dead.

  All anyone can do, he said, is laugh.

  by magnus on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 12:52:39 PM PDT

•  didn't catch it

  I know Steve Harrison (NY-13) was supposed to be on in the past hour--some sort of non-Hardball Chris Matthews interview. Did anyone see it? Care to comment?

  by kbse matt on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 12:54:33 PM PDT

  •  Yes I saw that

    he was good.  Chris only gave him a couple of minutes but he handled himself quite well and Chris complimented him at the end (I know, that's a shocker, he hardly ever sucks up to his guests).

    by Mr Met on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 12:56:53 PM PDT

    •  great

      I had confidence in Steve himself but I was worried about Chris Matthews and his ideological mood swings. I'm sure it'll be on youtube soon enough.

      Thanks

      by kbse matt on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 12:59:50 PM PDT

      •  that was quick

        video

        by kbse matt on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:10:39 PM PDT

    •  hahahahah!

      best line of the day!   To tweet, every reporter is the best reporter, every pundit is the smartest pundit, every politico is the sagest politico, and every pretzelnit is the one to put on Mt. Rushmore.  Kind of a legal on-air blowjob and almost entirely directed at men and men only.  Kinda makes ya wonder.

      by dougymi on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:17:31 PM PDT

•  I'm interested in what Olbermann has to say

  he's supposed to join this party as well..will he be the only sensible voice in the lot?
  Could very well be...

  I'm not surprised, Mr. Met, at your report, i saw it advertised after Hardball yesterday, and I groaned at the list of folks who are going to be involved...except for Keith being present. I hope he sets them all straight.

  By the way I just heard on Randi Rhodes that America is 53rd in the list of the most free press in the world. Last year it was 23rd - behind Latvia. We're downgrading quite nicely huh?

  by Dazy on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 12:54:54 PM PDT

•  Chris Jansing's take on Lieberman

  painted Ct. voters as hypocrites and fools.  She must be on vacation in Ct. and is using Joe's handouts to frame her story.  She didn't even mention that the Dem. Party advised Ned to cool it after the primary and give them time to convince Joe to pull out of the race.  She didn't mention how Dems. have failed to show up for Ned.

  by trinite on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 12:56:02 PM PDT

•  Jeebus, they just keep trotting ol'

  Ed Koch out there.  When was that annoying bastid last relevant?

  by Mr Met on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 12:59:27 PM PDT

  •  2004

    and even then it was a stretch. The city kept putting him in ads with elephants to advertise the coming GOP convention. I felt bad for the elephant.

    by kbse matt on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:01:47 PM PDT

•  Tweety did a good job later though

  Like 5 minutes ago, when he called Mehlman out on his BS excuse.  Mehlman said he doesn't have the legal authority to pull the ad, but after the break, Tweety came back and said that he DID, he just REFUSED to.

  It ws great follow-up, I thought.

  by georgia10 on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:00:37 PM PDT

  •  Yeah, Tweety also ripped the ad

    when he interviewed Harold Ford, Jr. at 5:00 EDT.  By the way, Ford was terrific, bless his heart.

    by kosophile on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 02:17:52 PM PDT

•  I have been watching since 9 am.

  And I am now going to gouge out my eyes.

  by ek hornbeck on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:01:22 PM PDT

  •  Ugh. How did you last that long?

    I only tuned in to watch "The Most" with Allison Stewart, as that and Countdown are the only two MSNBC shows I can stomach, and was surprised and dismayed to see Matthews filling in for her. Bleah. What happened to the show?

    I left it there because I hate that hour on CNN, so I spent 12 noon -1 p.m. switching back and forth in anger and frustration. I think my blood pressure went up 20 points just sitting in the chair and listening to the blather. I stayed long enough to catch the bit with Tucker and the embarrassing macaca quote from Matthews, and I changed the channel.

    Thank goodness I have work to do.

    And WHY are they doing this today? The election isn't for two weeks. What do they think they are trying to accomplish here? Seriously.

    by Brooke In Seattle on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:11:18 PM PDT

    •  Tune up.

      Showcase.

      All the heavy hitters are working today.  Brian Williams was on even.

      How did I last?  Normally I watch Faux.

      by ek hornbeck on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:22:50 PM PDT

  •  Good God! Get out of the house!

    Or watch the Cartoon Network for an hour at least!

    by ThirstyGator on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:23:21 PM PDT

    •  When there's trouble you know who to call.

      From their tower they can see it all.

      Not the Japanese intro, I'm pissed.

      by ek hornbeck on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:25:37 PM PDT

•  And where is Olbermann?

  Who is their ratings leader and the only announcer on the network with actual journalism background?

  Nowhere all day, while Little Tucker Carlson and Joe Intern,What Intern Scarborough spout GOP talking points from the "anchor" chair.

  Wall to wall GOP on MSGOP and then they take the ratings that Olbermann draws.

  by skiddlybop on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:02:45 PM PDT

•  Oh Lord, here comes Andrea Mitchell.

  David Gregory is hanging tough, but I'm sure Ol' Froggy will hear nothing of it.  

  by Mr Met on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:03:45 PM PDT

•  One of the tidbits

  I saw earlier is that Hastert is testifying before the Ethics Committee today. he tried to sneak but the cameras were there and MSNBC got 14 seconds of video.

  by etherapy on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:06:45 PM PDT

  •  Yes, Brian was positively gushing over that video

    wasn't he?

    by Mr Met on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:08:00 PM PDT

  •  Sweet

    Hastert never projects an air of confidence in his public persona, but he looked like a defeated man doing a perp walk as he walked into the Ethics Committee room.

    Yes, Brian Williams was falling over himself with interest in this 14 second tape...how it wasn't expected, and that it was vey important to advancing the Foley story.

    by IrishAlum on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:45:27 PM PDT

•  Oh this is gonna be rich

  Ol' Froggy is getting ready to interview Tom DeLay about his thoughts about Nancy Pelosi becomign house leader.

  She should be interviewing him about whether he's read "Who Moved My Soap" but I'll bet all the money at the Fed she won't be mentioning that.

  by Mr Met on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:10:37 PM PDT

  •  He's on now.

    good thing there's a Q rerun on STNG on spike.

    by dougymi on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:18:54 PM PDT

•  Bob Casey wants to set benchmarks for Iraq.

  That's all well and good, but there's no mention about the consequences of not meeting those benchmarks.

  by Mr Met on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:34:37 PM PDT

  •  Also no mention of Santorum's...

    ad blackout.

    by ek hornbeck on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:35:55 PM PDT

•  it is a little nauseating

  but it's interesting to see all these CW spouters now that the CW has changed.

  by dday on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:36:40 PM PDT

•  It's been reasonable coverage...

  ...which means, I only want to throw a brick through the TV half the time.  

  As a telecommuter, I am "fortunate" to have it in the background all day.  The horse-race talk has been remarkably measured, and they have been discussing issues - especially Iraq and Bush's anticipated flip on war semantics.  

  Russert, after summoning as much righteous indignation about the RNC-funded hit piece on Rep. Ford as he could, let Mehlman completely off the hook.  (BTW, Matthews also raised the issue with his guests...as if MSNBC had a "Memo"...dang, Andrea Mitchell just brought it up with Newsweek's Fineman - now I'm convinced.)

  Mary Matalin also ran roughshod over the anchor (Russert?  Williams?), suggesting that the trends show the Repubs holding both the House and Senate.  

  The "Speaker Pelosi" discussion - from the perspective of it being a bad thing - was also not the most fun.  The canned piece about Pelosi prior to the discussion was good, though.

  Those three real crappy examples aside, I'm seeing real good coverage for D's like Casey (on right now), Bayh, Sherrod Brown...and even some Ohio State kids who want out of Iraq.  The canned piece on the trio of Indiana house races also was quite fair.  

  So, I think that the problems that we see come into play when the Beltway relationships intrude on the work of media.  But what else is new?  

  On balance, this is infinitely better coverage than I've expected from even MSNBC.  They even let Howard Dean get the DNC talking points out, unvarnished, this morning.

  by IrishAlum on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:42:31 PM PDT

  •  The Bayh interview...

    was a complete joke... Andrea Mitchell has him on and instead of asking him things about the Indiana Three or his potential '08 campaign all she does is ask him about Obama's potential '08 campaign... "What do you think of Sen Obama's decision?"  "Do you think 2 years in the Senate is enough experience?"  

    And then when she finished asking about Obama, she started in asking about Clinton... "Do you think Sen Clinton is electable?"

    She was completely rude interrupting him constantly...   It was a complete joke.

    by Eamon1916 on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 04:41:45 PM PDT

•  Whoops

  That wasn't Fineman that Mitchell was talking to, it was Alter.

  by IrishAlum on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 01:43:08 PM PDT

•  Nice "Stay the Course" montage

  For Tony Snow to comment on.  Mary Matalin handled the question much better than him.

  Snow responds that Malaki is a "Man of action" - oh rally, dahling?  Isn't Krauthammer calling for his head already?

  by Mr Met on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 02:15:08 PM PDT

  •  Amazing how many Rethug talking heads they

    had on today--heavily in favor of Rethugs.
    Snow just said we're "winning" in Iraq????? WTF?

    by Phil S 33 on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 02:17:25 PM PDT

    •  Tweety gets 2 points for hammering away

      on the Corker ad - Snow says Mehlman CAN pull the ad, not that that's really big news but it does contradict Mehlman.

      by Mr Met on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 02:27:27 PM PDT