Launched on July 15, 1996 to 22 million subscribers, MSNBC is currently America's third-most-watched cable news channel, after FOX News Channel and CNN. It is also a leading news website. MSNBC calls itself "America's Newschannel" and boasts that it is "fiercely independent" perhaps in a bid to attract viewers who believe CNN is liberally biased and that the FOX News Channel is conservatively biased.
MSNBC was founded by Microsoft and General Electric, which owns NBC. Today, both companies share control of the company.
MSNBC Online consists of news and features from its own correspondents, from wire services, and from the Washington Post and Newsweek magazine. The news content on MSN (Microsoft Network) is provided by MSNBC. Websites for popular NBC News shows such as Dateline NBC, Today, and NBC Nightly News are kept on the MSNBC site.
MSNBC TV has a variety of shows ranging from news reports to documentaries about every subject under the sun. Such shows are: Imus in the Morning, with New York City disc Jockey Don Imus and Hardball With Chris Matthews, with political reporter and author Chris Matthews. There is MSNBC Investigates with John Seigenthaler, a series that explores everything from botched plastic surgery to life in prison. In 2003, MSNBC debuted new talk shows by Keith Olbermann ("Countdown") and Joe Scarborough ("Scarborough Country"). Another hourlong show it airs is "Buchanan and Press," co-hosted by former candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination, Pat Buchanan, and former assistant to Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown, Bill Press. Another show MSNBC broadcasts is "The Abrams Report." It is hosted by young attorney Dan Abrams and covers court cases.
MSNBC recently scaled back weekend programing, eliminating "America's Voices," and "Jesse Ventura's America." The channel now runs marathons of the program "Headliners & Legends," as well as "MSNBC Investigates" and National Geographi "Ultimate Explorer."
MSNBC has cancelled shows hosted by MSNBC's Editor in Chief Jerry Nachman ("Nachman"), by television talk-show pioneer Phil Donahue ("Donahue"), by talk-radio host Alan Keyes ("Alan Keyes is Making Sense"), by international reporter Ashleigh Banfield ("Ashleigh Banfield on Location"), by Lawrence O'Donnell ("Saturday Final with Lawrence O'Donnell") and by others. "Weekend Magazine with Stone Philips," a series that shows reports from NBC's "Dateline NBC," also seems to have been cancelled.
MSNBC is on most cable lineups throughout the United States.History
MSNBC Online
MSNBC on Television