It has been seven days of watching the press corps of this country continuing to lose its grip on the national narratives, and flailing as a result. It also makes things slightly difficult this week; deciding which outlets descended to the lowest depths was a bit of a challenge.

But one did manage to distinguish itself–with the outlet’s inner turmoil made public and many of its names becoming disposable. As I said, there were many, other outlets vying for inclusion.

    THE CONTENDERS

New York Times – Peter Baker declared that the White House deciding it would choose which outlets to be included in the press pool was a move he had seen made in Moscow. The paper also had a problem– that the general public had a means of contacting government employees in DOGE. While complaining about DOGE accessing personal information of citizens, the Times published the names and faces of the DOGE employees.

CNN – The network tried to develop sympathy for illegal immigrants by stating Trump policies are making transgendered immigrants nervous. In a most brazen move, it was revealed that after helping hide Joe Biden’s condition, CNN host Jake Tapper was writing a book all about the White House hiding the facts of Biden’s slide. Brian Stelter was outraged about limiting a news site’s access in the White House, forgetting his past when he called for Fox News to be excluded. The February ratings for the network managed to fall yet again. 

Associated Press – A judge ruled against the AP in its suit demanding the White House reinstall its privileges. After claiming a couple of dozen DOGE employees quit last week, the AP changed the headline when called out for misinformation, as they were holdovers from the prior agency. The wire service felt it was news that transgenders in Pakistan find pride in taking culinary classes.

Washington Post – Owner/publisher Jeff Bezos came out with an announcement that the opinion section would focus on personal liberties and free markets – leading to staff outrage and another round of employees quitting in protest. One departing writer was Marty Baron, who declared it was a threat to free expression to…support free speech.

    THE WINNER

MSNBC

As close as the measurements have been this week, the cable news network earned top (bottom?) honors with the wave of firings of its on-air talent, and the reactions that generated.

Things kicked off with the announcement that Joy Reid had her show cancelled. It was a case of delivering mixed surprise, as she has a firm record of fireable offenses, but the fact she had not been let go sooner made many wonder if she could even be fired. Then, after delivering her final off-the-rails show, Ms. Reid held a weeping Zoom call that was as embarrassing as expected.

After Joy’s announced removal, Rachel Maddow came on to scorch her own network, declaring the move was racist; MSNBC executives promptly rewarded their star hostess by firing most of her staff.

And the network was not done. Announcements were also made that the shows of Jonathan Capehart, Ayman Mohyeldin, and Katie Phang Other big moves saw Jose Diaz-Balart pulled from his daytime position and exiled to weekends, and one time-Maddow replacement Alex Wagner saw her 9:00 p.m. role being given to Jen Psaki.

In quiet fashion, MSNBC went ahead and settled its massive defamation suit – and there was little heard in the form of accusations of fake news from others in the industry.

The ratings for the month of February 2025 came in, and the sliding network cut off some of the bleeding, doing slightly better than January–but managing to be minus-25 percent from a year ago.