The MSNBC Problem
By 
Erik Wemple’s criticism of MSNBC diagnoses the problem to some extent but really misses the solution. The problem is that this network is nothing but shows that consist of people agreeing with each other that Donald Trump is bad. It’s true–MSNBC is unwatchably boring for this reason. The problem is that Wemple wants MSNBC shows to have people on who agree with Trump.
Now that I don’t get. What would the point be? I guess it would the “entertainment” factor, which is not entertaining to me, that’s for sure.
But I do have to ask–what is the point of liberals just wanting to hear over and over that Donald Trump sucks? Yeah, we know that. That includes here at LGM, where it’s quite clear that is what many commenters want. Now, there’s certainly plenty of room for that. I write those posts sometimes and obviously probably a majority of the posts here are about the latest Trump atrocity. Makes sense. It’s part of our job.
But if that’s all this blog was, just as it is all that MSNBC is, it would be a boring, unreadable site with nothing interesting happening. I can’t speak for the social aspect of any of this. I never used the internet as a substitute for my social life, so I don’t really understand the whole “community” side of this. Maybe people really do feel better to know that there are other people who also think Donald Trump is just a bad man. But politically, it’s just inert. Ok, now what?
This is why, for example, I completely reject the idea that what needs to happen is for Democrats to just get behind leading Democrats and take on Trump. I mean one on level, no shit. But on another, what does that even mean? Does it mean that we just stop talking about Chuck Schumer’s incompetence? But moreover, what MSNBC should do if it wanted to be useful is to use the network to highlight ideas and strategies that would revitalize the Democratic Party and liberalism writ large. Lord knows they have to fill enough hours in the day. The one thing Wemple really had right from watching a day of the network is this:
9:40 a.m.: In a brief discussion of a lawsuit against Burger King, Brzezinski uncorks what will turn out to be the best piece of sociopolitical commentary aired on MSNBC on May 7, 2025: “The Whopper is disgusting.”
Moreover, LGM is a site in which the voting participation rate is exactly 100%. So what purpose does it serve for everyone to tell each other the things we already know about Trump, about turning out to vote, about donating money, or about whatever the flavor of the day is. Instead, I think this site has more value when working through thorny questions. I’ve managed to turn my writing here into three books now, none of which are about Donald Trump or the Republican Party except in passing. The site is more interesting when discussing, say, ideas about work culture and whether we should have a government job guarantee or universal basic income than just another goddamn thread about another goddamn thing the Orange Monster did. The site is more interesting when thinking about how Democrats can hold power over a longer term after they win again rather than just focusing on winning the election. The site is more interesting when considering how to create another FDR than following a path down the road of becoming the administration of Keir Starmer that has won and now has no ideas, no mission, no goal, and no ability to even begin to solve a problem, meaning they will probably be crushed in the next election.
I’m not really criticizing anyone in particular here. I am most certainly not saying that liberals need to listen to people who support Donald Trump. I am saying that I have no idea why anyone would spend one minute of the day watching the sleep-inducing repetition of lame talking points that is MSNBC. And I am saying that if liberals do want to defeat Trumpism, there’s much more value in using our time to work through hard issues, try to find ways to understand what we really face, and try to think through long-term building of power than there is being Democratic Party hacks or just repeating the same damn thing about the Republicans day in and day out.
Worse than it all being pointless is that it is just boring. And maybe this is a time to get a bit meta and discuss what happens in liberal media spaces, be they huge TV networks or whatever this site is.