August 19, 2025 • 9 mins
Was it the extreme ideology, the pandering to anti-traditional ideology, perhaps it was the outlandish salaries paid to sub-par talent whose only gift is pandering anger and TDS?
Or perhaps it was the all of the above.
What it means is the coastal elites are NOT the driving cultural force they thought they were.
Let's discusss.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Welcome back. It is America Today.
Jim Watkins, your host. Don't forget to follow the
podcast, and you can also make comments, leave messages, do all
kinds of things. It's Jim watkins.org,
jimwatkins.org, Home of America Today.
And we're back. And I was very, I didn't see
(00:34):
this coming, but it's over for MSNBC, which will now be called
Ms. Now. Ms. Now.
Now, for those who don't or are not old enough to remember,
MSNBC originally launched back in 1996 as a joint venture
between Microsoft and MSNBC. That's when Bill Gates was still
(00:56):
running Microsoft. Imagine just that sentence right
there. Originally launched in 1996,
think of how the world has changed since 1996.
Microsoft was an emerging company.
We didn't have iPhones yet. We were just barely going from
(01:17):
beepers, from pagers to beepers.It was an interesting evolution
of technology because they did have those old big heavy cell
phones, but they were clunky. They were $2000 and nobody
wanted them, and they only worked if you were in your car
because your car had an antenna,not exactly a mobile phone.
(01:38):
The Internet came out and it waspretty interesting, but it was a
little everybody sort of adaptedat the same time.
We all became used to DOS and AOL, by the way.
They just got rid of that annoying fax noise that you used
to hear when your computer was dialing up.
(02:00):
Remember that awful squeaking noise?
It's gone. They don't use it anymore.
We're now in the next phase. But back and then, MSNBC was
seen as one of the original pioneering.
CNN had been around for a while and there wasn't really a Fox
News. I don't think Fox News came
along until Sean Hannity and 9/11.
(02:23):
So it was still a couple of years.
So MSNBC launched because of Keith Olbermann and in the in
the odds, right after the turn of the century, they devolved
into a fever swamp. And that's when we that's when
most of their news became drivenby neurotic, as John Nolte
describes it, neurotic white women who buy wine and boxes at
(02:45):
the gas station, Rachel Maddow. And if we remember, there was a
period where they were launchingsomething called Air America,
and Air America was a failed radio project.
And that's they had the guy on from Minnesota, Al Franken,
Rachel Maddow was there, Nicole Wallace.
(03:07):
A lot of these folks moved from Miami, which is where they were
based for Air America. And Air America failed because
they were trying to take on the very juggernaut of conservative
talk radio, which was headily led by handedly led by Rush
Limbaugh. And you had G Gordon Liddy was
on the air. And then the arrival of Michael
(03:29):
Savage in I think around 2000, and he just opened the
floodgates. Sean Hannity was on the air. 911
happened. Conservative talk radio
completely dominated the radio airwaves for about 15 years.
And people on the left were upset about it.
So what happened is that the left said, well, we got to have
(03:53):
that piece of the pie too. We got to be on the radio.
That's where the listeners are in their car.
And this was before satellite and, and, and I think HD hadn't
even come along yet. There was no such thing as
SiriusXM. That was later when Howard Stern
went over to it. So they came out with Air
America. There was Rachel, there was,
(04:14):
they still got a few people out there that are there.
Hartman, Tom Hartman is still doing his own gig.
But Air America flopped. Why?
Because it wasn't advertiser supported.
Nobody wanted to support AM talkradio with a liberal bent.
And so all these guys got invited over to MSNBC and became
anchors almost overnight. And and then at that time,
(04:36):
Rachel Maddow had her mole removed from her.
She changed the spelling of her name because everybody kept
calling her Maddox and the starswere born.
The only problem is it never really got outside of its niche.
Oh, it was popular for a while because it was new, but
eventually over time, they weeded out all of the normal
(04:59):
people and they developed a sortof cult following among coastal
elites who felt like somebody was actually speaking for them.
But it was really driven by a bunch of feminist, militaristic
and very powerful late a lesbianand gay lobby and, and, and here
(05:23):
come the voices of Joy Reid. Now, having been in conservative
talk radio, I can appreciate thetalent of people who can
articulate their political positions well.
Obama being a good example of that, not as a conservative, but
as one who can articulate his his politics.
(05:44):
And so that was the challenge. Can the left articulate its
politics? And this is what we ended up
with. Republican elected officials
like Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs are still out here saying
we don't know who won the election in his own state.
There is something wrong and fundamentally broken with the
Republican Party, y'all, in its quest to be the stupid party.
(06:07):
It's making us look like the stupid country.
Imagine if you were an alien looking down at the United
States right now. You would not believe we were a
first world country. You would believe that we were a
nation in deep and advanced decline, with a far right army
of the undead lighting themselves on fire and taking
the rest of us with them. And you know what?
(06:28):
You might be right. All right, so that not radical
enough for you? How about Rachel Maddow getting
upset at Trump because he praised a boy who has cancer?
This is disgusting. The president made a Oh yeah,
out of praising a young man who serves thus far survived
pediatric cancer. As if the president had
(06:49):
something to do with that. I hope he.
Has a long life as as a law enforcement officer.
But I hope he never has to defend the United States capital
against Donald Trump's supporters.
And if he does, I hope he isn't one of the six who loses his
life to suicide. You know, this is and they gave
the green light to the rest of the media to go about just
(07:10):
carrying the, the, the, the water of the liberal elites, the
small group of people, the fringe left who took it upon
themselves to tell the rest of America, you know, how to live,
how to think, what to say, what not to say.
And, and it continues even today.
You could hear a little bit in Martha Raddatz over at ABC News.
(07:32):
Critics of President Trump will say the pomp and circumstances,
the pomp and circumstance, the red carpet, the warm handshake
that President Trump simply lost, that that Putin gained
there just by being on the worldstage and walking down a red
carpet with the president. Your reaction.
And that's what they're all obsessed about policy, how it
(07:52):
looks, the appearance, you know,the red carpet.
Never once did they ever say, you know, this is the president.
He was duly elected by the people of this country, just as
Biden was supposedly allegedly. Why don't we give him a chance?
He's he's fighting for World Peace.
They can't do that because then it would mean that Trump is
actually a, a real human being and that Republicans, may I, I
(08:17):
was raised Democrats were the party of peace.
They were the anti war party when I was young.
They were the ones out there fighting against Vietnam and all
that ancient orange. And I supported them and now
they're the party of war. Now they're the party of anti
family, the anti religion. In fact, they're against
everything that I actually as a as a father, as a husband,
(08:39):
believe in. And to me, the the demise of
MSNBC is a pivot. It, it is a beacon of perhaps
even hope that we can get some sensibility and that people can
have those conversations that wewant to have without being
ostracized or demonized and marginalized by people like Joey
(09:03):
Reed and Rachel Maddow. But they're celebrating over
there. So this is going to be a brand
new year. No, no, it's, it's going to fall
miserably. They're not going to get the
advertiser's support. They're going to go the way of
Air America because they'll realize at the end that a
majority of the American people do not believe and we aren't
buying what they're selling. Given the stratospheric entrance
(09:27):
of Vice President Coppola Harrisinto the presidential campaign.
You're going to look. Real crazy being on the other
side of that line, particularly as a person of color, but really
as anyone. You're going to look real weird
and real. Lonely on that side.
Welcome back. It is America Today.
Jim Watkins, your host. Don't forget to follow the
podcast, and you can also make comments, leave messages, do all
kinds of things. It's Jim watkins.org,
jimwatkins.org, Home of America Today.
And we're back. And I was very, I didn't see
(00:34):
this coming, but it's over for MSNBC, which will now be called
Ms. Now. Ms. Now.
Now, for those who don't or are not old enough to remember,
MSNBC originally launched back in 1996 as a joint venture
between Microsoft and MSNBC. That's when Bill Gates was still
(00:56):
running Microsoft. Imagine just that sentence right
there. Originally launched in 1996,
think of how the world has changed since 1996.
Microsoft was an emerging company.
We didn't have iPhones yet. We were just barely going from
(01:17):
beepers, from pagers to beepers.It was an interesting evolution
of technology because they did have those old big heavy cell
phones, but they were clunky. They were $2000 and nobody
wanted them, and they only worked if you were in your car
because your car had an antenna,not exactly a mobile phone.
(01:38):
The Internet came out and it waspretty interesting, but it was a
little everybody sort of adaptedat the same time.
We all became used to DOS and AOL, by the way.
They just got rid of that annoying fax noise that you used
to hear when your computer was dialing up.
(02:00):
Remember that awful squeaking noise?
It's gone. They don't use it anymore.
We're now in the next phase. But back and then, MSNBC was
seen as one of the original pioneering.
CNN had been around for a while and there wasn't really a Fox
News. I don't think Fox News came
along until Sean Hannity and 9/11.
(02:23):
So it was still a couple of years.
So MSNBC launched because of Keith Olbermann and in the in
the odds, right after the turn of the century, they devolved
into a fever swamp. And that's when we that's when
most of their news became drivenby neurotic, as John Nolte
describes it, neurotic white women who buy wine and boxes at
(02:45):
the gas station, Rachel Maddow. And if we remember, there was a
period where they were launchingsomething called Air America,
and Air America was a failed radio project.
And that's they had the guy on from Minnesota, Al Franken,
Rachel Maddow was there, Nicole Wallace.
(03:07):
A lot of these folks moved from Miami, which is where they were
based for Air America. And Air America failed because
they were trying to take on the very juggernaut of conservative
talk radio, which was headily led by handedly led by Rush
Limbaugh. And you had G Gordon Liddy was
on the air. And then the arrival of Michael
(03:29):
Savage in I think around 2000, and he just opened the
floodgates. Sean Hannity was on the air. 911
happened. Conservative talk radio
completely dominated the radio airwaves for about 15 years.
And people on the left were upset about it.
So what happened is that the left said, well, we got to have
(03:53):
that piece of the pie too. We got to be on the radio.
That's where the listeners are in their car.
And this was before satellite and, and, and I think HD hadn't
even come along yet. There was no such thing as
SiriusXM. That was later when Howard Stern
went over to it. So they came out with Air
America. There was Rachel, there was,
(04:14):
they still got a few people out there that are there.
Hartman, Tom Hartman is still doing his own gig.
But Air America flopped. Why?
Because it wasn't advertiser supported.
Nobody wanted to support AM talkradio with a liberal bent.
And so all these guys got invited over to MSNBC and became
anchors almost overnight. And and then at that time,
(04:36):
Rachel Maddow had her mole removed from her.
She changed the spelling of her name because everybody kept
calling her Maddox and the starswere born.
The only problem is it never really got outside of its niche.
Oh, it was popular for a while because it was new, but
eventually over time, they weeded out all of the normal
(04:59):
people and they developed a sortof cult following among coastal
elites who felt like somebody was actually speaking for them.
But it was really driven by a bunch of feminist, militaristic
and very powerful late a lesbianand gay lobby and, and, and here
(05:23):
come the voices of Joy Reid. Now, having been in conservative
talk radio, I can appreciate thetalent of people who can
articulate their political positions well.
Obama being a good example of that, not as a conservative, but
as one who can articulate his his politics.
(05:44):
And so that was the challenge. Can the left articulate its
politics? And this is what we ended up
with. Republican elected officials
like Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs are still out here saying
we don't know who won the election in his own state.
There is something wrong and fundamentally broken with the
Republican Party, y'all, in its quest to be the stupid party.
(06:07):
It's making us look like the stupid country.
Imagine if you were an alien looking down at the United
States right now. You would not believe we were a
first world country. You would believe that we were a
nation in deep and advanced decline, with a far right army
of the undead lighting themselves on fire and taking
the rest of us with them. And you know what?
(06:28):
You might be right. All right, so that not radical
enough for you? How about Rachel Maddow getting
upset at Trump because he praised a boy who has cancer?
This is disgusting. The president made a Oh yeah,
out of praising a young man who serves thus far survived
pediatric cancer. As if the president had
(06:49):
something to do with that. I hope he.
Has a long life as as a law enforcement officer.
But I hope he never has to defend the United States capital
against Donald Trump's supporters.
And if he does, I hope he isn't one of the six who loses his
life to suicide. You know, this is and they gave
the green light to the rest of the media to go about just
(07:10):
carrying the, the, the, the water of the liberal elites, the
small group of people, the fringe left who took it upon
themselves to tell the rest of America, you know, how to live,
how to think, what to say, what not to say.
And, and it continues even today.
You could hear a little bit in Martha Raddatz over at ABC News.
(07:32):
Critics of President Trump will say the pomp and circumstances,
the pomp and circumstance, the red carpet, the warm handshake
that President Trump simply lost, that that Putin gained
there just by being on the worldstage and walking down a red
carpet with the president. Your reaction.
And that's what they're all obsessed about policy, how it
(07:52):
looks, the appearance, you know,the red carpet.
Never once did they ever say, you know, this is the president.
He was duly elected by the people of this country, just as
Biden was supposedly allegedly. Why don't we give him a chance?
He's he's fighting for World Peace.
They can't do that because then it would mean that Trump is
actually a, a real human being and that Republicans, may I, I
(08:17):
was raised Democrats were the party of peace.
They were the anti war party when I was young.
They were the ones out there fighting against Vietnam and all
that ancient orange. And I supported them and now
they're the party of war. Now they're the party of anti
family, the anti religion. In fact, they're against
everything that I actually as a as a father, as a husband,
(08:39):
believe in. And to me, the the demise of
MSNBC is a pivot. It, it is a beacon of perhaps
even hope that we can get some sensibility and that people can
have those conversations that wewant to have without being
ostracized or demonized and marginalized by people like Joey
(09:03):
Reed and Rachel Maddow. But they're celebrating over
there. So this is going to be a brand
new year. No, no, it's, it's going to fall
miserably. They're not going to get the
advertiser's support. They're going to go the way of
Air America because they'll realize at the end that a
majority of the American people do not believe and we aren't
buying what they're selling. Given the stratospheric entrance
(09:27):
of Vice President Coppola Harrisinto the presidential campaign.
You're going to look. Real crazy being on the other
side of that line, particularly as a person of color, but really
as anyone. You're going to look real weird
and real. Lonely on that side.
Host
JIM WATKINS
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