Over at Politico, Dylan Byers points out that MSNBC is hemorrhaging viewers and ad revenue. Nobody, it seems, is watching MSNBC. But he concludes his post on an odd note:
There are a few powerful brands [at MSNBC] that are worth maintaining -- Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Morning Joe -- but the rest is in need of a restart.
I mean, I guess they are brands insofar as some very small number of people know who those people/shows are. But to suggest that they're "powerful" or "worth maintaining" is just short of journalistic malpractice. Let's go to the numbers!
Morning Joe gets absolutely crushed by Fox and just barely beaten by CNN:
Similarly, Rachel Maddow's audience is dwarfed by Megyn Kelly—who has had the slot for much less time. She even loses out to Piers Frigging Morgan, who just lost his job:
And if Chris Matthews is a brand name "worth maintaining," what does that make Greta Van Susteren?
The lesson, as always, is that MSNBC sucks and no one watches it. Burn it down and start over again, Comcast. That's your only hope.