President Donald Trump on Friday reportedly sharpened his attacks on MSNBC, mocking the left-leaning cable channel over reports it is rebranding amid a collapse in ratings and credibility.
During an unscheduled stop at The People’s House, a museum and gift shop near the White House, Mr. Trump told reporters that MSNBC had become such an embarrassment to its parent company that executives are stripping the network of its name.
“Then you turn to CNN, which is fake news, and nobody watches it, or MSDNC, MSNBC, they changed their name now because they were so bad,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re the worst, owned by Comcast, run by a guy named Brian Roberts who doesn’t have a clue. He’s terrible, terrible manager.”
The president argued that the decision to rename the channel to MS NOW — short for My Source News Opinion World — amounted to an admission of failure.
The new identity, he said, will come without NBC’s familiar peacock symbol, long considered the company’s most recognizable brand mark.
“They’re changing the name because they’re ashamed of it, and they’re disassociating it from NBC, which is also fake news, you know. They should be ashamed of that too,” Mr. Trump said, adding that NBC itself was being run “terribly by Con-cast. I call it Con-cast cause it’s whole con.”
For years, MSNBC has leaned heavily on Trump-focused commentary, often resorting to hyperbolic comparisons.
In 2020, host Donny Deutsch told viewers, “There is no difference from what Donald Trump is preaching, from what Adolf Hitler preached in the early ’30s.” And last year, a Democratic strategist on the channel went further, calling Mr. Trump “exactly like Mussolini, exactly like Hitler,” and a “fascist, authoritarian weasel.”
Such rhetoric, Mr. Trump suggested, has alienated viewers and damaged MSNBC beyond repair.
On Truth Social earlier this week, he wrote in all caps that the network is “doing so poorly in the ratings that they are looking to change their name in order to get away from the stench of their fake news product.”
He also ridiculed Comcast’s leadership, describing its executives as “weak and ineffective” and “hopelessly and aimlessly flailing in the wind in an attempt to disassociate itself from the garbage that they created!”
“SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH,” he posted. “MSNBC IS A FAILURE BY ANY NAME!!!”
Mr. Trump contrasted MSNBC’s struggles with what he cast as more promising developments in the broader media industry. He pointed to the recent $8 billion merger of Paramount, the parent company of CBS, with Skydance Media, run by David Ellison, a longtime acquaintance of the president. “A great man, actually, just bought CBS, and I think he’s going to do the right thing with it,” Mr. Trump said.
The president also cited his own recent legal victory, a $16 million settlement from CBS over claims that the network deceptively edited its “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Despite his criticism, Mr. Trump suggested that the changing media landscape may be improving. “But a lot of fake news,” he said. “I think the news is getting better. They’re learning that they have no credibility.”
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