During the Obama era, MSNBC emerged as a liberal challenger to Fox News, in some ways succeeding where earlier efforts to duplicate the reach of right-wing media had failed. But the history and politics of the network are more complicated than those who first became aware of it during the mid-2000s probably realize.
These themes and others were explored by writer and media critic Michael Arria in his 2014 book Medium Blue: The Politics of MSNBC, a study that has arguably become more prescient since its publication thanks to the network's prominent role in shaping liberal discourse in the Trump era. Jacobin's Luke Savage spoke to Arria — who is currently the US correspondent for Mondoweiss — about his research, the book's themes, and what the history of MSNBC has to teach us about American liberalism.
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