Curiouser and Curiouser

I find it awfully curious that some progressives are all up in arms because Al Sharpton took over the 6 pm timeslot on MSNBC.  Everything was copacetic when he was simply filling in while Cenk Uyger was on vacation, but now that Uyger is out and Rev. Al looks to be in, it's suddenly become a problem: 

It seems that during the time I was out of the country, The Powers That Be at MSNBC decided to replace "Young Turks" host Cenk Uygur with civil rights movement celebrity Al Sharpton as host of the 6 p.m. hour. This move was confusing at first -- I naturally assumed that what I was seeing on the teevee was a result of jet lag or drunkenness, or that my Virgin Atlantic flight had flown through a wormhole into a parallel dimension (Richard Branson features this option on a select number of international flights). But I've come to understand that this Al Sharpton-on-MSNBC stuff is actually a real thing happening in our lives.

And that's pretty interesting, seeing as there's no evidence whatsoever that Sharpton has any real talent for hosting a television show or covering the news of the day. Sharpton's well known, of course, for being a fiery and exciting orator with genuine rhetorical talent. Being stuck behind a desk and staring at a teleprompter, however, doesn't seem to suit him at all. In a more restrained space, his speech is halting and tentative, his focus seems scattered, and but for the adequate amplification technologies being deployed, you'd have to term the show "mumblecore."

And whether he feels reined in by the politesse of hosting, or is just generally at sea in his new format, there's nothing in Sharpton's performance that suggests he has command of the conversation. If I were in ideological opposition to Sharpton, I'd be only too eager to go on his show -- he seems uniquely incapable of getting the upper hand in an argument.

So, what, if anything, does Sharpton bring to the table? Well, as Wayne Barrett reports in The Daily Beast, Sharpton's appeal may stem from the fact that he's already been such a fine company man to NBC, having played an important role in facilitating the network's merger with Comcast: (more:  Huffington Post)

Wow.  Marginalize much?

So let me get this straight.  One of the reasons some on the left are upset is because Rev. Al is not a "real journalist."  Ummm...isn't the whole line-up from 5 pm on littered with opinion shows?  I don't remember hearing any complaints about Ed Schultz when he was given his own show a couple of years ago.  Couple that with the fact that Cenk spent a boat-load of his time beating up on the president (good for him if that's how he felt) and Rev. Al doesn't (to the utter chagrin of some progressives), and...well...there you go.

Here's another good one:  a quid pro quo got him the job.  According to some, Rev. Al is getting a big, TV-show sized payback for helping "facilitate" (their words, not mine) the NBC/Comcast merger.  Yeah...like that never happens in corporate America (if it's even true).  I find it funny that when black people are the (alleged) benefactors of deals that are done all day every day in the business world by old, rich white men, the naysayers come out of the woodwork to declare how horrible and illegitimate it is.

Now let's talk about baggage.  It's okay for Eliot "I Love Hookers" Spitzer and Joe "Dead Staffer" Scarborough to have their own shows on CNN and MSNBC respectively ('cause you know...neither of them have any baggage whatsoever), but  the Rev. can't have a piece of the TV pie because he has too much baggage?  What a bullshit double standard.

Oh, and in case you weren't aware, it's President Obama's fault too. It can't possibly have anything to do with the fact that the Rev's ratings are better than Uyger's...nope...it's the black man in the White House. But hey, why not? The president gets blamed for everything else.

For the past few weeks, I've been watching the Rev's show, and I have to say that I like what I'm seeing.  It wouldn't hurt for him to dial his voice down a notch and make sure he knows how to correctly pronouce his guest's names, but honestly, that's just nitpicking.  The important thing is that he keeps those mofo Republicans honest, challenging their BS and not letting them get away with the crap they usually get away with on other shows. Not only is it refreshing, but it feels wonderful to see someone that looks like me actually hosting a show for a change (sorry...contributors don't count). 

Despite the ridiculous freakout and all the unnecessary naysaying, he deserves to sit in that chair just as much as Lawrence, Chris, Ed, Rachel, or the recently departed Cenk.

A whole bunch of lefties are getting the side-eye from me on this one.  One of the most important lessons I've learned over the last four years (which includes the democratic primary) is that Republicans don't have the market cornered on protecting the status quo. 


***And yes, I know some people will try to write this nonsense off by saying, "But black journalists are upset too!"  I know that game and I'm not playing.  Yes, some black journalists might be upset that MSNBC didn't hire a "real" journalist for that spot, and they're certainly entitled to their opinions, but I say again...who in that whole line-up is a journalist and not a pundit giving their opinion on their opinion-based show? 

Next.