NY Time TV critic Alessandra Stanley doesn't think much about MSNBC.
She wrote a column today in which she described a network that "stains" the reputation of the great and fabulous NBC News operation.
She claims that Brian Williams avoids MSNBC talk shows and that David Gregory and Tom Brokaw "are badly needed but don’t stay long or join the fray — like piano players in a brothel, they don’t go upstairs."
And then she really rips into MSNBC with this:
MSNBC has a growing cast of anchor-bloviators — hosts like Martin Bashir, Tamron Hall and, of course, Al Sharpton, who rant and then invite like-minded guest commentators to assure them that they are right.
She describes Chris Matthews as acting almost "thuggish."
And she closes with this shot at Melissa Harris-Perry:
Virginia’s governor, Bob McDonnell, who backed, then rescinded, a state bill that would require women seeking an abortion to first have an invasive ultrasound, is a favorite target. After his convention speech, the MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry said sarcastically that Republicans might be nervous “standing next to a governor who represents a vision of small government that is small enough to put on the end of a transvaginal probe.”
No wonder Brian Williams stays away.
Stanley's column is a classic example of what's wrong with American journalism today. She expects TV news to rise above it all, to simply report what is said, without any context or analysis.
The news must be sterlized of opinion so that the credibility of journalists will not be "stained."
In Stanley's world, Brian Williams is the calm and reasonable adult while Rachel Maddow is one of the undisciplined children allowed to draw on the walls with crayons.
In Stanley's world, one never, ever calls out anyone for lying, even when the facts are crystal clear.
I've seen decades of that kind of sterile journalism. Thankfully, it's time has come and gone.