The differences between these hosts matter a lot. (Speaking of religious observance, a surprising proportion of MSNBC’s anchors were raised Catholic and/or attended Catholic high schools - eight, by my reckoning.) One Ismaili Muslim of Gujarati Indian descent at the bottom right corner. MSNBC’s bland, evenhanded respectability is buttressed with a careful performance of diversity both “ideological” and demographic, also visible in the Twitter logo.
These are miniaturized, interchangeable “television personalities,” replaceable parts, compressed into the network’s identity and subservient to it. Indeed, they often host one another’s shows. The network actively discourages consideration of its anchors’ personal convictions or their individual qualities of character or intellect. But it’s anybody’s guess what those characteristics might be. The obvious message is that these eighteen people possess characteristics that will persuade you to choose MSNBC over other networks. Who, in fact, are “we”? And why do you watch? Above it is a collage of tiny talking heads, all squeezed into the network logo: a curious display that provokes more questions than answers. This is why you watch,” reads the header of MSNBC’s Twitter account.
