David Shuster: MSNBC Boss refuses Fans' Petition

The movement to silence David Shuster by MSNBC's temperamental boss, Phil Griffin, is apparently still very much alive and well. Griffin has gone out of his way to avoid dealing with this issue, and in a last-ditch attempt to save MSNBC's failing daytime ratings, has been frantically hiring and scheduling a series of forgettable daytime News Anchors, in an effort to get a substitute for David Shuster on the airwaves who MSNBC's viewers will accept, and are willing to watch.

So far, that's not happening, judging by the steady stream of new faces you can see almost daily on MSNBC's airwaves. Seems that David Shuster's shoes are mighty hard to fill.

What IS happening, however, is that MSNBC daytime ratings are failing, further evidence that Griffin was horribly wrong in his rash and abrupt decision to remove Shuster from the roster.

It doesn't look promising that Griffin will ever eat some crow, or that Shuster will ever grace MSNBC's airwaves again, judging by the news that has surfaced today, showing Griffin to be a vindictive and childish boss.

First a quick bit of background information:

In early April, David Shuster was abruptly removed from his duties as daytime MSNBC anchor, apparently for "hurting Phil Griffin's feelings". The eruption was precipitated when, without Griffin's knowledge, Shuster filmed a pilot for CNN, which never aired. This was not a breach of Shuster's contract, and, in fact, was actually understandable (considering the raw deal and disrespect with which MSNBC had always treated Shuster - he is a thorough and committed journalist and was severely overqualified to be reduced to reading the headlines during the afternoons with the female anchors).

CNN was actually responsible for inexplicably leaking the news about the pilot, and when Griffin found out, he totally lost his cool, and demanded Shuster be removed from the MSNBC airwaves immediately, and indefinitely.

As soon as Shuster's loyal fans were apprised of the situation, a petition was created, to Bring Back David Shuster. Fans were encouraged to leave comments (850 so far, and counting), which were all reviewed and edited, and the best submissions were selected to be included in a Certified Letter that was sent to Griffin, as well as a few other key players in the drama…(Note: MSNBC is about to be sold to Comcast, any day, and Griffin's job, itself, might be in jeopardy)…The other recipients were Jeffery Zucker, and Steve Capus of NBC Universal, Jon Klein of CNN, and Brian Roberts of Comcast.

The only executive that has accepted the letter so far is Klein of CNN. Today, the folks who originally sent the letters (and, btw, are also responsible for the hilarious web site "Punish David Shuster with his Own Show") received one of the packets back, stamped "Refused" - the one that was the most important, the one that was sent to Phil Griffin.

Phil Griffin "refused" to accept this communication, from a large group of very upset MSNBC viewers. This, once again, shows Griffin's incompetence, and inability to face problems squarely, and deal with them in a rational, mature way. It also illustrates Griffins supreme arrogance, in putting his own personal vendetta against Shuster (see previous articles) above the needs of his boss, and their network. This continued blackballing of Shuster can't possibly be good for business. To read the comments on the Petition to Bring Shuster back, it seems like viewers are jumping ship at an alarming rate. A network needs viewers if it wants to sell advertising, and from all accounts, MSNBC's numbers are dwindling.

Shuster's loyal fans remain puzzled and deflated by this latest occurrence, of Griffin refusing their heartfelt letter and comments. What more can they do, that they haven't already done? To date, they've stopped watching MSNBC, sent numerous emails to news media sites, bloggers, and execs at MSNBC, CNN, & Comcast, sent snail mail letters with 12 pages of testimonials from loyal, disgruntled fans, signed an online petition and spread the news through Twitter & Facebook of Shuster's unfair suspension.

When a news media executive takes none of their loyal fans into account, and remains taciturn and unwilling to back down from a ridiculous stance, we end up with an untenable situation such as this one.

MSNBC's premier daytime anchor, who was keeping the viewers engaged during the afternoons has been removed, and replaced by a series of weaker, incompetent, uninteresting, boring anchors, and MSNBC, as well as Shuster's loyal fans are all suffering.

Apparently, Griffin is not big enough to say "mea culpa", or even to accept a Certified Letter with a Petition from Shuster's loyal fans, which contained nothing more than a plea for Griffin to allow Shuster back on the air, so that he could bring his insight into today's current bombshell set of news stories, and thus help MSNBC gain back some much-needed ratings. The packet held nothing more than an assertion of how deeply a large number of Shuster's fans feel about him.

It's been almost two months now, and so far, Shuster has not re-surfaced, nor has his vanishing act been so much as mentioned or addressed by any of the on-air hosts at MSNBC. It is almost like he never existed. Only Joe Scarborough has had the guts to even give Shuster a shout-out, and that was not on air, but at an after-party the night of the WH Correspondents Dinner.

Seems that MSNBC has decided to pretend that David Shuster never existed, and they honestly thought that none of his fans would notice. That has certainly not been the case. His loyal fans are not willing to just let Griffin win, and so they keep on sending Press Releases and doing all that they can to keep this story alive, and hopefully get their hero back on the air.

At this point, it's a travesty…there are probably a greater number of people who have been following this story who feel that Griffin, not Shuster, is the one who deserves to be let go.

Petition to Bring Back David Shuster
Punish David Shuster with His Own Show Facebook Page
"TOP TEN THINGS David Shuster Can Do…Poll."
Photos from the Punish David Shuster with His Own Show Facebook Group
Letter sent out to Media Executives along with 12 pages worth of
Select Comments left by disgruntled MSNBC ex-viewers.