Linkse nieuwszender MSNBC flopt

MSNBC has hit a ratings low in primetime not seen since the days that the network still carried a show hosted by raspy-voiced Fox News refugee Rita Cosby. Chris Hayes' new 8 PM lynchpin show has lost a third of the audience Ed Schultz had a year ago -- and Schultz himself had been relegated to weekends due to low ratings. Rachel Maddow's 'demo' audience was off by 20 percent and Lawrence O'Donnell's by 33 and it had all happened overnight!

No, it hadn't.

As in polling, you can get television numbers to tell you anything you want to hear. But even in that context, when ratings changes are this profound, they tell a story that can be relied upon in terms of direction if not always in terms of exact degree. May 2013 was a month of crushing ratings lows for MSNBC, but there are implications in those ratings that point to fissures and flaws at the network from months and years ago.