In a very funny and awkward segment of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough fretted and tried to joke, which came off less than well, about the fact that their corporate overlord is changing hands and they, given poor ratings for MSNBC, might lose their jobs in the process.
For reference, the Wall Street Journal reported that Comcast, which owns MSNBC parent company NBCUniversal, is planning to spin of those cable TV networks that the company owns, seeing itself as being much better off without that cable TV millstone. Reporting as much, the WSJ’s Amol Sharma said:
Comcast is expected to announce Wednesday that it is moving forward with a plan to spin off its NBCUniversal cable TV networks, according to people familiar with the situation, acknowledging that it will be better off without a business that was once its crown jewel.
The company, which last month said it was studying the idea, will separate off entertainment and news channels including MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, E!, Syfy and Golf Channel. Those assets generated about $7 billion in revenue in the 12 months ended Sept. 30
Adding to the problems for Mika and Joe is that MSNBC, in addition to facing the normal decline in viewership from people getting tired of cable and cutting the cord, has seen an especially poor series of rating reports following the election of now-President-elect Donald Trump. So, it makes sense that Comcast is spinning off the shows, but ominous for “Morning Joe.”
It was that subject that the co-hosts discussed during the show, with Brzezinski reporting the news and Scarborough chiming in on it. First, he chided her for living in an ivory tower penthouse, then he said, referencing the Drudge Report’s characterization of the cable news situation, “I will say really quickly on this, you know, Drudge at the top said, like ‘News melts down!’ all this other stuff.”
He then added, in a seemingly forced attempt at a joke, “I mean, I could be completely wrong: we could all be fired a year from now. When this happens, you never know what’s going to happen.” Chiming back in on the matter, Brzezinski, in a similarly forced-seeming response, added, “Or tomorrow.” Watch them here:
Commenting on the matter, a current MSNBC staffer told Fox News Digital. “What is MSNBC going to be editorially? I would say some people are probably relieved that probably Comcast and NBC will have less to do with that, because if you look at the kerfuffles over the last year with Mika and Joe and with Ronna McDaniel, it was all… out of sync with our viewers, are our hosts and reporters out of sync with our bosses.”
That staffer added, commenting on the vagueness of if the network will switch directions now that the election is over and ratings are crashing, “There was no conversation about what that editorial direction is going to look like on this front. But, I don’t know that anything [will be] different than it was two days ago.”
The staffer further noted, commenting on politics impacting the business model, “Everybody at MSNBC sort of saw the worst coming between some of the cuts that we’ve taken and the political winds shifting and our exodus of viewers.” That staffer further noted, “I think most people have come to terms with the fact that our alignment with NBC is not great.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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