A Momentary Decrease in the Net Entropy of the Universe

So MSNBC has replaced Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann with David Gregory as the host of their big-event election coverage. Meh. Color me unenthused. Gregory isn't any worse than a lot of other newspeople I guess, but I have no interest in watching him on TV. The one thing he can do on a show to make me more interested is to get out of the way and let the other people talk.

But I'm sorry to see this change for another reason: The MSNBC coverage of the Democratic National Convention was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The entire thing was such a mess that I couldn't turn away. Look at the combination of factors that came together on MSNBC for four nights:

• It started with Olbermann, who has found his niche - as well as an ever-increasing audience - by sharing his opinions on-air and continues to go with what works for him.
  
  
• This enboldened Matthews to speak more freely of his opinions.
  
  
• Matthews tended to sometimes go on a little long with his opinions, to the point of sniping on-air at Olbermann - and at off-screen producers about a minute before that video begins - when they tried to move the show along.
  
  
• Some genius at MSNBC decided it was a good idea to put them outside, at the train station, leading to prolonged segments of Matthews and Olbermann making faces while a train whistle drowned out anything they might have tried to say, to the point where they couldn't even toss it to someone else because the whistle wouldn't stop long enough.
  
  
• There were also frequent communications problems between the hosts outside and correspondants and guests inside the convention hall, when they did manage to introduce them.
  
  
• Speaking of being drowned out, the Rachel Maddow cheering section frequently interrupted the discusion panel. (You can skip to 1:15 in that clip if you don't care what they're cheering about)
  
  
• Speaking of Maddow, she and panelmate Pat Buchanan don't exactly agree on much, and they had a few contentious interactions during the week, including when Maddow said flat-out that she thought Buchanan hated her (3:30 in) and Buchanan didn't deny it.
  
  
• And if you thought you had Buchanan figured out, in a sure sign of the apocalypse, he showered effusive praise on Barack Obama for his acceptance speech on the last night of the convention. It got him a Maddow-like cheer from the live crowd.
  

So for four nights, we had news hosts spouting their opinions about everything that came up, Matthews and Olbermann sniping at each other, Maddow and Buchanan sniping at each other, trains drowning out the hosts, the Maddow cheering section drowning out the discussion panel (when the hosts managed to introduce them), video problems cutting off folks inside like Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw (when the hosts managed to introduce them). There was open praise for particular politicians and performers spreading like a virus: From Olbermann and Maddow, who that's expected from; To Matthews, who said of Obama's speech "I've been criticized for saying he inspires me, and, ah, to hell with my critics," (and got a Maddow-like cheer); To Michelle Bernard, who wept and called it "The most amazing evening of my entire life," and said she was glad to be alive to see it; To Eugene Robinson, who said Michelle Obama's speech filled him with pride and made him think of his wife, mother, and sister; To as mentioned before Pat Buchanan of all people, who not only loved Barack Obama's speech, but got so swept up in talking about Michelle Obama's speech that he even talked about how much he liked seeing conservatives' devil incarnate Ted Kennedy that night. And all of this is just what happened between 7pm and midnight (Eastern time), let alone what went on the rest of the day.

All of this gave the overall impression that everything was breaking down, like the collapse of normalcy. It was like watching the increase of net entropy in the universe, live on cable TV. It was awesome, almost as good as the speaches. It was enough to keep me from watching the convention on C-SPAN like I usually do.

There was a similar vibe during the MSNBC coverage of the Republican convention, though a bit more subdued with Olbermann not there live, panel lineups juggled a bit, and a somewhat more mixed crowd, politically. Clearly MSNBC was frightened of the compelling television they had created, so they shuffled the lineup, and now they're doing it again. We'll see if the new setup can be as compelling as those four days in Denver.