MSNBC held their Television Critics Association panel yesterday in Los Angeles, and the questions ranged from comparisons of MSNBC and FNC to comparisons of Obama and Bush.
Variety’s Brian Lowry writes that MSNBC president Phil Griffin fielded questions about the network’s “windshield-wiper act” of having Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews again anchoring political coverage, Tuesday at the Inauguration, as well as whether MSNBC was the “left-leaning counterweight” to Fox News. “We’re less about ideology than Fox is,” said Griffin.
The Hollywood Reporter’s James Hibberd expands on the topic. Rachel Maddow also made the trip to L.A., and although she said she’s “never seen a show on Fox at any time ever,” she had some opinions about the network. “The idea that there’s any equivalency between us and Fox News…” she said. “Fox is a political experiment. Imagine them having somebody as liberal as Joe Scarborough is conservative doing their whole morning? It doesn’t make sense.”
She also was confident there would be just as much to talk about with Barack Obama in the White House. “I don’t think we’re at risk of idiocy going out of fashion in Washington,” she said.