We've got a great opportunity! Politicoreports that NBC News president Deborah Turness met with David Gregory Thursday to discuss how best to shore up Meet the Press:
Sources said that improvements to "Meet the Press" will be one of Turness's chief concerns on her two-day visit. The show's fourth-quarter ratings marked the lowest total viewers "Meet" has had in a fourth quarter since 1991. Its ratings in the coveted 25-to-54 demo were the lowest in the show's history. 'Boy, do you guys need a makeover!'
"Meet" has made some gains since then. For the first two months of the year, the show was the No. 1-rated public affairs program, averaging 3.269 million total viewers. Still, both Turness and the "Meet" team are aware that there's much work to be done.
I'm not sure they are aware. I think they walk in a fog of assumptions, particularly about how stupid viewers are. Take, for example, the segment at the top, where Gregory sits back and lets grifter Ralph Reed pretend that Republicans haven't done any harm to the country. Not only does he sit back, he joins the filibuster to make sure the Democrat doesn't get a word in edgewise.
Those of you in our C&L community know all the ways MTP fails because you faithfully read and comment on our stories every week. So let's crowdsource the solutions and send them off to Deb Turness. After all, if they want actual breathing, thinking viewers on Sunday morning, it wouldn't hurt for them to hear from a few of us.
I'll start with mine: Diversify the guest list. And by diversify, I don't mean tossing Andrea Mitchell on the show and thinking you've checked women off the list. I also don't mean criminals like Ralph Reed, who should never be taken seriously enough to make appearances as a 'pundit.'
No, I mean 'diversify.' Put some progressives and people of color on the show. And no, Deb. Progressive does not mean middle-of-the-road corporate Democrat. Over 50,000 people have signed my petition already. If you haven't, you can still sign.
Now you add yours and we'll put together a nice package of ideas for Deb, and send it with Nicole Belle's intro letter.
Update: Want to tweet your ideas directly? Here's a list you can use. Add the hashtag #MTPMakeover and tweet to these folks:
For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.
We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
