Cenk Uygur: ‘The Problem With MSNBC is Not the Shows’

By Chris Ariens 

We’re in Anaheim, CA for the next few days covering VidCon, a conference which brings together digital video creators, their rabid fans, and, increasingly, advertisers who want to be a part of it.

We ran into Cenk Uygur, an early adopter of the power of digital media. His YouTube channel has more than 2.2 million subscribers and his website boasts that it’s the largest online news show in the world.

He is also a former MSNBC host who was replaced by Al Sharpton. Uygur still has strong feelings about MSNBC and wasn’t shy when we asked him about the pending changes coming to the network:

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The problem with MSNBC right now is not the shows. Certainly not the hosts. It’s the idea behind the channel, which I would love for someone to explain to me what it is. I know what it should be. I know that if you super-serve your audience as Fox News does, and you know who your audience is, well then you’re going to have tremendous success. But I’m not sure that MSNBC knows who their audience is, knows who they are and knows how to serve that audience. So, as soon as they tell me what they’re trying to do, then I can say to them, ‘Oh here would be my advice on how to get there.’

But if you’re flailing around, desperately trying to figure out who you are, well it’s gonna show in the numbers. Is it that Alex Wagner didn’t do a good enough job? Of course not. The hosts on The Cycle were great, Alex [Wagner] is great. What did you ask her to do? I think that’s the real issue.

Even the slogan, Lean Forward… it’s non-committal. It’s really indicative of the trepidation that you see throughout the organization.

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