MSNBC ABOUT TO BE EUTHANIZED?

That’s what Matt Drudge suggests. Not a bad idea, either. I really enjoyed MSNBC in their early days (around ’96) when they actually had shows about computers and technology (thus making the “MS” in the name relevant). It used to be like what TechTV has become since Paul Allen bought it.

MSNBC tried to fashion itself as a liberal alternative to Fox, but CNN has long had a lock on that–and CNN of course is a granddaddy of cable TV news broadcasting. (I don’t agree with most–if not all–of Ted Turner’s views, but I give him an enormous amount of credit for having the guts to launch a 24-hour cable TV news channel (and its spinoffs) in the first place.)

So liberals have CNN, conservatives have Fox, stock jockeys have CNBC, geeks have TechTV. That leaves very little territory for MSNBC to harvest–there’s no niche left. And cable TV is all about niche broadcasting.

Hopefully Phil Donahue’s viewer will turn the lights off before she leaves the room.