SECAUCUS, N.J. - MSNBC is coming up on its seventh birthday, but the network that promised to give viewers the best of the merged resources of NBC News and Microsoft is still casting about for an identity.
As any news junkie knows, CNN's relatively stable lineup and brand-name hosts have made it the esteemed (if stodgy) graybeard of the genre. And Fox News, with its testosterone-fueled rants and its right-of-center polemics, has become the channel of choice for many conservative viewers. But MSNBC is tougher to pin down, perhaps because the network has often taken to revamping its programming schedule.
This, of course, can breed confusion and skepticism on the part of viewers - not the sort of qualities a perennial ratings laggard looks to inspire in its audience. But shuffle your lineup often enough, and eventually it'll work out. At least that's how it's looking these days in northern New Jersey, where MSNBC has recently started broadcasting one of the most interesting and innovative programs on television.
There is no mistaking Countdown With Keith Olbermann, which made its debut this spring, for a regular news show. That's because news is only part of a mix that includes equal measures of irreverence, oddball videos, wry humor, interviews, sophisticated analysis and arcane cultural references. It's a program that offers viewers updates on global political developments and also finds time to make fun of annoying celebrities.
"I like the idea that this is the day - not just the news day, not just the entertainment day, but the whole day - presented in an hour," said Olbermann, whose second stint with the network began this spring.
Odd as it might seem, the show also manages to convey an air of suspense, as Olbermann "counts down" the day's top stories in inverse order. Delivering the biggest news - or at least the most buzz-worthy tidbit - in the 55th minute of an hourlong broadcast flies in the face of half a century's worth of programming wisdom. But at least, from the point of view of critics, it seems to be working.
In a recent interview, Slate magazine media critic Jack Shafer described Countdown as a 21st-century answer to the afternoon newspaper. Besides telling viewers everything they missed while they were at work - the role of once-thriving evening papers like the Washington Star and the Hartford Times - Olbermann's 8 p.m. show takes it a bit further, incorporating elements of MTV's quick-cut video style and ESPN-like lists and graphics.
