Name that show. Right here. Let's give MSNBC smart advice from their key demographic: Liberal Spenders. And give Rachel (she's a "Only One Name Needed" now, isn't she? Oprah, Cher, Keith, Rachel...) the "help" she actual soliticted on last night's Countdown. Here's a start:
"Counter Balance" - Where you only hear the real side of the news. All facts, no echo chamber,
"URL" - - Facts, Film, Investigations, Uncoverings and Truth-Telling straight from the blogoshere to you
More ideas after the jump...
All these ideas adhere to three caveats you might consider:
1) More Rachel analysis, not more Rachel telepromter reading.
Help MSNBC avoid the Peter Principal of television: love someone's mind, promote them to host slot so they can't speak it. We do not need Rachel introducing another round-up of the same, tired alleged analysts. We want a showcase of her brainpower.
2) Think Cheap, and then make it cheaper.
Cable TV production budgets are basically college radio with good cameras and excellent union hair and make-up. It's a one room set-up. No team of location touring investigators. So think outside the box for your ideas, but recognize "boxed" is what the budget covers.
3) Pre-apologized.
So sorry if much better versions of these simple offerings are already posted (and sold, and in production from MSNBC execs treasure-troving) in the comments to KO's show announcement diary. When comments reach the thousands, I can't scroll them fully. I try. But some quirk of Firefox/Mac/Roadrunner/My Ineptitude causes whirling beachball on screen seize-up.
So here are some ideas for titles, show concepts, and nightly features. Please add more and better ones of your own. We want the best of Maddow to shine.
"Insights & Answers"
Rachel makes sure the headlines and punditry don't kill the truth. Always has her insights. Always gives straight-up answers to those 2 main questions about the news: What's the truth? And, Why aren't people talking about the reality?
Features:
"The Fact Squad" - Audience participation geek team. Who comb the internet for truth. The issue goes up at noon. Team emails back over lunch hour.
"The Daily Truth" - Again, what we like best about Rachel - she never lets the facts slip away. And America hungers for what used to be the reporter's job: Just the facts, not "here are two sides of opinion, no reality claimed".
Again, the only place she's going to get any investigative power is from reading blogs. So she might as well make that part of her show. Cite the online sources, give them credit for the free freelancing.
And NOT showing pages onscreen in that deadly way CNN did. Simply citing the news source. Using some of the bloggers -- even commenters, or contributers as new, cheap source of a wider range of talking heads. Building the cred that the internet can reveal the truth, when it's the right (er, left) source.
"Dr. Rachel"
She's got a PhD. Flaunt it. And use it to bring in some new less seen Academics. Make Fridays "Doc Day" in Northampton where she lives. One of the schools in the Five College cooperation there has some kind of studio. And/or will convert a room into one to tie into the new course they're offering which also gives Rachel her union-sanctioned, freebie intern staff. Have a weekly segment with students. Builds demo. Lets Rachel keep perspective by not spending all her time in NYC.
"Early Night"
Rounding out the MSNBC "day". Watch Rachel, get stress eased by hearing someone smart discuss reality, end of news needs until you're up the next day.
Features:
"URL of the Night". Cite the URL of a great story or comment or picture. Again, using the blogopshere as an interactive tool. Also helps direct viewers online to Rachel's MSNBC page, which builds MSNBC cross media sell to advertisers. And lets a little "cutsey"-- or just plain pretty, or artsy, or cultural -- stuff sneak in without the way too long Oddball and Tabs stuff on Countdown.
"Maddow Knows" - Every night, Rachel tells us the truth as she knows it. Gives a place where she can soapbox without it seeming screamy. And makes sure we don't loose her smarts. Plus it helps people rhyme her last name with "so" not "how". (Which is what I think I heard is the pronunciation. IF it's the reverse, well, um "Rachel's Real News?"
So, release your inner programmer. Tell MSNBC what to do.