I am not a highly paid television news executive, but I can see some problems with this strategy.
I even forget which weirdo was in charge at the time, but during the glorious Bush era, the ghoul who ran MSNBC said explicitly that their target audience was Republicans who don't love George Bush all that much. This wasn't post-2006 when Bush's popularity hit the inconceivable sub-27% level, but still in the post-9/11 era. Not, perhaps, peak popularity, but still peak popularity with Republicans. They loved the guy! Those viewers didn't exist.
MSNBC (other than primetime) has found a similar target viewer - liberals who love to hear that Republicans agree with them. Probably involves hiring the same cast of characters, but it still isn't really "moderate Republicans" who only exist in the imaginations of certain DC dwellers.