I long ago lost hope that MSNBC could grow into a voice representing left-leaning anti-corporatist thought. I tried to stay with them once Olbermann left, but increasingly I found that the hosts (with the brief exception of Martin Bashir) tended to parrot each other, adding nothing to the discussion, or even to the list of stories covered. It's like they use a news radio philosophy as their programming strategy.

It also seems to me that MSNBC hosts each have a specific agenda to push. Chris Matthews wants to personify that "bipartisanship" which destroyed Obama's viability as an agent of change; Melissa Harris-Perry might as well only talk about black issues from the 1960s; Rachel Maddow only wants to discuss gay rights and electing Hillary Clinton.

Yes, this is something of an exaggeration, but I found that less and less of the offerings of the entire network interested me in the least. I stopped watching, turning instead to the Internet (itself at risk despite the latest annouoncements from the FCC) for my information.

I have this same issue with a media outlet much closer to both of us: Pacifica's KPFK. I don't get to hear your show during their fundraising efforts, which seem to never end anymore. Instead, they pitch products and services like they are the QVC of the left.

I have a hard enough time scraping up money to donate to what few media producers still keep my interest. I can't afford to give an amount equal to what I can scrape up annually, every two months or so, to keep alive (and "commercial free") a station which barely attracts 700 listeners an hour - if the reported Nielsen/Arbitron numbers {per Bernard Duncan in a Report to the Listener about a year ago} are accurate.

In the market in Southern California -where over 10 million people can hear Pacifica if KPFK had something to offer them- to only attract 700 listeners reeks of incompetence. I'm no media professional, but I'd bet I could attract 700 listeners running the station all by myself.

But more to the point, what media isn't corporate owned and operated is dwindling. I can't stand NPR, and I don't have any other station besides KPFK in the LA area that I even deem listenable. Yet increasingly I find that I'm turning my radio off rather than hear what's being broadcast on KPFK. They aren't talking to me, about my issues, or in my defense.

Being unsatisfied, I also can't contribute to them. I will instead contribute what I can to those media outlets which do talk to me, about my issues, and in defense of my interests as an increasingly oppressed member of the working class.

I too became disenchanted with MSNBC after they fires KO, then Martin Bashir. They hired two many youthful hosts with little institutional knowledge...they've not lived long enough to build knowledge on years lived.

Back in 2009, MSNBC started moving to more conservative news reporting everything GOP says, does with an aggressive counterbalance. Their youth hosts go all 'suzy lollipop even though MHP is a college professor, Joy a Harvard grad, Maddow an Oxford grad. These ladies were not suzy pops when the guest appeared before they had their own shows.
I like MSNBC 2-hour format, especially on Saturdays. Waiting to see how it works more on day time.
Reid does better as guest on other shows...she will be formidably against the dapper Michael Steele.
Over all problem w MSNBC is that it not a 'left' network. Never was. Too bad for there is a niche out there for a left of center network. When one watches them for a day you can conclude they're right of center as other networks are....except Fox News which is an arm of the republican party. Thing is Fox is making big money advocating for GOP. MSNBC could make same money advocating for left Democratic Party. Too bad.