Controversial Imus to be Replaced With Uncontroversial Republican Skinhead
Good news from Variety , America's #1 source on third-tier cable news channels:
MSNBC is trying out radio personality Michael Smerconish as the network looks for a permanent replacement for Don Imus.
Smerconish, drive time host at Philadelphia's WPHT, will host the three-and-a-half-hour show on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.
Smerconish has been a guest host on MSNBC's "Scarborough Country" and is a frequent pundit on Fox News. His show, which airs from 5: 30 a.m. to 9 a.m., coincides with the void left by Imus.
Imus, you'll remember, was the mulleted shock jock who got fired for calling a female basketball team a bunch of black whores. Smerconish is a bald shock jock and former HUD administrator* who regularly gets promoted for calling you (or people like you) a pussy.He's a frequent pundit on Chris Matthews' shows; the question now is whether his own talk show will become the kind of romper room for politicians and NBC journalists that Imus's show was. (Before he inevitably gets bounced for telling Bill Richardson to go back to Mexico or something.)
*corrected reference to his being a "U.S. attorney."
MSNBC tries out Smerconish [Variety]
- David Weigel