Dan Abrams on last night's Verdict, the show's last: "This is the third goodbye show I've done at MSNBC in five years. So don't count us out entirely." [Cityfile]
Liberal lesbian Rachel Maddow — introduced here with her two most important traits — just went and scored herself her own MSNBC show, which was some time in the making. Officially, NBC says Rachel's debut on Sept. 8, or 09/08/08, is the "final leg of the political race this year."
Unofficially, though? On 09/08/08, a one Keith Olbermann will mark his nearly complete takeover of the network. Yes, Olbermann might as well hold Phil Griffin's title as MSNBC chief, since, according to knowledgeable sources and all outside appearances, he's making the calls. CONTINUED »
Rachel Maddow, the Air America radio host and perma-filler-in-er at MSNBC, is at last getting her own show on the network. The well-liked (by NBC News staffers) and well-received (by MSNBC viewers) commentator will take over the 9pm slot — a pretty hefty change, given that we're only weeks away from the election. This means, of course, that Hamptons playboy Dan Abrams is losing his show Verdict. None of this is entirely surprising to insiders, nor Jossip readers — MSNBC chief Phil Griffin hinted Maddow getting her own show was a near inevitability, and we've been regularly covering her ascent at the network.
Though removed from primetime, Abrams, however, isn't going far: He remains NBC News' chief legal correspondent, and is expected to continue appearing on the network.
But the real matter at hand is now how well Maddow's show will do, but how well Keith Olbermann's Countdown will do without her. Certainly, Olbermann carries his own weight at the network. But Maddow, as an omnipresent guest and sometime fill-in anchor, has lent her expertise to Olbermann's crusade against the Bush administration and John McCain. It's likely that, with her own show to handle, she will have little to no time to appear on Olbermann's program, nor anywhere else but daytime.
See what we did there? We took a couple of photos of some media elite enjoying gift bags in the Hamptons and, in just one degree of separation, proved Page Six editor Richard Johnson, despite trashing Keith Olbermann regularly in his column, actually loves himself some MSNBC: Johnson-Geraldo Rivera-Dan Abrams.
The Sue Simmons and Bill O'Reilly scandals have reached the cable nets! Well, O'Reilly already responded to his Inside Edition flap, but last night Dan Abrams was on Verdict rehashing this exciting new trend.
Colleague Contessa Brewer joined him to relive some of her infamous, YouTube worthy moments. She also shared one piece of advice: You know how when you're jumping from one bed to the next, you should assume everyone has AIDS? Well when you're wearing a mic pack, you should always assume it's turned on. Especially when you go to the crapper.
Who owns the name "Beat The Press?" MSNBC's Dan Abrams just got done delivering a wallop to CNN for ripping off the media mocking segment from his show Verdict. But his segment title, which was borrowed from Tucker Carlson's canceled show – which, from what we can tell, came after Huffington Post launched "Eat the Press," which itself was a riff on Tim Russert's excellent Meet the Press – might be a rip-off itself (via). Boston's public television host Emily Rooney says she has the rights to the title.
And, in fact, she does. Since 1993, the WGBH host (and daughter of 60 Minutes' Andy Rooney) has owned the copyright to "Beat the Press," and uses the title for her own show. "I think this is intellectual thievery," she says.
Funny, 'cause when Abrams called out CNN's copying, he claimed it was "pure intellectual thievery."
Who's stealing intellect now?!
Recession? Iraq? The Hills? None of them take up enough time to keep Fox News' Neil Cavuto from backhandedly defending Jay Leno and Tucker Carlson while getting in digs at their GE overlords, or Dan Abrams from going after CNN for ripping off his "Beat the Press" segment or their DUMBEST POKER GIMMICK EVER. [TVN]
It's hard to determine who's the bigger baby here: Dan Abrams or Rush Limbaugh. On Tuesday night, Abrams was on Verdict to (yet again) respond to Rush's Operation CHAOS (where he urges Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton wherever possible, in a not-exactly-original idea) and, more aptly, not let Limbaugh have the last words in this playground fight, the latest round of which Abrams himself started on Monday. Then Rush had to move his chess piece on Tuesday, and now here's Dan hurling the dodgeball back in a game of My Dick Is Bigger we still don't understand.
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The Daily Show's signature trick of mashing up cable news soundbites to take entire conversations out of context and create a funny bit is, well, brilliant. So brilliant, in fact, that Dan Abrams has been repurposing the tactic for his own MSNBC show, now renamed Verdict. Even we talked about it, and our standards for Talking About Things are fractions of a point among the industry average.
Curious, then, that another show has been borrowing from Jon Stewart's playbook: Howard Kurtz's Reliable Sources. And not only is the CNN show taking liberty with The Daily Show's skill set, but they're nearly copying Dan Abrams's copying.
As Rachel Sklar reports, "Kurtz showcased three corrspondents: FNC's Eric Shawn, CNN's Jason Carroll and ABC's Brian Ross, in that order. Earlier in the week on Abrams' regular "Beat The Press" segment, they featured the following: Two clips from Eric Shawn, Jason Carroll on CNN, John Roberts on CNN, and Brian Ross on ABC, in that order."
It's hard to argue sequence-based plagiarism. But it isn't hard to argue Kurtz's team knew all about Abrams' segment, given they featured a clip from the very Abrams show they lifted from.
As they say: Roll that beautiful bean footage! CONTINUED »
Dan Abrams last night premiered his relaunched show Verdict, and while the name changed, one of our favorite segments, "Beat the Press," remains. It's Dan's chance to pick playground fights with the competition — always a dangerous game, since MSNBC will undoubtedly have slip-ups of its own. (Not that it keeps Jossip from playing that game.) But risks aside, it'd be impossible to pass up an opportunity to call out Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt championing Adolph Hitler, prove Bill O'Reilly dead wrong, and make a CNN talking head sound like a tweenager.
Among other changes at MSNBC comes the renaming of Dan Abrams' show. Live With Dan Abrams, which likely would've been canceled if the network signed Rosie O'Donnell, becomes Verdict, where Abrams will tell you who's right. Hint: Always Dan Abrams.
Rep. Jack Kingston has a serious problem with Barack Obama: The presidential hopeful claims to want what's best for America, and yet he does not wear an American flag lapel pin. This election season, is there any meatier grievance?
So Kingston guested on Dan Abrams' show last night to voice his frustration and rant about how true patriots wear American flag lapel pins.
Kingston was not wearing an American flag lapel pin.
MSNBC host Dan Abrams contributions to the gay community, we once imagined, consisted only of winking at us from across the room at a cable news event. Not so! Here he is on last night's Live with Dan Abrams refusing to let the far-right from linking Heath Ledger's death to the gay role he played in Brokeback Mountain. Swoon. [Queerty]
Along with yesterday's revelation that Rosie O'Donnell demanded a gold-plated trapeze to work for MSNBC comes word that Tucker Carlson (and his fledgling conservative show) will be canceled as part of MSNBC's great migration to the left.
Nothing could further from the truth, however. At least, from what Carlson hears. “We’re on the air as far as I know,” Carlson tells Big Head DC, calling rumors of his show's impending demise "complete and utter bullshit."
One possible cause for the mix up was that the New York Times's anonymous source at MSNBC was a frenemy of Tucker's. (Same with that high-level source who told us Dan Abrams found out his time slot was in jeopardy from the morning papers!) Which means either cable TV "insiders" are actually just a bunch of bitch high school girls or else MSNBC's still treating their anchors like yesterday's news.
As we told you earlier, MSNBC's been hard at work courting currently unemployed talk show host (and loudmouthed lefty) Rosie O'Donnell in an effort to knock Bill O'Reilly off his uncontested reign as cable news king and build up the star wattage of its predominantly liberal lineup.
Their plan? To have the opinionated O'Donnell step in and take over the time slot currently occupied by the network's GM-turned-on-air persona Dan Abrams, (who recently waived his managerial responsibilities to become Joe Scarborough's full-time replacement as host of Live With Dan Abrams).
Which would explain why Abrams reportedly flipped out upon hearing that MSNBC's been aggressively vying for Rosie O’Donnell to inherit his timeslot.
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