What is "msnbc"

MSNBC is an American basic cable and satellite television network that provides news coverage and political commentary from NBC News on current events. The network also carries a nightly 'opinion' programming block during prime time hours. It is owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of the NBCUniversal Television Group division of NBCUniversal, all of which are owned by Comcast.

MSNBC and msnbc.com were founded in 1996 as a partnership between Microsoft and General Electric's NBC unit, hence the network's naming. Although they shared the same name, msnbc.com and MSNBC maintained separate corporate structures and news operations, with msnbc.com headquartered on the West Coast on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, and MSNBC in the NBC headquarters in New York. Microsoft divested its stake in the MSNBC channel in 2005, and divested its stake in msnbc.com in July 2012, rebranding the general news site as NBCNews.com and creating a new msnbc.com as the online home of the cable news channel. As of February 2015, approximately 94,531,000 households (81.2% of those with television) receive MSNBC within the United States of America.

Since the late 2000s, MSNBC has openly acknowledged biased reporting in favor of liberal politics. They have embraced left-wing policies, having run a 2010 marketing campaign called "Lean Forward". Further, in September 2013, MSNBC launched its revamped official website under the tagline, "What Progressives Have Been Waiting For."

In the late summer of 2015, MSNBC revamped its programming. The moves were in sharp contrast to previous programming decisions at the network, with the entire lineup of opinionated afternoon programming being cancelled. Along with this, moves were made to sharpen the channel's news image through a dual editorial relationship with its organizational parent NBC News. MSNBC Live, the network's flagship daytime news platform was expanded to cover over eight hours of the day.

Phil Griffin currently serves as the president and director of day-to-day operations at the cable network. Pat Burkey and Janelle Rodriguez oversee programming and news operations at the network, with Brian Williams serving as the channel's chief anchor and managing editor of breaking news coverage.