It seems that MSNBC is thinking of hiring Rosie O’Donnell, and people are talking. Is MSNBC tilting leftward? Is someone out there finally going to serve the vast numbers of people who have no desire to feast on a one course meal of right wing red meat? But MSNBC has some strange concerns:
O’Donnell’s ”loose cannon” reputation, reinforced during her nine-month stint on ”The View,” apparently is a key stumbling block as the comedian-turned-TV talker negotiates with the network. Showcasing alternative political viewpoints to the conservative opinions espoused by Fox News has helped boost MSNBC’s recent ratings, ”but we still get nervous when we think about Rosie,” an MSNBC source told me Tuesday.
If this is true (the nervousness I mean) it seems strange. After all, when Ann Coulter suggests that various people or groups of people should be killed, or Glenn Beck suggests that a Muslim Congressman should be assumed to be a traitor, there is barely a ripple in the Force. And as we know, I barely skim the surface. Has Rosie ever suggested killing anyone? Surely MSNBC doesn’t fear that liberals are held to a different standard than the troglodytes?
I happen to believe that in this great country, we unwashed are just as tolerant of the right of liberals to tell the truth, albeit in rough and ready language, as we are of the right of the Neanderthals of the right (I know, that’s unfair to Neanderthals) to lie and spread hate. Actually, I think we’re probably more tolerant of the liberal brand of misbehavior, at least those of us who exist outside of the rarified atmosphere of the Beltway and media boardrooms. We don’t, for instance, pick on little kids.
If MSNBC truly is seeing the economic handwriting on the wall, and is going to try serving the unserved majority in this country, it will mark quite a turnaround. This is the network, after all, that took its top rated show (Phil Donahue) off the air because Phil dared to oppose the war in Iraq.
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