David Gregory Replaces Tucker

MSNBC said this afternoon that it was canceling "Tucker," the low-rated, early evening program led by Tucker Carlson, and replacing it with a new, politically oriented program featuring David Gregory, chief White House correspondent of NBC News.

Mr. Gregory, whose program will be shown weeknights beginning at 6 p.m., will continue to cover the White House for NBC News, the parent of MSNBC, the cable channel said. Mr. Carlson will also remain with MSNBC, as a campaign correspondent who will cover the presidential race from Washington and the road.

MSNBC also said that Andrea Mitchell, a veteran political correspondent for both the cable channel and NBC News, would lead another new campaign-oriented program, this one to be shown beginning at 1 p.m. weekdays. The channel currently shows regular news programming at that time.

http://www.nytimes.com/...

Hooray! The bow tied dunce is gone. It's about time. Tucker Carlson, although not a proclaimed republican but rather a libertarian, belongs on FOX, where he can enjoin all the other Dem bashers on the rightwing comedy network.

It would have been nice to see a Rachel Maddow/David Schuster or Alison Stewart show just to add a little luster and intellectualism to the network, but David Gregory will certainly do. Afterall, he was one of the first White House corresponants to stand up to Bush in a press conference and regularly did battle with Tony Snow and Dana Perino.

It's not too late for Maddow, Schuster or Stewart though. There are still unfilled time slots at MSNBC and if you want to register an opinion with the network you can write to Steve Capus (president NBC News) or Phil Griffin (senior VP News, NBC) at:

[e-mail]
[e-mail]

•  gregory's pretty good

  though he has his moments of ignorance.

  would've preferred maddow. thanks for the tip!

  by fivefouranonymous on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:06:59 AM PDT

  •  Integrity

    You're welcome! Gregory is a good guy. He certainly seems to have some integrity..a sorely under represented quality on every network!

    by StuHunter on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:09:48 AM PDT

    •  For Karl Rove's dancing monkey...

      Gregory is pretty good.

      I just wanted someone who is not Karl Rove's dancing monkey to get this slot.

      But that was a foolish wish, I know.

      by Karelian on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:11:57 AM PDT

      •  Yay! Tucker's gone.

        I can't stand that little prick. I bumped into D. Gregory once at an Au Bon Pain and asked him, politely, to ask harder questions of this administration. He was assigned to the White House at the time.

        The sad thing is, I bet this job would've gone to David Shuster if it weren't for Chelsea-gate. He was wrong but I still think Clinton opportunism cost progressives a chance to take over Tucker's slot.

        by dclawyer06 on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:20:57 AM PDT

  •  He has tended to ask pointed questions...

    He seems to be less afraid to ask pointed questions of the president and the press secretaries, even during the years that the press was less curious.  I agree that Maddow would have been a better pick, and Allison Stewart is smart (and hot, let me say; hey, don't look at me that way.)

    by nanoboy on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:18:23 AM PDT

  •  MSNBC are sometimes idiots - case in point

    why on earth would they replace a commentator with a reporter

    as sure as shit -- Gregory is going to get himself into the same shit as Schuster -- Schuster should never have been in the "commentator" chair just as Gregory shouldn't be -- imo

    Maddow though -- an awesome pick ... and even better -- imo ... would have been Maddow/Buchannon -- say what You like about Pat's ideology -- but these two together are perfect blend of entertainment and (relatively) reasonable arguments from two totally different worlds ...

    by josephk on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:22:53 AM PDT

•  amen

  by NY Writer on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:07:41 AM PDT

•  Good To See Him Getting A Prime Spot

  And Andrea Mitchell getting buried in middays where she can rot.

  by Splicer on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:08:44 AM PDT

  •  I can't believe she even has

    a show.

    by Marc in CA on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:09:31 AM PDT

•  Sweetness

  I like David Gregory.  He's got some huevos on him ... at least in comparison to the average WH Press Core member.

  by Marc in CA on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:09:07 AM PDT

•  Funny.

  I'll never be able to rid myself of this image of him.

  by Kagro X on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:09:38 AM PDT

  •  Hip Hop

    ...not quite as nauseating as the image of "MC" KKKarl Rove doing a hip hop dance at the broadcasters dinner! LOL

    http://www.youtube.com/...

    by StuHunter on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:13:15 AM PDT

  •  yeah, but...

    it always seemed like he was hoodwinked into doing that and I felt kind of bad for him actually.  It seems like K.O. gave him shit about it, too (deserved).

    by jodygirl on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:14:34 AM PDT

•  I'm not a fan of Gregory

  I've heard plenty of right wing claptrap fall out of his mouth before.  Plus he was onstage singing with Rove.

  Still probably better than Tucker.

  by Magster on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:09:40 AM PDT

•  I'm glad they're getting rid of Tucker

  because when I try to surf the news channels in the evening my husband shouts out 'Not Tucker' or 'Not Wolf'. Sometimes I have to get him to leave the room so that I can yell at the TV in peace.

  Gregory, eh... could have been worse. They could have given it to Mrs. Greenspan.

  by yellowdog on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:10:12 AM PDT

•  More substantive tv guaranteed.

  by kubrick2008 on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:10:46 AM PDT

•  great news!

  See ya, Tucker!  Maybe he can take Chris Matthews with him?

  by jodygirl on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:10:52 AM PDT

•  A welcome change, indeed.

  David Gregory will be an excellent addition to the MSNBC lineup.

  by boadicea on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:10:55 AM PDT

•  I'll take David Gregory....

  Andrea Mitchell?  MRS. ALAN GREENSPAN....what has she got to say besides pretending she isn't partisan?  God-I remember her hocking a book and whining about how really hard it is to stay neutral....I'll add when you are the consummate Washington insider!!!!    NEUTRAL - busy covering hubby's butt, now that it is clear that he is a complete traitor to this country and has orchestrated the coming depression.  Hope she chokes on her own neutrality.

  by importer on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:11:34 AM PDT

•  MSNBC has too many prison documentaries.

  Not a TV expert, but I'm surmising that Rachel Maddow and Allison Stewart are more appealing screen personalities than lifers at Sing Sing.

  by Greasy Grant on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:11:40 AM PDT

  •  haha...

    my husband has a weird fascination with the prison documentaries.  What's up with that?!

    by jodygirl on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:12:57 AM PDT

  •  Just about the wrong criminals

    The big house where they should be doing the prison documentary is The White House, for all the documented and undocumented criminals coming out of there.

    by Pennsylvanian on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:16:24 AM PDT

  •  Sing Sing or Tim Russert?

    Seriously, I don't know which is worse - the re-runs of Tim Russert or the Sing Sing documentaries that played all day yesterday...

    by rdxtion on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:20:21 AM PDT

  •  MSNBC had to cut costs.

    One way they cut costs was to play their documentaries (Doc Block) every night.  They cost little to produce and are played over and over.  I suspect that if they can keep going up in ratings, that MSNBC will replace them with other news shows to be more like CNN/FOX.  It would be nice if they could be the left-of-center network, but I doubt that will happen.  As it stands, they have several people that I think are quite good.  Olberman and Maddow, of course, are great.  Allison Stewart is good.  Joe Scarborough is one of the most palatable of the right-wingers, and honestly, Buchanon can be interesting from time to time.

    Yeah, they've got their douches, Matthews being the principle one.  They got big of their worst one, though, so that is most excellent.

    by nanoboy on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:27:35 AM PDT

    •  Better to repeat the earlier shows

      so as to pick up the Pacific and Mountain time zone viewership -- as it stands now, if you're not home by 2 or 3 (which is impossible for most people), you're SOL when it comes to seeing shows like "Hardball" and this new David Gregory show.

      Start the Doc Block stuff after the 9pm Olbermann repeat -- that would also get it out of the time when most kids might accidentally run across it and ask their parents, "Mommy, what's prison rape?" ;)

      by Cali Scribe on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:50:15 AM PDT

      •  Oh, I won't argue that your plan isn't better.

        It's a good plan, but MSNBC had a problem, and they went with the solution they found.

        by nanoboy on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 12:08:42 PM PDT

    •  The docs do well in the ratings.

      Viewership typically spikes up when the channel goes from news-opinion to the crime documentaries.

      by Vico on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 12:10:36 PM PDT

•  So we say goodbye to Spaulding Smails...

  Dear Tucker,

  Don't go away angry, just go away!

  by Loudoun County Dem on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:15:55 AM PDT

  •  Rat Farts!

    by Magster on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:17:16 AM PDT

  •  Unfortunately

    unfortunately, Carlson will still be around for commentary on various MSNBC shows..I suppose they have to keep him around until his contract expires...

    by StuHunter on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:19:18 AM PDT

•  Figured it wouldn't be Rachel Maddow

  because she's still technically under contract to Air America Radio -- they gain some valuable exposure with her "analyst" work for MSNBC but aren't going to want to give her up completely.

  Alison Stewart, I believe, is either on maternity leave or about to go on leave -- perhaps when she returns there'll be some more shuffling.

  Shuster probably won't get a shot till after the primaries, when the Clintons are no longer a factor.

  Not sure what I think about Mrs. Alan Greenspan getting a prime role, but I'll give her a chance. And while Gregory left a bad taste in many people's mouths by dancing with "MC Rove" at the White House Correspondents Dinner, he's a capable journalist who's shown some cojones in the White House press room in the latter part of the Bush era.

  The most interesting thing will be the tenor of the shows -- if they'll be even handed toward all sides or continue to veer center-right.

  by Cali Scribe on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:16:50 AM PDT

•  asdf

  http://dkosopedia.com/...

  Duplicative diaries are prohibited. Please scan the recent diaries and front-page posts before starting to compose your own diary.

  http://www.dailykos.com/...

  by FoundingFatherDAR on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:17:15 AM PDT

  •  Policeman

    Thanks Mr. Policeman! Got the cuffs out?

    by StuHunter on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:20:48 AM PDT

  •  First one I've seen

    on the topic. (And better than the one that was posted afterwards.)

    by Cali Scribe on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:47:29 AM PDT

•  Consistant ...Replace a conservative with another

  conservative reTHUGlican.
  Gregory will be knocking Dems trying to get an invite with pumpkinhead out to Martha's Vineyard for the summer. The only way to get that is to trash the Dems, well I guess that dance with Rove helped ol Gregory out....LOL...too much

  by gaiilonfong on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:25:52 AM PDT

•  sometimes he's not bad

  tucker lately has been harder on clinton people than rest of cnn and msnbc's news staff. think he's nuts most of the time, but sometimes it takes a republican to call clinton's out

  by cortlandny on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:26:37 AM PDT

•  gregory's ok

  He's maybe a little right leaning, but mostly straight down the middle. He got muzzled pretty quickly by tony snow, but was really hard on scotty. I've been impressed with some of the work he's done on the campaign.  Seems pretty fair, at least on that.

  What I find unique is how it drives bushie further into irrelevance. Now NBC is taking its top WH correspondent and putting him into more of a role talking about bushie's replacement. That's gotta hurt bushie's ego, which is something I like to see.  Gotta love george w. lameduck.  QUACK!

  by dougymi on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:35:16 AM PDT

•  Well, at least Mrs. Greenspan will

  be there to carry the GOP water, as she has always done.

  by billybam on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:57:16 AM PDT

•  Tucker fancied himself the new George Will

  but his power and sense of direction dissipated once he lost the essential bow tie.

  by SicXitGM on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 12:03:58 PM PDT

•  NBC is grooming Gregory

  to be the ultimate replacement for Matt Lauer on The Today Show, if it can somehow blast Lauer out of the spot.

  by Vico on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 12:11:59 PM PDT

•  Ew... improvement, or lateral move

  I have to say I am not that impressed with Gregory.  He asks okay questions but often doesn't even give the person responding a chance to even answer before asking another question, which comes across as a frenetic effort on his part to spin control his own interviews.

  I saw him to do this to Howard Dean last week.  Ask a question, and before Dean got 4 words into the answer, ask another.  And another.  I don't think Dean got out a whole uninterrupted answer to any question during the interview.  It was pretty bad.

  He needs to learn that he's not Perry Mason, and rapidfire questioning, constantly talking over and interrupting your interviewee, isn't going to do anything but irritate the viewer - who might actually want to hear the answers to the questions.

  by Are We There Yet on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 12:18:56 PM PDT