NBC News legal correspondent Dan Abrams was put in charge of MSNBC on Monday — and his first move was to take himself off the air there.

It was not immediately clear whether the legal-oriented “The Abrams Report” would continue with a different host or whether it would be replaced by another show. As general manager of the cable channel, Abrams will report directly to NBC News executive Phil Griffin, another MSNBC veteran. The management team replaces Rick Kaplan, who left MSNBC last week.

Abrams, a Duke University graduate with a law degree from Columbia University, began peppering NBC News President Steve Capus with memos about how to improve MSNBC shortly after Capus took over his job about a year ago. “His memos were thoughtful and insightful and provocative,” Capus said. “There was one that was eight pages long. That was the one that made it clear to me that he was serious about an examination of the channel.”

MSNBC has been mired in third place in the ratings behind Fox News Channel and CNN during virtually all of its 10-year history. Recently, pointed political shows such as “Countdown” with Keith Olbermann and “Hardball” with Chris Matthews have made some headway.

Those shows work because they are focused and viewers know what they’re getting every day, Abrams said. “Over the next few months, you will hopefully see the network become a little more exciting, a little more vibrant and a little more irreverent,” Abrams said.

Source: MSNBC

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Posted by Lawren at June 14, 2006 06:48 AM | Trackbacks (0)

You Said

It seems like the only way a 24 hours new station can improve rankings is to align itself politically. FoxNews marches to the Bush agenda. Even their non-pundit newscasters drop hints as to their political persuasion and detest for Democrats (simple example: instead of systematic withdrawal of troops from Iraq, which I disagree with, they refer to it as “cutting and running,” which makes it sound like the person who suggested it is a whimp).

But, FoxNews is highly rated and MSNBC will probably learn from their success that leaning towards an ideological perspective builds ratings. Just depends on which way they decide to lean. If they focus on a liberal perspective, they probably will not have many viewers because the people who are more likely to watch a 24 hour news station are older and conservative leaning. So, if they focus on the right competition will be born and I would love to see MSNBC shave off some of the FoxNews ratings.

Says: Just one guy's opinion at June 14, 2006 07:42 AM

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