Back in ye olden days, CNN was the liberal network, Fox was the conservative network, and MSNBC was the network for Republicans who weren't entirely sure they liked George Bush quite as much as Fox viewers liked George Bush. I'm not saying this was true, I'm saying this is how the people who ran MSNBC saw it. You, a smart blog reader, can see the obvious problem with this ratings strategy, even aside from the fact that CNN was only "liberal" because conservatives had been calling it the communist news network for 15 years. It wasn't, and like every other part of the "liberal" media they also desperately tried to curry favor with conservatives, mostly by letting Drudge be their assignment editor.
So why would Andy Lack take an obviously smart - and successful ratings strategy - in the age of a Republican president with 40% approval, one network completely devoted to him, and another one which essentially put his campaign on the payroll - and do his best to flush it down the toilet?
I actually don't know.
