Two struggling news entities made headlines yesterday. One’s struggling with ratings among old men in general as well as credibility, one with challenges to their credibility and a couple of lawsuits from one particularly thin-skinned old man. While you may not remember Mighty Mouse, I’m pretty sure they do. Maybe you saw his most recent pop culture reference in the recent SATURDAY NIGHT film where Andy Kaufman’s monologue featuring him bobbing along to the same 78″ recording that I owned as a kid, only reacting to do his karaoke version of the cartoon hero’s signature line, “Here he comes to save the day!!!!”
Well, it’s a gender-neutral world now, and frankly, neither MSNBC or CBS is in any position to split hairs given the situations they respectfully find themselves in. And much as Kaufman did in his national comedy debut, they’ve reached back into their pasts for a meritocracy-endorsed move that fortunately for their audiences isn’t completely devoid of some DEI tick marks.
Per THE DAILY BEAST’s
Rachel Maddow will be back hosting her eponymous MSNBC show five nights a week through President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, returning to a weeklong stint after months of ratings woes.
Maddow will move from a one-day to a five-day-a-week schedule hosting The Rachel Maddow Show starting Jan. 20, MSNBC announced Monday. Alex Wagner, who has filled out the 9 p.m. hour Tuesday through Friday with Alex Wagner Tonight, will begin a reporting tour across the U.S. examining the effects of Trump’s early policies. Both shows will return to their normal schedule on May 1.
The shift also comes as MSNBC recalibrates itself as part of Comcast’s spun-off SpinCo, which has seen multiple anchors take pay cuts in recent months and NBC stalwart Andrea Mitchell prepare to leave her show after the inauguration.
Maddow has been the network’s focal point for years, often anchoring its special coverage and becoming a resource for viewers outraged by Trump’s tirades. Situating her in her slot for five nights a week in Trump’s first 100 days—at least—potentially gives the new company new ratings wins to tout as it completes the spinoff process.
So by the time May 1st rolls around, it’s entirely possible MSNBC may have new ownership, or at least suitors, and who knows what it might evolve into.
Meanwhile, CBS made a mighty move in their own right by calling back a veteran leader who is even more sorely needed around her parts, as VARIETY’s Brian Steinberg reported last night:
Susan Zirinsky is once again being asked to help polish up CBS News.
The veteran producer, who served as the unit’s president from early 2019 to the end of 2021, has been asked to return to CBS News as an interim “executive editor,” and will oversee standards, helping to vet stories and journalistic practices. Like many other news operations, CBS News has long had personnel who monitored internal practices and ethics.
But there seems to be a desire to make such efforts more a part of the senior suite after controversies surfaced last year at the Paramount Global operation tied to incidents at “60 Minutes” and “CBS Mornings.”
Indeed that’s true, but as Steinberg notes once again there are bottom line reasons for this move as well:
The move takes place as Paramount Global moves to be acquired by Skydance Media, and there is no doubt concern any tangles in court with soon-to-be President Trump might have an effect on how regulators vet the proposed transaction.
CBS News has grappled with backlash to its coverage in recent months.In November, then-candidate Donald Trump sued CBS News for $10 billion in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, claiming an interview between “60 Minutes” and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris , then his opponent, had been edited deceptively. CBS was embroiled in another imbroglio in October when Tony Dokoupil, one of the co-anchors of “CBS Mornings,” grilled author Ta-Nehisi Coates on whether his writing expressed antipathy toward Israel. On October 7, the anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel in 2023, CBS News executives told staffers that Dokoupil’s report failed to meet the network’s standards. The move generated pushback from advocacy organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League.
And as Steinberg further observed, there’s apparently still stuff going on that’s ticking them off:
On Monday, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, took issue with a “60 Minutes” segment broadcast Sunday that examined opposition by former State Department officials to the Biden administration supporting Israel’s push against Hamas. Greenblatt called the segment “a biased and one-sided piece” in a statement, noting that “Even before this, CBS had a recent history of insensitivity on Jewish issues that was incredibly problematic.”
Zirinsky’s indeed needed to deal with these issues, but her Wikipedia biography points out a few other personal qualities that might also help her cred:
Zirinsky was born in New York City and raised in Neponsit, Queens, the daughter of Cynthia (née Finkelstein) and Richard Zirinsky (1915–2002). Her father was a New York City real-estate developer.[10][11] . Named after her parents for their philanthropy, the Richard and Cynthia Zirinsky Center for Bipolar Disorder is located at Mount Sinai Beth Israel.[9]
A Queens native who was raised by a real estate developer with clear ties to the Jewish community. Think a certain litigious guy and perhaps a key donor like, say, Miriam Adelson might see this as a step in the right direction?
Maybe that silly ol’ lawsuit might be a lower priority, especially given how busy those first 100 days are going to be, especially with Maddow second and third-guessing every move.
So perhaps the lyrics of that classic Mighty Mouse theme are apropos for both of these Hail Marys:
Mister Trouble never hangs around
When he hears this Mighty sound.
Go get ’em, ladies.
Until next time..