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NBC Purchases MSNBC Rights From Microsoft

flatt writes "Ending a sixteen year partnership between the now Comcast-owned NBCUniversal and Microsoft, the MSNBC.com website has been immediately renamed to NBCNews.com. Both parties note that the integration between both parties is deep and will require 2 years to complete the decoupling. For the immediate future, NBC will continue to provide news content for MSN.com and Microsoft will continue to be the advertising provider for the site. Content control, brand confusion, and partisan content are cited as reasons behind the breakup. Microsoft sold its 50% share in the MSNBC TV rights to NBC back in 2005."

41 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Partisan content? by mpoulton · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does that mean that Microsoft didn't like MSNBC's political bias, or that NBC didn't like Microsoft's insertion of political bias on MSNBC.com?

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    1. Re:Partisan content? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Or maybe MS wants to focus on other things. Also the venture for MS may not have been profitable. The summary is partially correct: in 2005, MS sold 32% of its 50% stake of the venture and gave up control as well. MSNBC from them was probably partisan from NBC's control not MS.

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    2. Re:Partisan content? by dintech · · Score: 3, Funny

      Whenever I see any MS 'news' content, it seems to be mostly celebrity drivel. I suppose I get what I deserve for having a hotmail account. :)

    3. Re:Partisan content? by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 2

      If Microsoft doesn't like the political spin that NBC puts on news, it just goes to show you that corporate news is not about providing information, but providing corporate propaganda. Corporations don't want proper news organizations, but organs that promote their point of view.

    4. Re:Partisan content? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 2, Informative

      Or it could be that they thought that a "proper" news organization like MSNBC shouldn't be so buddy buddy with the left, that they even report on their own website how skewed they are:

      Msnbc.com identified 143 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 16 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties.

      Never mind that their prime time news personality (Chris Matthews) used to be Chief of Staff for the Democratic Speaker of the House during the Reagan years - yep, that engenders political objectivity...

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    5. Re:Partisan content? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're being overly paranoid. Newspaper and websites want eyeballs so they can sell advertising and make money. Now, individual authors and writers might have their own point of view, but so does everyone.

      You do realize that eyeball-herding celebrity gossip and 'infotainment' fluff are probably overwhelmingly more efficient in neutralizing the effects of a free press than simply having your Political Kommisars order them to publish assorted farcical lies?

      Propaganda in the classic sense certainly isn't a total failure; but a voluntarily afactual media is ultimately even more useless than one that is merely contrafactual.

    6. Re:Partisan content? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 4, Funny

      It means the two most evil entities in their respective industries are separating to focus on being more effective at being evil in their respective industries.

    7. Re:Partisan content? by INT_QRK · · Score: 2

      So, you equate **not** liking political spin, in other words, **bias**, with propaganda? I find that logic less than satisfactory. Political spin is, by definition, biased, and a therefore a close cousin of propaganda.

    8. Re:Partisan content? by jbolden · · Score: 4, Informative

      MSNBC isn't objective, neither is CNBC, NBC aims to be objective.

      CNBC covers financial news from the perspective of a the small stock / mutual fund investor. You'll rarely hear news on CNBC from the perspective of professionals or control investors.
      MSNBC offers opinion journalism from the perspective of the left.
      NBC tries as best as possible to offer traditional journalism, i.e. news from the perspective of the Washington rulership.

    9. Re:Partisan Content? by jbolden · · Score: 2

      FOXnews hosts regularly engage in fundraising for candidates on air. That being said, I think most left leaning MSNBC watchers understand they are getting news from a Democratic perspective. For years FOX existed and nothing similar existed on the left. Now something similar exists.

    10. Re:Partisan content? by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 2

      Several things. First, that report was over the media landscape entirely. They identified CNN, ABC, Fox and yes, their own as giving political donations. This is precisely the reason what got Keith Olbermann in trouble in 2010/2011. He made donations to Congressman Grijalva of Arizona to the tune of 2,400 bucks. Thus his suspension, then firing from the network. He was also MSNBC's biggest draw.

      The other point is that when talking about MSNBC's biases, you've got to look at life before and after Keith Olbermann.

      Before Olbermann, MSNBC had such rightwing luminaries as Alan Keyes, Pat Buchanan and Michael Savage as part of their on air personalities.

      After Keith they still had guys like Tucker Carlson and Joe Scarborough.

      It wasn't until after Olbermann's success with resonating and pandering to a left wing audience did MSNBC make a leftward swerve in a big way. And Joe Scarborough is STILL there after Olbermann's blow up over 2,400 bucks in campaign contributions.

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    11. Re:Partisan content? by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It is kinda funny, when MSNBC started it was considered a Right Leaning, new organization, then Fox News came out, making it seem much to moderate. So to survive, it went to more left leaning then the other stations. So in terms of Cable News you have these options...
      Fox News, News for Right Wing Nuts, Fare and balanced if you are right wing nut.
      CNN, News for those people who really don't care, in an attempt to be moderate it doesn't really go into any depth.
      MSNBC, New For Liberals, Hard hitting on the liberal agenda.

      I am a political moderate myself and I don't care for any of these sites, I seem to switch to NPR, While it is left of center, and I am right of center, I found that NPR puts a little more depth in its coverage compared to the others, and doesn't really jump on the insanity.

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    12. Re:Partisan content? by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      It doesn't matter how factual your news report is, if no one wants to read it.

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    13. Re:Partisan content? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It doesn't matter how factual your news report is, if no one wants to read it.

      Wow, there's a lot of subtext in that.

      Read that statement over a few times. "It doesn't matter how factual your news report is, if no one wants to read it.

      If you had the "most factual" accounts of the news, and nobody wants to read or watch it, then it says a lot more about the viewers, and maybe the medium, then it does about the news.

      "I don't want the factual news, I want the news that has my point of view"

      Is not that different from, "It's got what plants crave..."

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    14. Re:Partisan content? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I didnt know there an apple-fox channel.

    15. Re:Partisan content? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is a revelation to you? The vast majority of American media is skewed to one political bias or another and few are willing to publish the hard facts. That's all the gp was saying and you got modded up for pointing out how sad of a fact it was? Slashdot really amazes me. But then again, around here we have a fair number of dopes who honestly believe that the reason people still run Windows and OSX is because they've never seen Linux. SMH.

    16. Re:Partisan content? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or it could be that they thought that a "proper" news organization like MSNBC shouldn't be so buddy buddy with the left, that they even report on their own website [msn.com] how skewed they are:

      There's a word for "they even report on their own website". It's called "disclosure" and it's something MSNBC is doing that Fox doesn't do, CNN doesn't do, and ABC doesn't do.

      Never mind that their prime time news personality (Chris Matthews) used to be Chief of Staff for the Democratic Speaker of the House during the Reagan years - yep, that engenders political objectivity...

      You're a big supporter of every company where you used to work? You think Burger Village is the best food in town just because you flipped burgers there and got to be assistant manager when the previous assistant manager left to have her father's baby?

      Go take a look at the pundits and talking heads on every network. They all used to do something. They all voted one way or the other (most likely) and they all have a sexual orientation, a religion (or not) and probably prefer either Apple or Android.

      It's really not hard to discern who's ringing the bullshit bell (and for whom it tolls) if you have half a brain and the willingness to check your own bias once in a while. Also, check a fact now and then. Do it yourself. If you are checking a media outlet's facts against what another media outlet's "fact checker" says, your running in a circle, so don't rely on "fact checker sites" to be your ref because now every two-bit Right Wing (or Left Wing depending upon your own in-house bias) outfit has it's own "fact check" site that is supposedly telling you how full of shit the other side is. Yes, it gets confusing, but if you act in good faith, and (I'm not kidding about this) have a heart that is pure you'll be able to figure it all out easily enough.

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    17. Re:Partisan content? by jackjumper · · Score: 2

      Yeah and their morning host was a Republican member of Congress! Oh wait...

    18. Re:Partisan content? by Surt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      While MSNBC is skewed to the left, to suggest they are skewed further from reality than fox has to be either misinformed or disingenuous.

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    19. Re:Partisan content? by slapout · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "NBC aims to be objective"

      You're talking about the same NBC that edited the Zimmerman tape? The same NBC that edited the Romney video to change the context? Right?

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    20. Re:Partisan content? by jbolden · · Score: 2

      Andrea Mitchell Report is an MSNBC show. But yes, the Zimmerman tape. Attempting to be objective is not the same as achieving perfection in every regard on every issue. Here is a list from Media Matters for America which includes the NBC tag:

      http://mediamatters.org/tags/nbc

      You can see the left has complaints as well.

    21. Re:Partisan content? by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      Or maybe it was just a bad idea for Microsoft to get involved in content?

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    22. Re:Partisan content? by HolyCrapSCOsux · · Score: 2

      I don't know, but the furthest right seem to be a bit more rabid than the furthest left. Full disclosure: I'm a registered independent and typically vote for whoever I haven't heard of. (heard of is an odd language construct, it sounds ok in my ear, but looks wrong on paper)

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  2. When did this happent? by SeaFox · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wait, I'm confused. This story suggests that this sale of the Microsoft share of MSNBC is a recent thing, but the summary says the sale happened in 2005. Is this old news, or did Microsoft have additional ownership that has recently (like within this calendar year) been purchased as well to finalize the split?

    1. Re:When did this happent? by rsmith-mac · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's a bit confusing. There were two MSNBCs: MSNBC the cable channel, and MSNBC the website.

      Microsoft divested itself of MSNBC the cable channel in 2005, which is what TFS refers to. MSNBC the cable channel has been owned and operated solely by NBC since then.

      MSNBC the website is what today's news is about. Microsoft has sold off their 50% share of MSNBC the website to Comcast/NBC. As a result NBC now has full control over MSNBC the website - content, technology, and (most importantly) advertising.

      NBC now owns both MSNBCs. Ultimately in 2013 there will be a single TV/web MSNBC entity just like CNN and FoxNews today. Meanwhile the current MSNBC the website will become NBC's news website.

  3. Re:Content control by the previous owners? by daemonfc · · Score: 2

    Every Cabloid news channel is lying and manipulating and propagandizing the news. There is no real journalism going on, just laundering of corporate agendas and government talking points. CNN and Fox Noise have had their viewership go down by half and 20% respectively, over the last year. I believe the rapid decline is due to the fact that people know they're being lied to and have done to get the real news somewhere else, or have just stopped caring and tuned out. The world is depressing enough already without their crap.

  4. Why did MS ever combine forces w/ NBC? by unixisc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When this transaction first happened in the 90s, it didn't make sense to me. Why was MS starting a news channel and a news website, when NBC was already there, and MS really had nothing to bring to the party. I know, that was the era of Friends and Seinfeld, which made NBC far more attractive than Fox, ABC and CBS. However, MS made itself look like a shill for the Left in the eyes of Conservatives, even while it was being investigated by the DoJ for its monopolistic practices.

    And these days, do too many people go to these sites? I'd imagine that they go to blogs that have the news about their subject of interest, and go there. This is different from the days of first Usenet, and later, web sites of news organizations. Nowadays, people just throng to the websites they trust, and follow whatever news they want there.

    1. Re:Why did MS ever combine forces w/ NBC? by jbolden · · Score: 3, Informative

      Microsoft started MSNBC along with Slate and other such programming because they wanted a focus on internet delivery. They wanted to shift the American audience from consuming media on television to consuming media on computers. Which would lead to widespread broadband adoption and at least one and often multiple computers in every home. Seems to me their plan made quite a bit of sense.

    2. Re:Why did MS ever combine forces w/ NBC? by k(wi)r(kipedia) · · Score: 2

      Microsoft started MSNBC along with Slate and other such programming because they wanted a focus on internet delivery.

      Delivery? More like they wanted a say on the content. If they wanted merely to deliver the Internet, then it would have made better sense if they signed up a bunch of different media companies (and not just one) to create a news portal. MS would be their presence on the new-fangled WWW while they continued as cable and broadcast companies (a deal that would be impossible to broker today).

    3. Re:Why did MS ever combine forces w/ NBC? by glebovitz · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'd like to take the replies one step further. In the mid 1990s Sun, Oracle, AOL, and others were claiming the death to the PC and all desktop computers would become internet devices. The web or network would become the computer and Microsoft would be irrelevant. In response, Gates realigned the company, refocused on the Internet and released Internet Explorer for free. I believe MSNBC partnership was a service side hedge against what Microsoft saw as a Web assault on their business. NBC, Time Warner, and other television a cable outlets also feared the Web. They was the potential for movie, programming, and music companies to reach consumers directly cutting the media giants out as distributors. I was in the Cable business in 1999 and 2000 and heard this directly from a Time Warner content manager. An NBC / Microsoft offering made sense.

      By 2004/2005 the partnership no longer made sense. Time Warner / AOL didn't take over the world and media was shifting to individuals through blogging and a trend towards media streaming. YouTube appeared on the scene in 2005/2006 along with Google Video. The trend towards individual contributions has continued to change the nature of news reporting.

      I think the biggest change was the movement of news channels from delivering news to providing news entertainment. IMHO Fox, MSNBC, and CNN are now entertainment assets. This goes beyond the original vision of MSNBC as an Internet news outlet.

  5. Partisan Content? by EmagGeek · · Score: 3, Funny

    No way, I can't believe it. I thought MSNBC was completely free of bias.

  6. Re:When did this happen? by arth1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The last Olympics was 'delayed' and only viewable on your TV set during evening prime-time viewing, and NOT on-the-net (with any legality). Now, all is going to be available online, so everyone can chat with their facebook friends.

    Looked at from another angle, it's being locked down. Facebook isn't "everyone".

    And it's still delayed.

  7. Re:Content control by the previous owners? by Goody · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think that PBS is every bit as biased as Fox and MSNBC.

    What are the equivalencies to Beck, Fox and Friends, Hannity, Maddow, or Olbermann on PBS? PBS is appealing to left leaning upper middle class because the content doesn't cater to political wingnuts like Fox and MSNBC. You're confusing content with bias. When a Fox producer gets caught on the job riling up a crowd at a Tea Party event, Beck promotes "Fox Tea Parties", or FoxNews.com reports the ACA being upheld as affirmation of ObamaTax, that's bias.

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  8. Will it be renamed to NBCNBC? by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am still waiting for CNNBCBS, a division of ABC. That would be the worst channel ever.

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    1. Re:Will it be renamed to NBCNBC? by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 4, Informative

      They are all already the worst channels ever.

      A U.S. citizen has to go to a foreign news source to get any facts about what is happening... and most won't bother as they have to keep up with the kardasians.

  9. Re:Content control by the previous owners? by LordNicholas · · Score: 2

    So, if I read this correctly, NBC is its own owner again, and therefore also in charge of its own contents. Independence is important for a news provider.

    Hope the OP was aiming for a "funny" mod.

    NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC are all owned by NBCUniversal (as in Universal Studios; the two merged in 2004), which is in turn owned by GE and Comcast.

    CNN is owned by Turner, which is in turn owned by Time Warner.

    ABC is owned by Disney

    Fox is owned by Fox Entertainment Group, owned by News Corp

    Independence doesn't exist in modern media- at least not in the television space.

  10. Maddow != Hannity. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Both have partisan viewpoints, but that is all the commonality. When it comes to admitting errors, saying "There I go, but for the grace of God" when CNN flubbed the ACA decision, issuing corrections, Maddow is way way better than Hannity.

    And here is the clincher: Maddow has a light saber in her desk. Hannity comes nowhere close to being as cool as Maddow.

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  11. get real. by nimbius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it's biased towards "highbrow" which is to appeal to left leaning upper middle class people.

    right, because PBS and NPR are trying to promote enriching and beneficial news and entertainment in separate realms. as for the left leaning upper middle class people, i guess they just havent succumbed to the sophistication of nascar and larry the cable guy.

    It focuses much more on culture that the masses don't care about (such as opera).

    So the acclaimed science program Nova, Inspector Lewis, Downtown Abbey, and Childrens programming like Barney? im sure there are others

    Oddly, it's pro investing but mildly anti-business

    so a television station that isnt willing to just carte blanche pander for advertising cash and instead gets a chance to truly criticize things like hydraulic fracturing and the pharmaceutical industry has somehow become a bad thing.

    I doubt your brother has ever watched PBS (the "listeny" one is called NPR, both under the CPB but separate entities.) flamebait bullshit like "theres a small bit of truth" is the same crap FOX does in order to gin up dissent against anything that goes against the GOP or its inherent interests. it would be better to say "my brother once watched Tavis Smiley form a coherent and well structured argument against the established patterns and processes of social inequality as it applies to race, and that didnt fit with my american dream narrative so now the entire station is some sort of marxist cabal."

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  12. Re:Now it can finally be more pro Obama by operagost · · Score: 2

    You act like someone can't be pro-corporate and pro-leftist (sorry, but "liberals" aren't liberal) at the same time. Al Gore and George Soros use left-wing means of enriching their business endeavors.

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  13. Re:I will always remember this partnership negativ by Surt · · Score: 2

    The good news is, I suppose, that 2013 may at long last be the year of the linux desktop, thanks Windows 8!

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  14. Re:Content control by the previous owners? by eepok · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't think you understand the difference between "bias" in news/reporting and "targeting" in entertainment. ESPN is not "biased" toward a lowbrow audience because focus on ball-sports. That's their entertainment niche. If they reported unfairly toward one team or the next, then that would be bias.

    And what does "pro-environmental" mean? That they would like the natural environment to continue to exist?

    They're also not anti-business. Never does PBS say anything like, "We should not organize into consolidated sales or service providers to create a streamlined delivery and accounting process." They're against corrupt business. They're bearish investors. They prefer honest and safe investment. But when corrupt business is the means to a new bubble and the myth of perpetual growth, anyone who speaks against such irrational buying will be said to be "anti-business".

    They're also not "pro-welfare state", they're pro-healthy-people. Check out the Frontline (I think it was Frontline) episode "Sick Around the World". The reporter goes to different countries finding out how other nations keep their people healthy (Britain, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, etc.). They show faults with all their systems and constantly show contrast with our system which is globally acknowledges to have some of the lowest value of care for the highest cost.

    What you may need to acknowledge is that, in balanced investigation and reporting, if some things seem to consistently come out to be favorable, that might not be bias... but reality.