The Slatest

Ezra Klein May Soon Get His Own MSNBC Show

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter has an interesting look today at how MSNBC is gaining ground on arch rival Fox News. The whole piece is worth your read, but we wanted to flag this nugget toward the bottom that suggests that the liberal-leaning cable news network has its eyes on expanding its lineup of bold-faced liberal talking heads:

In the last two years, MSNBC has added Mr. Sharpton’s show at 6 p.m. and four round-table talk shows, two on weekday afternoons and two on weekend mornings. Mr. Griffin said he wanted to add more political programming on the weekends, replacing hours of prison documentaries that earn solid ratings but muddy the channel’s identity.

Several MSNBC employees, who spoke about programming plans on the condition of anonymity, said the most likely candidate for a new show was the Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein, a frequent substitute for Ms. Maddow. Mr. Klein may start with a weekend time slot, but these people said the 8 p.m. weekday time slot held by Mr. Schultz was also a possibility.

While we’re on the topic of partisan cable news networks, Stelter’s colleague, David Carr, also has an interesting piece out on how last Tuesday, at least for one night, Fox News opted for news over advocacy.

(Disclosure: Slate and the Washington Post are owned by the same parent company.)