Shadedmuse
04-11-2002, 10:11 PM
How will will Rogers package this as Can-Con???? America's News Channel-Canada does not trip easy off the tongue.
Struggling MSNBC on Thursday nicknamed itself "America's News Channel" and wrapped its Peacock "bug" in a flag in a re-branding campaign aimed at selling the cellar-dwelling cable channel as "something uniquely American and fiercely independent."
In a two-page e-mail to MSNBC staffers, MSNBC President Erik Sorenson's offered thoughts that ranged from doomsday predictions ("It's hard to imagine America won't be struck again sometime, somewhere") to troop-rallying ("A new name for a new day and a new time").
In between, Mr. Sorenson, who is bringing old-fashioned liberal Phil Donahue out of retirement to host a prime-time talk show this summer, slung mud at his competitors, Fox News Channel and CNN, for whom MSNBC has been rendered a nonfactor by its low ratings.
"Some news channels seem partisan, favoring one side over another (regardless of slogans or protestations to the contrary.)," Mr. Sorenson wrote. "Some cut deals with foreign governments or foreign broadcasters so as to provide coverage on an international basis to foreign viewers [an allusion to CNN]. Others stack the deck with partisans from one side and offset them with patsies from the other [an allusion to Fox News]. But our channel is not partisan and has no agenda other than to serve the American people, serve our viewers -- give them in-depth coverage and thorough analysis. Yours truly (and our management team) has no agenda, other than to inform. We don't take orders from anyone. We're independent in our journalism and our op-ed programming."
"Is this the same editorial independence they showed when they didn't break into Olympics coverage to report on the death of Daniel Pearl?" said a CNN spokesman, referring to February, when NBC's Winter Olympics took precedence over the fate of the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered.
"MSNBC is irrelevant," said a spokesman for Fox News Channel, which has reigned as the most-watched news channel for two consecutive quarters and which has billed itself as "The network America trusts for fair and balanced news" since shortly after Sept. 11.
Mr. Sorenson's e-mail said the best opportunities for MSNBC to set itself apart are "in the lulls between major stories. In the wake of 9/11, and with the world in a new state of chaos, cable news viewers are demanding information and ideas between crises."
Still to come, said Mr. Sorenson, is the naming of an editor in chief -- expected by many to be former New York Post editor and former "Politically Incorrect" executive producer Jerry Nachman. "This person will be critical in ensuring our uniquely American approach and our wildly independent style in the weeks and months ahead."
As for the mechanics of rebranding MSNBC, Mr. Sorenson said Val Nicholas -- the MSNBC vice president of advertising, promotion and marketing who hired former Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider as the voice of MSNBC last winter -- would continue to be in charge of the effort.
"Branding is accomplished through our look, our music and even our programming," said Mr. Sorenson.
Struggling MSNBC on Thursday nicknamed itself "America's News Channel" and wrapped its Peacock "bug" in a flag in a re-branding campaign aimed at selling the cellar-dwelling cable channel as "something uniquely American and fiercely independent."
In a two-page e-mail to MSNBC staffers, MSNBC President Erik Sorenson's offered thoughts that ranged from doomsday predictions ("It's hard to imagine America won't be struck again sometime, somewhere") to troop-rallying ("A new name for a new day and a new time").
In between, Mr. Sorenson, who is bringing old-fashioned liberal Phil Donahue out of retirement to host a prime-time talk show this summer, slung mud at his competitors, Fox News Channel and CNN, for whom MSNBC has been rendered a nonfactor by its low ratings.
"Some news channels seem partisan, favoring one side over another (regardless of slogans or protestations to the contrary.)," Mr. Sorenson wrote. "Some cut deals with foreign governments or foreign broadcasters so as to provide coverage on an international basis to foreign viewers [an allusion to CNN]. Others stack the deck with partisans from one side and offset them with patsies from the other [an allusion to Fox News]. But our channel is not partisan and has no agenda other than to serve the American people, serve our viewers -- give them in-depth coverage and thorough analysis. Yours truly (and our management team) has no agenda, other than to inform. We don't take orders from anyone. We're independent in our journalism and our op-ed programming."
"Is this the same editorial independence they showed when they didn't break into Olympics coverage to report on the death of Daniel Pearl?" said a CNN spokesman, referring to February, when NBC's Winter Olympics took precedence over the fate of the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered.
"MSNBC is irrelevant," said a spokesman for Fox News Channel, which has reigned as the most-watched news channel for two consecutive quarters and which has billed itself as "The network America trusts for fair and balanced news" since shortly after Sept. 11.
Mr. Sorenson's e-mail said the best opportunities for MSNBC to set itself apart are "in the lulls between major stories. In the wake of 9/11, and with the world in a new state of chaos, cable news viewers are demanding information and ideas between crises."
Still to come, said Mr. Sorenson, is the naming of an editor in chief -- expected by many to be former New York Post editor and former "Politically Incorrect" executive producer Jerry Nachman. "This person will be critical in ensuring our uniquely American approach and our wildly independent style in the weeks and months ahead."
As for the mechanics of rebranding MSNBC, Mr. Sorenson said Val Nicholas -- the MSNBC vice president of advertising, promotion and marketing who hired former Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider as the voice of MSNBC last winter -- would continue to be in charge of the effort.
"Branding is accomplished through our look, our music and even our programming," said Mr. Sorenson.