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DAN GAINOR: Five ridiculous moments to remember MSNBC as it transitions to MS NOW
By Dan Gainor
Published November 14, 2025
We hold eulogies when someone important passes. But MSNBC is dying, and that calls for a different kind of tribute. MSNBC is going through what marketers call a rebranding process as the outlet changes a couple initials and becomes MS NOW Nov. 15. It’s like a gender transition, and it is costing them $20 million, according to The New York Times, but their brand of leftist lunacy isn’t going away. Anchor Rachel Maddow told the audience, "We are not going anywhere, and we are not changing anything other than our name."
That’s the claim, though they try to shroud themselves in patriotism in their first rebranding commercial, the very one Maddow introduced. It features her reading the Preamble to the Constitution like she was doing a propaganda version of "Schoolhouse Rock." As Maddow read each word, images flashed by, many of them protesters, some of them masked and all interspersed with snippets of the MS NOW team.
The Times quoted soon-to-be MS NOW (Stands for: "My Source for News, Opinion and the World.") network President Rebecca Kutler, saying hopey/changey things: "When I watch the ads, I feel all the feels of hope, of community, of unity, of what I think about what it means to be an American citizen in this moment." And if that’s not left-wing gibberish enough, they are even planning an ad featuring pretend president Martin Sheen, who played President Jed Bartlet on "The West Wing."
Now, with all that said, the network turns 30 next year, to fully embrace its midlife crisis. Let’s reflect on what MSNBC has been — a network devoted to hating the right. Hitler comparisons to Trump, claims of dictatorship and a mountain of awful that this column barely touches. We’re talking about the network of Keith Olbermann, Joy Reid, Jim Acosta and more. This is the place where disgraced NBC anchor Brian Williams was sent after he admitted to lying about coming under sniper fire, sort of a mini-Siberia.
No list of the many insane things the network has done in those nearly three decades of TV could ever do it justice. So here are five special moments I couldn’t forget.
1. Hunka hunka Obama love: There was an almost infinite amount of love in the press for first candidate and then President Barack Obama. But, MSNBC host Chris Matthews had the quote that defined the entire presidency. He was discussing Obama’s speechmaking, and he told viewers, "I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often."
That "thrill up my leg" was the perfect summary of the love that journalists gave the first Black president. News outlets were filled with pictures carefully created to show Obama with his head in front of light sources to give him a halo effect. The "thrill" quote was the verbal version of that love affair. The quote followed Matthews around for years, getting cited like it had come from "Blazing Saddles" or maybe "Network."
2. How can we forget Keith Olbermann?: OK, we tried, but he was a great indicator of how bad MS THEN was as host of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." He was famously vicious to his enemies, which included about half the nation. One memorable slam of Scott Brown even offended people at the network.
But, that wasn’t his worst. That came in an attack on talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh on April 19, 2010. He blamed "talk radio" for the Oklahoma City bombing, "specifically, Rush Limbaugh’s hate radio." He continued, "Frankly, Rush, you have that blood on your hands now, and you have had it for 15 years." He declared him the "Worst Person in the World," a device where he picked on three people each broadcast. (Alas, I only came in third on my appearance.) Years later, Rush is known as one of the great Americans. Olbermann is better known for a Ben Affleck impersonation of him that was one of the great moments of "Saturday Night Live."
3. And then there’s "Morning Joe": Just as the thrill up the leg comment defined the Obama era, Joe Scarborough, the host of "Morning Joe" served up the garbage that defined the Biden presidency. We had a president who people knew was unable to speak coherently and unable to run the country. We all saw it. Biden held an embarrassing February press conference and was fond of saying he had talked to foreign leaders who were already deceased.
None of that mattered to Scarborough. It wasn’t long after that presser when he was defending Biden. On "Morning Joe" in March 2024, Scarborough said of Biden, "I've said it for years now, he's cogent. But I undersold it when I said he was cogent, he's far beyond cogent. In fact, I think he's better than he's ever been, intellectually, analytically, because he's been around for 50 years."
Then he put the cherry on top of the lie sundae: "Start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And f--- you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever." He ended up apologizing, but the damage to his reputation was toast.
4. Hating Charlie Kirk: The number of awful things said by the left and media about Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk’s death is difficult to count. One of them was so bad, it cost an MSNBC employee his job. The network fired political analyst Matthew Dowd for his comments about Kirk. Dowd, a rhetorical bomb thrower, said Kirk has been "one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions."
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It was so awful, that Kutler had to issue an apology: When you’ve lost MSNBC…
5. Then there’s Joy Reid: I had considered making the column all about her, but there was too much else. Reid, who MSNBC also let go, compared the "American evangelical right-wing movement" to "an American Taliban." She said she didn’t want to go out on July 4th because America is "awash with guns" and bashed the "myth" of Thanksgiving.
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But, she outdid herself in 2024 by comparing Trump to crazed cult leaders. "What Donald Trump is doing is equal parts the power of positive thinking, which is the church, to the extent that it’s the church that he grew up in, but it’s also it’s kind of David Koresh. It’s kind of Jim Jones. Because those two men started by saying, ‘You need to come to Jesus.’ They started as Christian evangelizers. But, eventually, their evangelism said, ‘No, I get to have your wife. No actually, I get to tell you to kill these federal agents that are outside. I’m asking you to pick up a machine gun and shoot them because I don’t want to go to jail.’" She added by comparing him to Charles Manson.
Boy, MSNBC, we aren’t going to miss you, except for comedy relief. And we’ll have MS NOW for that.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dan-gainor-five-ridiculous-moments-remember-msnbc-transitions-ms-now