It is great to see that so many people saw David Shuster's interview with Marsha Blackburn.
The shame of it though is that it so rarely occurs that our media takes to task any politician over any issue, let alone their hypocrisy.
I have seen David fill in a couple times for Tucker! to the point where i will flick on MSNBC for a few seconds to see who is hosting. Needless to say, if i find Tucker!, flick goes the channel.
i like David Shuster quite a bit, and for me he is nearly a polar opposite of Tucker!. Below is my email to MSNBC on Tucker!
I am sure You will be inundated with comments about David Shuster, both pro and con, during his subbing for Tucker!
First off, I think it would be a shame to pull David Shuster off of his ‘regular beat’ as a reporter, he has demonstrated profoundly admirable skills in investigation and reporting on Washington issues.
I also would like to bestow kudos upon him for his job in subbing for Tucker! I think that if that is a position that he would want, I believe that he would perform exemplary in this role; though again, I would miss the quality reporting that he performs (unless of course he was to do both, but that would probably be asking too much)
The immediacy of the issue though is relevant. I watched Tucker! today, something I rarely do. As I recall, David Shuster subbed in for Tucker! as well last week sometime, and I happenned to catch the show then. Typically, I will flick the Tucker! show on for during the introduction, and as soon as I see Tucker!’s face I will immediately change the show. However, during the times that there is a sub on the show, I will inevitably watch through Tucker! and then Hardball, then likely Countdown and possibly even Live with Dan Abrams. If Tucker! is hosted by Tucker Carlson, I will typically watch Countdown.
So, for me, a total and complete news junkie, You can have my eyeballs for up to four hours virtually uninterrupted if You replace Tucker!’s host with someone other than Tucker Carlson; or You can keep Tucker Carlson and have my eyeballs for an hour.
I am somewhat left leaning in my political ideology; however, I can guarantee You that I am smack dab in the middle of Your demographic. While I would prefer a replacement to Tucker! be actually a left wing commentator, I could appreciate a number of already existing MSNBC personalities including the aforementioned David Shuster, Allison Stewart (who was placed as host of an awful show "The Most" – and its failure was NOT her fault, but rather the idea of the show itself), even Pat Buchanan would be better than Tucker!’s current host.
While I would think that a left leaning show would do much better in bringing Your numbers up across the board than any right wing host would do. I think we can all read the ratings on Your shows. It isn’t just that Tucker!’s host is a right wing shill though; he is irritatingly irrational and uninformed. It seems to be that he is in a daily competition with Glenn Beck as to who can prove themselves to be the most uninformed, reactionary, unreasonable right wing shill. Again, we can all read the numbers and know that Tucker! is clearly not a ratings winner. You have tried to make this show work, but the simple fact is that all You have been doing is trying to put lipstick on a pig, so to speak.
As I have pointed out though, Tucker!’s failure is not limited to his show alone. His failure to garner an audience spreads throughout Your network. I have no particular interest in helping MSNBC or GE/NBC; but as I am a news junkie, and I know that there are plenty of them, we are starved for decent coverage. You can address this need and succeed or continue to stagnate. Replacing Tucker! is a good place to start.
One last comment on personnel though; while I will catch Countdown pretty much everyday, one sure way to lose my eyeballs for even this show is to put Amy Robach in that slot. While not as bad as Tucker!, she isn’t too far behind.
Sincerely,