Bernie Sanders 'disappointed' in Ed Schultz cancellation

[n2doc]

By DYLAN BYERS

Sen. Bernie Sanders said Thursday that he is "disappointed" in Comcast's decision to remove Ed Schultz from its lineup, seemingly confirming earlier reports that Schultz's "Ed Show" was one of several MSNBC programs headed for the chopping block.

"We live in a time when much of the corporate media regards politics as a baseball game or a soap opera," the Democratic presidential hopeful said in a statement. "Ed Schultz has treated the American people with respect by focusing on the most important issues impacting their lives," Sanders said in a statement. "He has talked about income and wealth inequality, high unemployment, low wages, our disastrous trade policies and racism in America.

“I am very disappointed that Comcast chose to remove Ed Schultz from its lineup. We need more people who talk about the real issues facing our country, not fewer," Sanders continued. "At a time when a handful of large, multi-national corporations own our major media outlets, I hope they will allow voices to be heard from those who dissent from the corporate agenda."

In a long-anticipated move, MSNBC is planning to cancel several of its daytime and evening shows to make room for more news-driven programming. "The Cycle," "Now with Alex Wagner" and "The Ed Show" are expected to be canceled, though the network has yet to confirm that. NBC News Group chairman Andrew Lack will hold a staff meeting later today, where more announcements are expected.

Meanwhile, Chuck Todd, host of NBC's "Meet The Press," will add a daily MSNBC program to his portfolio, starting in September. Former NBC "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams will also join MSNBC as breaking news and special reports anchor.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/07/bernie-sanders-disappointed-in-ed-schultz-cancellation-211128.html

[Kalidurga]

1. Guess I am going to have to cancel MSNBC.

Not for the shows they are cutting as much as them giving the Toad and the Liar more airtime. Seriously that is f'd up.

[monmouth4]

4. Agreed. Todd's MTP ratings are a disaster and they're giving him another show? I think the major

problem is with Phil Griffin and has been for a long time. MSNBC is so backwards. Hope the KO rumor is true..

[louis-t]

33. Maybe KO rumor was leaked on purpose...

in advance of these corporatist moves.

[movonne]

47. I have given up on msnbc for a while now...I will watch Rachael now and then...

[PoliticAverse]

2. 'Former NBC "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams will also join MSNBC'

There's a credibility boosting move right there.

[Ed Suspicious]

8. Personality matters, not credibility. Pretty faces matter, not integrity.

[billhicks76]

39. Cancel Comcast

Chuck Todd is a Republican Trojan Horse and a jerk to boot. Go DirectTV.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. So three more of the above average shows canceled to make room for more crap ones?

That's the ticket!

[daleanime]

5. +1

[Cleita]

6. Silencing one more progressive voice.

Big Ed always pro-labor and lately anti-Keystone pipeline and TPP as well as pro-Bernie had to be shut up. Yeah I won't be kissing Chuckie the Toad either cuz I know he's no Prince. Soon no one will be watching M$NBComcast except maybe for the Rachel Maddow show. How long before she gets cancelled? I don't believe they are bringing back KO.

[swilton]

7. +++++++

[Ed Suspicious]

9. I have nowhere seen more advertisements extolling the virtues of fracking than on MSNBC.

Their bread is buttered not by Ed, but by those who seek to rape expropriate the land and its people of all the money and resources.

[Enthusiast]

26. MSNBC could suck as bad as Fox if they really tried.

[historylovr]

11. He should look into doing podcasts.

Create his own youtube channel or something like that. I don't know all the ins and outs, but that would be one way to keep his voice out there.

[Cleita]

12. I think he gave up his radio program to do a podcast, but he won't have

the audience he has on cable. I don't know what his outlet is but I guess we are going to have to go find him.

[historylovr]

13. Ah. Yes, we'll have to find him and support him there, then. Agreed.

[mockmonkey]

17. His Daily Podcast link

http://wegoted.com/category/daily-podcast/

[historylovr]

19. Thanks!

Bookmarked to my faves.

[cascadiance]

30. I think that internet streaming of radio through services like Slacker and Pandora will be growing..

Last edited Thu Jul 23, 2015, 03:24 PM - Edit history (1)

... down the road to invade the monopoly owned by Clear Channel (now named conveniently IHeartRadio to distance themselves from Clear channel's bad rep). More and more cars are being built in with the ability to hook up to WIFI and cell streaming services than just radio signals. So now in addition to satellite radio, people have even more choices of what to listen to.

http://www.cnet.com/news/pandora-vs-itunes-radio-vs-slacker-which-internet-radio-service-right-for-you/

I used to work for the company that has many of its older employees working for Slacker now. Though many of these services are now pay services, I think it's just a bit of time before we have either free or low priced services that a majority of people can afford to compete with free over the air radio, and more people's devices will support getting these services.

Note that Tune-in mentioned in the above article has many liberal talk radio shows on it, and therefore would be a good alternative if you don't want to have to just get Sirius Left on Sirius/XM satellite radio the way many of us have to today. Schultz could definitely have a show on that service.

Here's a sampling of what is on Tune-in now...

http://tunein.com/radio/Progressive-Talk-c57925/

[historylovr]

35. That's good to know.

[senz]

52. + 1

Thanks again for great info & ideas, cascadiance.

[merrily]

18. IMO, Shultz was more populist than Maddow.

He was very vocally pro-labor, very vocally pro-Medicare for all and, of late, very pro-Bernie.

[Cleita]

20. I don't disagree.

Rachel is more a current events and policy wonk.

[cascadiance]

31. Talking a lot about Bernie and the TPP probably did him in...

Something that his COMCAST overlords didn't want talked about at all.

[billhicks76]

41. Cancel Comcast

[cascadiance]

44. Yep, switch to satellite service DirecTV or Dish Network and get FSTV shows...

... like Amy Goodman and Democracy Now, Thom Hartmann, Mike Papantonio's Ring of Fire, Stephanie Miller, Bill Press, David Pakman, Sonali Kohatkar, Laura Flanders on LinkTV, Karel, and many other progressive documentaries, etc.

Get other services too like RT and Al Jazeera America that gives you other content you won't get on cable too.

[senz]

51. + 1

Good advice, good info, cascadiance. That move, all by itself, will accomplish two good things: we will be better informed and satellite media and FSTV will get stronger.

If done on a large enough scale, this could make a difference in the country. Media really does run things (and I think Bill Clinton, of all people, said that a long time ago.)

Hmm. Media activism.

[aggiesal]

54. I have DirecTV and they're be taken over by AT&T

If you don't know anything about AT&T, they like to donate money
to RW causes.

It's really getting hard to purchase anything from companies/corporations
that don't side more with Right-Wing then with Left.

I guess my concern is, how long FSTV would stay on DirecTVAT&T?

[cascadiance]

56. I switched to Dish Network a long time ago. They had on FSTV before DirectTV...

DirecTV also used to be owned by entities more tied to Rupert Murdoch's empire too. I've always been a bit more suspicious of their ownership than Dish's which is why I've stayed with Dish over the years now.

[merrily]

50. MSNBC ratings are supposedly down drastically.

http://deadline.com/2015/03/msnbc-ratings-all-time-low-fox-news-wins-cnn-1201402274/

[ebbie15644]

10. Well, I guess I'll have to quit MSNBC

[ibegurpard]

14. Chuck Todd???

Jesus...

[RoccoR5955]

15. Make room for more Upchuck Toad! n/t

[FlatBaroque]

16. THIS is how you can tell

Who at a network delivers their blood oath to serving the corporate agenda, and who has hesitated or refused to do so. So, what percentage of theviewinv publkc was clamoring for more CHUCK TODD!!!! Oh! And that horrible Pbil Donahue.

[Robbins]

21. The only way you will get me to turn on MSNC

will be if rumors are true and Keith Is returning.even if that is true that is because they are hoping he can do better before rachel.

Plus axing ed and others but bringing back keith will allow them to say we aren't silencing progressives.

[n2doc]

22. I will be amazed if Keith comes back after this

Seems like they are just getting ready for 2016. To catapult the propaganda.

[Zorra]

23. During primary season. Ed is not a Clinton supporter. The billionaires who own the MSM

cancelled his show to silence his union loving populist voice.

[Enthusiast]

25. I agree. Ed will just have to go walleye fishing full time. Wish I could join him.

Maybe he should run for office as a Democrat. Maybe he could rid us of a stinkin' blue dog.

[azmom]

55. +1

[Enthusiast]

24. We DVR Ed every evening to watch in the morning. I am about done with MSNBC anyway.

They really are mostly about suck.

[cascadiance]

32. I wonder what COMCAST investors will feel with the sudden drop of MSNBC's audience

... as more of the left that they tried to appeal to moves on and either disengages from TV altogether or gets satellite services like DirectTV or Dish Network instead of COMCAST cable television services (that might also see a drop in subscribers) to watch shows on Free Speech TV instead.

[Enthusiast]

62. I need to resubscribe to Dish so get Free Speech TV.

[cascadiance]

27. Another reason why the Telecomm act of 1996 should NEVER have been signed in to law!

Many of us were focused on the unconstitutional "Communications Decency Act" that would enable invasion of privacy and censorship on a widespread basis on the internet, but the rest of that act also screwed our media industry so much in allowing the messy state of corporate media we have today.

I'm happy to notice recently that Bernie was one of just a few in congress that voted against that bill too then. Wisdom them as he also exhibits it now, and consistently so too!

MSNBC has been trying to exploit the left leaning audience that had been ignored by so many other corporate media entities, but it looks like they want to push them aside now too in the interests of their 1% owners.

It's too bad that Current TV was sold to Al Jazeera. I watch Al Jazeera and RT for certain shows (like Thom Hartmann on RT and Fault Lines on AJ) but I really would like an American owned channel that feels it is more responsible to the vast majority of Americans as an audience, and not to corporate owners or foreign owners and their agendas.

Had Ed Schultz moved to Current TV and they still had shows like the Young Turks and others on it, then who knows maybe that would become the news media outlet we really needed in this election that wasn't so "corporatized" like all of the other mainstream media is now. Maybe Olbermann might have fixed his problems with his old show on that channel and returned there instead of MSNBC too. I think given what happened to Schultz, I think he'd be happier with that return than one to MSNBC.

[turbinetree]

28. Thats the ticket Comcastless..................

give a show to a man that made stuff up and LIED, and give another show to a guy that makes stuff up more and also doesn't quite tell the truth ------------and then give a former congressman a position who was involved with a intern.

Hey, Comcast do you see a pattern here or do you need more crayons and a bigger picture drawn for you.

What is really classic, they, Comcast charge commercial time to elevate three misleading "perfomers" and by fiat extensions of the right wing republican talking points machine.

And they wonder why, or don't care why, they are losing viewer ship, I think its time to cancel Comcast as a provider----------since they only see things in green backs

[FloridaBlues]

29. Not surprised! Now there isn't a Ed and Bernie TV show

[Hortensis]

34. Won't miss the 3 shows mentioned, but Brian Williams and Chuck Todd?! Say it isn't so!

Oh, well. I still won't be tuning in.

More news, if the real thing, and a lot less of "Very Serious People" showing up on show after show after show would be fine. Brian Williams' ridiculously puffed-up career has coincided with the decline of TV news to unworthy, irresponsible commercial garbage, though, and I've seen Todd produce too many shallow and inadequate, and even dishonest, interpretations, both prime examples of why I get my news in written form these days.

Bernie Sanders' endorsement of Ed Schultz is nice, though. It was his show's style I didn't care for, not him.

[mahannah]

36. Cut the jail porn.

[billhicks76]

42. Best Idea Yet

That's not fuckin news!!! So sick of the prison shows on the weekend. Comcast is just a bunch of Republican jerks. The only dem they tolerate is Hillary the Bush Family Surrogate.

[Qutzupalotl]

37. Well, at least we have Lockup!

[NRaleighLiberal]

38. We turned off the TV 7 years ago. To me, watching TV is like taking a DEpressant.

Life's too short to induce misery!

[raindaddy]

40. Even more of a reason to turn off the TV...

It's just a bunch of very wealthy people selling ad time to other wealthy people who want to sell you shit that's no longer manufactured here.... I get most of my information on the net and buy as many products locally as I can...

[billhicks76]

43. Hillary Is Happy With This

The republicans who run comcast needs to be taught a lesson. Cancel that cable. Go dish.

[senz]

48. Will be going dish soon. Cable's turgid with corporate media junk.

[billhicks76]

63. Comcast Is Owned By Activist Republicans

[kimbutgar]

45. Interesting timing just in time to silence a progressive voice ahead of the 2016 elevtion

And putting in a corporate rethuglican. Comcast just exposed themselves to bring in the bag for rethuglicans with this move.

I won't be watching much MSNBC anymore. Time for us to start supporting Free Speech TV, RT and Cenk on the Internet.

[senz]

46. K&R. Thanks for this important, informative thread.

I know that most mass media decisions are made for profit-seeking reasons but wonder if cancellation of Ed is at least partly due to his Bernie advocacy.

As we've seen in scattered bits of evidence (main media blackout of Bernie's huge turnouts, Nat'l Review declaring him a Nazi, media and even politician emphasis on his "socialist" label, trivialization of his message, goals, intellect) the Big Boys are getting nervous about Bernie Sanders. His message really does threaten their goals, and they know it. The other main Democratic contender will never threaten the oligarchic power structure, and they know that, too. She may not usher in their takeover of our democracy as quickly as a Republican would, but she poses NO THREAT to them.

So spokespeople like Ed are extremely important for Bernie's media exposure. I hope Ed can find another good venue. Is anyone familiar with Free Speech TV? It's not available on my cable, but this is the network for Thom Hartmann's TV show and others (including Amy Goodman, I think). Doubt it could pay Ed anything like what he makes on MSNBC.

I like the Internet streaming suggestions. Cannot get a message out without media.

[aggiesal]

60. If you have an internet connection (and who doesn't)

get yourself a ROKU box.
You'll get Free Speech TV on that.
You pay no service to Roku, and you don't pay anything for Free Speech TV.

[senz]

65. Thanks, aggiesal. I'm going to give this some thought. n/t

[senz]

49. I wonder what Rachel's going to do?

Her voice and presence are so strong on MSNBC; she's probably very attached and I don't blame her. But when certain Big News comes up (TPP, net neutrality) and she's faced with her company's blackout, she makes it clear how hemmed in she feels. She does a great job within the corporate confines, however.

[Dont call me Shirley]

53. I haven't watched msnbc for a long time. Free Speech TV is where progressivism is at.

[JDPriestly]

57. Drop your cable news subscription altogether.

Move to the news media on the internet and get other shows through things like Hulu and Netflix. You can hook your computer up to your TV and get a great view.

In our city, if you get basic cable, you have to pay for, among other things, Fox News. I do not want to pay one cent to watch Fox News. Not one cent.

If I get my news and other programming from the internet, I get to choose what I want. And I can choose my internet provider too. Why go the cable route? They choose your programming for your price range. And there is so much junk on their programming. You can only watch one show on one TV at one time.

[NRaleighLiberal]

58. + a zillion.

[totodeinhere]

59. You are exactly right. I cut the cable TV cord a while back and I feel I am

just as informed now if not more so than before. Plus I'm saving a lot of money. I can get Free Speech TV and Democracy Now both free on my Roku.

[d_legendary1]

61. No surprise here

MSNBC is slowly moving more to the right in order to compete with Certainly Not News and Fixed News. How long till Maddow gets the ax as well?

[rhett o rick]

64. Why is it that only Sen Sander's supporters care about this? Seriously. nm