MSNBC appears to be unraveling in slow motion, starting with its biggest name, Rachel Maddow, taking what’s being spun as a “hefty” pay cut. Her $30 million annual salary will drop to $25 million over the next three years—a laughable concession for someone who’s managed to reduce her workload to just one show per week. While critics might argue she’s still grossly overpaid, this adjustment signals trouble for her colleagues, as parent company Comcast prepares to cut MSNBC loose. With new management on the horizon, the days of extravagant salaries for liberal opinion-makers may finally be coming to an end.
Comcast’s decision to spin off MSNBC is hardly shocking. Network television, particularly those peddling political narratives, is a fading business model. MSNBC’s ratings have plummeted by 40% compared to the previous year, with a meager 65,000 viewers in the critical 25-54 demographic tuning in for primetime after the election. Once the go-to channel for the loudest #Resistance voices, MSNBC is now grappling with a shrinking, aging audience. For a brand that once thrived on echoing liberal outrage, this decline suggests even its core audience may be moving on.
To make matters worse, MSNBC isn’t just losing viewers; it’s picking up costly legal baggage. A Georgia doctor is suing the network for $30 million after being falsely accused on-air of performing mass hysterectomies at an immigrant detention center. Insiders aren’t holding back either, with one commentator reportedly labeling the network a “giant circle jerk” of Democratic propaganda that keeps viewers locked in “fantasy land.” This critique isn’t from conservative critics but from within MSNBC’s own ranks, suggesting that even the staff is growing tired of the network’s tired rhetoric.
Recent blunders haven’t done MSNBC any favors either. Liberal viewers were outraged when Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski cozied up to President-elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago to “restart communications.” Meanwhile, conservatives were justifiably disgusted by a headline appearing to sympathize with an illegal immigrant who murdered a college student. And then there’s Chris Hayes—Maddow’s look-alike in both appearance and ideology—nodding along as baseless accusations flew about Trump’s Secretary of Defense nominee being a white supremacist. Even Democratic strategists like Michael LaRosa admit this kind of rhetoric is precisely why the left keeps losing elections.
The problems facing MSNBC are piling up fast, and its dwindling audience likely isn’t ready for what’s coming next. From collapsing ratings to internal dissent and mounting legal troubles, the network seems to be sliding into irrelevance. New management is eager to rein in excessive salaries and repair MSNBC’s tarnished reputation, but the damage may already be done. What was once a leading voice for the left now looks like a shell of its former self, and the era of unchecked liberal indulgence on cable news appears to be nearing its end—thankfully.
