MSNBC president coins great new slogan: We're not the place for breaking news

Doug P. | 1:10 PM on June 03, 2013

Because this story might qualify as “breaking news,” MSNBC staffers probably won’t learn about what the president of their channel said by watching their own station. Fortunately Twitchy is on it:

When news breaks, MSNBC…hides in the corner, because it doesn't do news. http://t.co/dt6wxJd7Cc

— Byron York (@ByronYork) June 3, 2013

From the New York Times:

At a time of intensely high interest in news, MSNBC’s ratings declined from the same period a year ago by about 20 percent. The explanation, in the network’s own analysis, comes down to this: breaking news is not really what MSNBC does.

“We’re not the place for that,” said Phil Griffin, the channel’s president, in reference to covering breaking events as CNN does. “Our brand is not that.”

Meaning President Obama will have to switch to CNN or, gulp, Fox News to watch breaking updates about what’s going on in his administration.

Old MSNBC: “I felt this thrill going up my leg.” New MSNBC: “I felt this thrill going up my leg … about a week ago.”

So this means MSNBC’s ads aren’t entirely accurate?

One of those places the breaking stories can hide is in MSNBC’s news room, according to MSNBC’s president.

Twitter responded to the news with snark and a definite lack of shock:

https://twitter.com/JeffreyGoldberg/status/341536382151442432
https://twitter.com/Rschrim/status/341587547467694080
https://twitter.com/Mr_Snarky_Pants/status/341565829546127361
https://twitter.com/Timinator257/status/341559278731153409