The Disappointment that is MSNBC

Those people are not serious.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about the betrayals of our mainstream media at a time when we need them the most. “Betrayals” is not too harsh a word when it’s clear so many of our largest, most powerful news outlets have chosen to let Donald Trump off the hook for such egregious behavior he has been tried in courts of law and found guilty, while punishing Joe Biden and the Democrats for not saving us fast enough from the egregious Donald Trump and the mob who religiously follow him.

Newspapers are bad enough, with headlines we’re constantly challenging, but Americans aren’t reading newspapers much anymore. They’re watching television. And for us Democrats, MSNBC is about all we’ve got. The oligarchs own the rest and they use them relentlessly to paint a false picture of the way things are.

We’re losing to them. We need all of the broadcast allies we can get and it constantly surprises us when they’re not there for us. How could that be? Why aren’t they there for us? If they’re not there for us, who are they there for?

I wish I had the answer.

What bothers me most about the progressive punditry, especially on MSNBC, my former go-to for years, is their glee as they report on the increasingly dangerous and powerful Republicans using an increasingly idiotic Donald Trump to win over the country in order to destroy fully half of us.

It’s a game to them. Not even just a ratings bid; they’re into the fun of it. They’re not above insulting and diminishing Democrats to play that game, and it has hurt us. Time and time again in a year when we can’t afford not to be taken seriously.

Ari Melber regularly brings on James Carville as the anti-Democrat in sheep’s clothing. He and others bring on Michael Moore, another one who smears good Democrats in order to play the leftist purist. They’ll bring on anyone who seems to be from our camp but will sit in front of a microphone and take us down a peg.

Because apparently we need taking down. We’re not doing the job of saving the country well enough. We need poking and prodding and shaming in order to get it into our heads that we MUST DO BETTER.

They ask Republicans what they think of Democrats, knowing full well what their answers will be. The Republicans are there for only one reason: to hobble and diminish their opposition by lying about and insulting good Democrats.

And the pundits sit back, satisfied, not because they see any of that as fair but because they see it as useful television. The smug smirks and insider nudges among the MSNBC pundits (except for Andrea Mitchell, whose role is to play the serious dedicated veteran—and Lawrence O’Donnell, the real, serious, dedicated veteran) are getting old.

Rachel Maddow needs to remove herself from that crowd. She has been our guiding light in so many ways at so many times, and even she is tarnished now by their cavalier takes on our most pressing problems. When she sits at their panels there are cameras on her. They’re not in private up there. Millions of us are watching and hoping they’ll concentrate on real issues, real threats, real solutions as it relates to real Americans.

And too often they don’t.

They talk about personalities. They talk about attitudes. They talk about foibles and pull out anything and everything odd. Because it’s fun. They talk about things that don’t matter, like Trump’s orange hair or Vance’s shenanigans with couch cushions—or the way Biden walks now—as our world threatens to crumble around us.

I’m not against fun on TV. We need that, most essentially, just not when it interferes and takes over when what we really need is responsibility and obligation and reassurance that we’re right and the other side is wrong—so, so wrong.

They’re not doing that.

At a time when our MSM allies are few, the hosts at MSNBC could be first among our most powerful allies. They could be setting straight the lies about good, hard-working Democratic leaders. They could stop giving Republicans who lie equal time. They could stop entertaining false Democrats who make their names by dissing other Democrats. They could discuss Democratic shortcomings while defending Democratic successes. They could be fair.

They’re not.

It felt tragic for a while, that betrayal, when things looked so dark not so long ago. (A week ago, in fact.) Now it feels like their time has past. We’re moving on. Hope is with us and we’re on the way to making Kamala Harris our next president.

Do we need them? Will we need them? That’s up to them. It may not even matter anymore. We’re going to do this, with or without them.

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(I know your first thought is that MSNBC is corporate-owned and there’s the answer. It’s the money. Don’t bother going there. That’s a given. This is about the show hosts. Their choices. Their responsibilities. They’re in front of the cameras. If they want their voices to matter in this fight they’ll need to show us by showing us.)