The serious trend behind MSNBC’s silly new name

MSNBC is now MS NOW. | Versant

Goodbye MSBNC, and hello “MS NOW.”

In an announcement that has triggered widespread befuddlement and mockery, the progressive cable news network is getting rebranded. 

The new name isn’t meant to call to mind Microsoft or the honorific “Ms.” Instead, in the style of congressional bill-naming, MS NOW is purportedly an acronym for the following mouthful: “My Source for News, Opinion, and the World.”

Underneath this seemingly silly story, though, are currents of major change — and fear — in the mainstream media.

Because both MSNBC and its fellow political news network CNN are meeting the same fate; they’re being jettisoned by the big corporate behemoths that currently own them. 

Those corporate behemoths — Comcast owns MSNBC, while Warner Bros. owns CNN — have legitimate business reasons for making this change. Each is offloading these political news channels, as well as various other cable networks, to a new separate company, called by some a “SpinCo” (spin-off company) and by others a “ShitCo” (no explanation needed). This is because cable news is viewed as a declining business.

Yet there’s another clear implication. President Donald Trump loathes both MSNBC and CNN, and his administration has been willing and eager to wage personal and political vendettas against their corporate owners. 

Take, for instance, how Paramount had to grovel before Trump because he was annoyed at Paramount-owned CBS. The Federal Communications Commission held up Paramount’s merger deal until the company agreed to pay a $16 million settlement in a bogus lawsuit Trump had brought against 60 Minutes.

So now, with these spinoffs, Comcast and Warner Bros. will no longer have to worry about being punished by the federal government for MSNBC and CNN’s coverage.

To be clear: Comcast’s spin-off of MSNBC and other cable properties was already in the works before Trump won his second term. And there’s obviously no political motivation behind Comcast ditching its other cable properties, like the USA Network, SYFY, Oxygen, the Golf Channel, CNBC, and E! (Comcast is keeping NBC News and Universal Studios.)

But since Trump began his second term, the company’s thinking has apparently evolved on one point: whether MSNBC can keep its name.

Back in January, the new CEO of MSNBC’s SpinCo, Mark Lazarus, said that MSNBC would keep its name after the spin-off. So the announcement Monday of the new MS NOW name was a change of plan. 

This would, of course, create more obvious distance between whatever “MS NOW” is up to and the existing NBC media empire. 

CNBC, in contrast, will get to keep its name despite being spun off. We don’t know whether that’s because they’re less likely to displease Trump, less likely to cause problems for NBC’s brand, or some other reason.

What we do know is that, this year, Trump has normalized the weaponization of the government against corporations who have displeased him with shocking speed. For now, at least, this has to be part of companies’ strategic calculations. Placating the president is the new cost of doing business in the United States of America.

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‘He just dynamites it’: Alarm sounded over Trump’s ‘smoking gun for abuse of power’



Legal commentator Elie Honig said during a podcast Sunday that the indictment of former FBI director James Comey might be "abuse of executive power."

Speaking to journalist John Avalon on The Bulwark's podcast, Honig, who is the author of the book When You Come at the King: Inside DOJ's Pursuit of the President, From Nixon to Trump, said, "I mean, God, Trump basically, by mistake, published a DM demand to his AG that in any other environment would be seen as a smoking gun for abuse of executive power. And now it just seems like something happened two Fridays ago. And who can remember or care?"

He continued: "I do think more people will get indicted on the hit list. He gave us a hit list. I know there's speculation if it's a DM that he inadvertently posted. It has hallmarks of both."

Avalon said the indictment "seems like a new low in the politicization of justice and the persecution of [President] Donald Trump's enemies."

According to Honig, there is "the complete evisceration of this wall that has long existed between the White House and the political operation of the executive branch and the Justice Department's prosecutorial function."

"When the president gets involved in dictating who gets charged and who doesn't, prosecutorial decisions, then we have crossed the line. And that's something that both parties for decades. Presidents don't always love it. Presidents would like to have more control over prosecutors. But even going back to Nixon, they've always understood that there has to be some independent prosecutorial function. But that's changing now very quickly," he added.

Honig further noted that there is no law per se "saying DOJ must be separate and independent from the White House, from the president."

He added: "I mean, if you went to court and said, I want to sue because I think DOJ is no longer independent, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on. This is more along the lines of a long established law foundational norm and tradition that both parties have long observed and respected."

Referencing his book, Honig noted how Trump 2.0 appears different from other presidencies.

"And part of the book is about ways that that has been chipped away over the years. But whether it's Nixon or Clinton, and they're not all equal, but Nixon or Clinton or Trump 1 or Biden, they've all chipped away at that wall in various ways."

"But now here comes Trump 2.0 and it's over. He just dynamites it. This is one of those things that's like not really enforceable. I mean, yes, Jim Comey can go into court and argue that he's being selectively prosecuted. And I think he's going to win on that. Given the things Trump has said and posted on social media publicly, he makes the case for him, but it's not like 'my fourth amendment constitutional right is being violated. My first amendment constitutional right is being violated.' It's just really like good government that we've long recognized that is now totally scrapped."

Avalon noted that "there is an unwritten part of the constitution, which is rooted in concepts of honor, decency, and common sense, as the founders intended and as everyone has recognized."

"And the rest of the quote, 'Rome wasn't built in a day, but it was burnt in one.' And Trump is burning something. I mean, FBI shows outside John Bolton's house. You've got [New York Attorney Genera] Letitia James next on the list."

Commenting on James' case, Honig said, "I've looked at the allegations against Letitia James. You know, I've been a critic, a sharp critic of Letitia James. But this mortgage fraud case is bogus. It's bonkers."

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