Can Pat Buchanan Save MSNBC ?

By Jeff Dunetz

Pat Buchanan may be the only point of difference the network has: A political analyst who just happens to think that the Holocaust was exaggerated, the Jews run the US Government and claims that David Duke stole his ideas.

I feel bad for MSNBC; it was just a few years ago that it seemed that the Microsoft/GE owned network would overtake CNN to become the number one choice for cable news.  But Fox News has come out of nowhere to take over the number one position followed by CNN, while MSNBC has struggled at a distant third.

Since its popularity peak, MSNBC has had undergone some very public missteps with the hiring and firing of Phil Donahue and Michael Savage. Things have gotten so bad just a month ago NBC and Microsoft felt the need to make a very public statement that they are not going to disband the network.   Clearly MSNBC is a network that is in need of an identity. Fortunately for them I have a solution that will rescue America’s number three news network.

MSNBC must stop trying to be everything to everybody and grab its own niche so it can generate a broad audience.  And an easy answer is staring the network executive’s in their faces.  All they need to do is almost all of the on-air talent and build the  programming around its most marketable commodity, the man who was once a candidate for President, political analyst, Pat Buchanan. The All-Pat network would generate a loyal audience that no one would dare (or want to) take away.

Think of the programming opportunities:

First thing in the morning the network could present a lighthearted news program (like Fox and Friends) hosted by Buchanan called:  Those Crazy Neo-Conservatives Are Not All Jews –Just Mostly Jews.  This fun morning frolic is based on Buchanan’s essay, “Whose War” where he blames the Iraq war on a bunch of mostly Jewish public figures such as Bill Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Max Boot and Richard Pearled.  Buchanan has charged those public figures with” colluding with Israel to ignite those wars and destroy the Oslo Accords. We charge them with deliberately damaging U.S. relations with every state in the Arab world that defies Israel or supports the Palestinian people's right to a homeland of their own” he goes on to say, “For whose benefit these endless wars in a region that holds nothing vital to America save oil, which the Arabs must sell us to survive? Who would benefit from a war of civilizations between the West and Islam? Answer: one nation, one leader, one party. Israel, Sharon, Likud."

When the opening bell on Wall Street sounds, the network’s focus could shift from politics to business news with a show called Things that Jews Own.  This program will focus on another industry traditionally stereotyped as dominated by Jews. From Hollywood to banking, from the media to medicine, each day will profile a new industry with that unique intolerant  Buchanan touch.

Even  Pat Buchanan needs some time off, so the MSNBC the mid-day hours could feature a game show, just like some of the more popular entertainment networks. Of course it would have to be a high-brow educational show. I have one in mind ...it’s called “Did it Happen?”  On this show players would have to guess what events in world history are true or false. The Holocaust, for example, on the all Buchanan news network the answer would be no; it did not happen. (Buchanan has challenged the historical record that thousands of Jews were gassed to death by diesel exhaust at Treblinka: "Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody." -New Republic, 10/22/90)  

Another question could be Hitler was a bad guy?  On Pat's network the answer would be false. "He (Hitler) was also an individual of great courage, a soldier’s soldier in the Great War, a leader steeped in the history of Europe, who possessed oratorical powers that could awe even those who despised him. But Hitler’s success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path." - St. Louis Globe – Democrat, Aug 25, 1977"

Prime time could feature Pat in “talk show” format.  Maybe he could even have a series of “guest hosts” ....people with a similar philosophy about Jews running US government such as former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad. Or to broaden the program’s appeal he could invite white supremacists such as David Duke on to the show. This would fit into the Buchanan point of view. After all, he did once write, “In the late 1940’s and 1950’s…race was never a preoccupation with us, we rarely thought about it…. There were no politics to polarize us then, to magnify every slight. The ‘Negroes’ of Washington had their public schools, restaurants, bars, movie houses, playgrounds and churches; and we had ours.” - Right From the Beginning (1990)

Of course before he appeared, David Duke and Buchanan would have settle their feud. Back in 1991 he accused the former Clansman of Theft. "David Duke is busy stealing from me. I have a mind to go down there and sue that dude for intellectual property theft." - Manchester, NH Union Leader, December 15, 1991

Overnight programming would consist of a series of documentaries, all based on Buchanan’s writings, for example one could be “American’s or Israeli Spies…the Pro-Israel Lobby”

Turning MSNBC into NNN, the Nazi News Network, and featuring a line-up of all Pat all the time will help the network to finally secure an identity and consistent ratings.  The only bad part of the whole thing is that the rest of the present on-air staff would have to lose their jobs;  since they are not bigots or anti-Semites they would not fit in.

Of course, GE and Microsoft management would have to buy into this change, but I don’t think it would be a major leap after all if MSNBC felt that his views were abhorrent, they would not permit him to appear on their network.  Especially during an election year Pat Buchanan is the only point of difference the network has: A political analyst who just happens to think that the Holocaust was exaggerated, the Jews run the US Government and claims that David Duke stole his ideas.

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Submitted September 24, 2004