Dem
47
GOP
53
Every major North American sports league has a trade deadline. Once that deadline has passed, teams either cannot trade players until the end of the season, or else they cannot use any players acquired on their postseason roster. In some leagues, most obviously the NBA and MLB, trade-deadline day invariably witnesses a whole bunch of last-minute player movement.
We were reminded of the NBA/MLB trade deadlines by all the news that broke yesterday regarding various media figures and their new/former gigs. Obviously, the news media does not have a formal trade deadline the way the sports leagues do. However, the Monday before a new presidential administration, particularly the new presidential administration that is about to take power, effectively works out to "put up or shut up" time. So, on reflection, it's not so surprising that there were so many big announcements yesterday.
For lack of a better alternative, we'll work through the four big stories from (political) left to (political) right. So, first up is MSNBC and Rachel Maddow. Maddow is, of course, the biggest star in the MSNBC universe, even though she dialed her regular duties back to one day a week several years ago. However, she has decided that one day a week is not enough at this particular moment. And so, she is going to return to full-time duty for the first 100 days of the Trump presidency. Maddow's show, though airing only once a week, nearly equals the ratings of her direct competitor, Sean Hannity. Ratings of news outlets tend to improve when they are in "opposition" to whatever party holds the White House. So, there's an excellent chance Maddow will be the ratings king (well, the ratings queen) during her 100 days back on the daily grind.
Meanwhile, over at sister station NBC (sister station for now, at least), Chuck Todd is on his way out. He was cashiered as host of Meet the Press back in 2023, and has since been relegated to mostly second-tier duties. He does not want to remain a journalistic backbencher, and NBC does not particularly want to keep him, especially since he is among the media figures whom Donald Trump hates the most. So, Todd is looking around for a new gig that he can assume once his NBC contract is up later this year. Given that all the major media conglomerates are trying to avoid stepping on Trump's toes, Todd may find it difficult-to-impossible to find a job with the stature he thinks he's earned. The best fit for him might be a foreign concern of some sort, like BBC America.
Crossing over to the right-wing part of the spectrum, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin has had enough, and yesterday she resigned from the paper. She is going to partner with (left-leaning) attorney and pundit Norm Eisen to form a multi-media venture called The Contrarian. The multi-media involved here are exactly the ones you would guess: a Substack blog, some podcasts, and a YouTube channel.
Next week, we are going to start our annual rundown of predictions for 2025 and recap of last year's predictions. Had we gotten to it earlier, well, one of our predictions was going to be that Rubin would be leaving the Post. First, it's pretty hard for any self-respecting opinion columnist to remain at that paper anymore; doing so has something of a quisling vibe to it. Second, Rubin's position was particularly tenuous. She is one of the best-known Never Trump Republican commentators in the country, right up there with Jonathan Last and Andrew Sullivan. If the Post's management is going through Trump-critical content with a fine-toothed comb, then Rubin couldn't possibly do her job properly. It was obvious to us, and it was obvious to her. Anyhow, expect The Contrarian to bear more than a passing similarity to Last's The Bulwark, which is currently the most prominent site for commentary from Never Trump Republicans.
Finally, over on the far-right, Fox has announced a replacement for the soon-to-depart Neil Cavuto. It's exactly the person you would expect, assuming you follow right-wing media at all: Will Cain. Fox has been grooming Cain to be their next "star" for several years, with him doing radio and weekend TV work. What this story really reminds us of, however, is that there's only one true "star" at Fox, and that is the Fox brand. Anytime the channel loses a high-profile entertainer—Bill O'Reilly, Tucker Carlson, Cavuto, etc.—they just swap someone else in, and the ratings are unaffected.
And that is today's media report. (Z)